This book has excellent diagrams and it presents information at a very basic and understandable level. It covers the very basics (what is a network interface device? what tools should I have?) all the way through suggestions for keeping your newly installed cables safe and neatly bundled. That said, there are some things that could use some work:
1) Some (really not very many) of the diagrams are a bit too small to read easily. They can be read, but it sometimes involves a bit of squinting (or I suppose I could use a sheet magnifier, but I'd rather resist that sign of aging).
2) There are occassional references to chapters and topics that don't seem to exist (e.g., reference to a discussion of terminating DB25 or DB9 connectors in chapter 9 -- there are only 7 chapters!)
3) There are some sentence fragments, typos, and other minor editorial matters, but they're generally nothing worse than mildly irritating. As a beginner, I can't really say whether they've changed the meaning of anything important.
As others have mentioned, this book can stand alone, but I think it's really at its finest as a complement to Mike's Basic Guide to Cabling Computers and Telephones (which I've since purchased; that one talks about terminating DB25 and DB9 connectors).
All-in-all, a really excellent book. Very basic, direct, and well-priced.
It has a lot of very good illustrations that take you through the most popular types of networking equipment and tools. The knowledge could easily be applied to wiring your own home, apartment or small office. It also mentions some of the techniques used for very large phone systems supporting hundreds of stations, but the most applicable writing to me is about how to take care of wire in homes, apartments and smaller to mid-sized offices. Someone who wires large companies is probably being trained through a different set of reading material... It is VERY obvious that the writter is speaking from years of cable installation experience.
It would be difficult for me to believe that anyone running cable, even a single phone line to a handful of stations in a home, wouldn't find at LEAST the cost worth of value in the book.