Mastering Git: Attain expert level proficiency with Git for enhanced productivity and efficient collaboration

This is a great book about git, the command line tool, and service. It talks about generic git (as opposed to GitHub/Bitbucket specific features.) I really like that it does talk just about git, everything in the book should work on any operating system, and it is everything every developer needs to know to use git daily (and some fun things like prompts and alias' are also covered.)The only thing keeping this from 5 stars is printing more sample output in the book. It is hands on, but if you are reading w/o a computer in front of you, it can be hard to follow. My advice is to just read the book with an open terminal.

First, this book IS NOT, AT ALL, for someone new to Git. If you're trying to learn Git, or even if you know Git but want to get better, look elsewhere. This book is really only appropriate for serious engineers or DevOps folks who _already_ have complete confidence using Git _exclusively_ via the terminal CLI, and want to get even deeper into the weeds.Second, unfortunately it's just not a great book. It IS packed with TONS of great information, but it is just a completely _miserable_ read.Yes, that's a very harsh judgement. Here are my top complaints:A) The editing is terrible (like far too many Packt books). There are blatant grammatical and linguistic errors sprinkled throughout the book, and they are a constant distraction which interferes with comprehension.B) The signal/noise ratio is terrible. The author rambles on and on, and just needs to get to the point! There is actually TONS of great information in this book (for the _serious_ Git pro), but it's buried in just mountains of noise. Far too often it reads like a stream of consciousness; The entire book is stuffed with long rambling parentheticals/asides, random one-off hypotheticals, etc. If these built around a common core narrative or working demo project it might hold together, but they don't. Thus, you just have to parse endless words to get to the value.C) The author is just not a very good teacher or writer. It's really too bad, because he is clearly a Git demigod - I mean, he knows it inside out, and really does share as much of that knowledge as he can. But the way he writes just goes on and on, and it ends up being confusing and distracting to the point of agony (the diagrams are confusing too, btw).D) The order of chapters itself is confusing. If you do read this book, skip past chapter 2 and come back to it later. It will make a lot more sense later on. Just trust me.E) Layout Rant: In a book or article, a callout or pull-quote is a device used to bring emphasis and attention to a very short block of text (1 - 3 sentences, ideally). When you have an _entire_ multi-paragraph page of text formatted that way, it is no longer a callout; it's a section or subtopic. Format it that way (and rein in your author while you're at it, pleeeeease).I fly through complex tech books on a regular basis - and this is the first time I remember actually getting _mad_ while reading one. I was mad because this book has so much great info that I decided I _had_ to keep reading it, but it took an excruciating amount of patience and focus to get through the noise and make sense of the meandering confusing explanations. Usually it's pretty easy to determine a tech book isn't great, and which point I just flip through and move on - but this one made me slog through the mud for hours. I was not happy about it.Final word: If you are a _serious_ Git user who wants to pick up a ton of great new _tactical_ detail and knowledge, this is a great book for you. If you're someone new to Git, or even fairly advanced but not needing to manage complex projects or deal with deep and complicated repo management issues, I'd say you should look elsewhere. This book definitely has things to teach you, but you’ll never need most of it, and your time and money will be better spent on something less advanced and better written.