Front Matter and Preface

[devedit]

1. Add a b-level header just after My Questions for You titled, "Chimpanzee & Elephant" and include a paragraph there in which you explain who Chimpanzee and Elephant are and how you will be using them. Explaining that upfront will save the reader from having to wait till later to understand what that's all about.
2. Add a few (brief) examples of the types or categories of "hard problems" you mention under About - What this Book Covers.
3. Clear up what a reader may get stuck on as a possible contradiction between "This is not a beginner's book" and "If you're a beginning user" mentioned three paragraphs later in the same section, About - What this Book Covers.
4. Add four b-level heads to the Who This Book is For section, titled, "Ruby" "Hadoop" and "Wukong" and say a bit about each. That is, say why you chose Ruby, put the paragraph about "All of the code in this book will run unmodified..." under "Hadoop," etc. The forth header should be "Essential Hadoop Reading," under which you can list books, sites, etc. that you think the reader should understand before moving on.
5. Rename "Probable Contents" to just "Contents" to avoid reader doubt and anxiety. This section will appear in the final book as "What's In This Book?" Also, write each summary as a prose paragraph (like you do for First Exploration (Ch. 1) and Simple Transform (Ch. 2) rather than bulleted lists. (I have a feeling you plan to do this, but wanted to be sure to note it.)