While there were certainly some good things about this book, I thought it was unfortunately too prone to being opinionated on controversial points and far too inclined to use OO and Java as the silver bullet to problems. I think this is book is worth the read for programmers, but not for novices. I would cheerfully point a novice to The Pragmatic Programmer, but I think programmers needs more experience to approach this book. They need the ability to filter the opinions presented as facts and best practices from actual facts and best practices. They need the experience to see what suggestions in this book apply to them and which should be ignored.