This book should have been written in a hacker typeface. It would have taken a lot longer to get through it, and perhaps the challenge would have made it seem interesting. Instead you can read the entire book in a sitting of four hours or less because most of the material is either boring (let's learn the alphabet, budding hackers!) outdated (want to write for Windows 3.1?) or ignorable (here's a list of IP addresses, kiddies, isn't that illucidating?).