\title{Another Book Review} {\sl \TeX\ for the Impatient}. Paul W Abrahams with Karl Berry \& Kathryn A Hargreaves. Published by Addison Wesley, Reading, Mass., 1990. ISBN 0-201-51375-7. \smallskip \noindent Let's start with the easy bit: this is not a teaching text for the impatient. It is for those who find that locating something in the \TB\ can be quite a lengthy process. So it is a sort of \TB\ companion. Something to sit alongside `the book', but no wise to replace it. There will be those who will use it instead of `the book'. It isn't nearly as amusing. So those who don't enjoy \DeK's wit may relax a little with this volume. It deliberately restricts itself to {\tt plain}, and offers no solace or comfort to \AmSTeX\ or \LaTeX\ users. It is a sort of overgrown glossary, where \TeX\ concepts and commands are described and illustrated. In general their explanations are straightforward, and they are prepared to extend their descriptions to cover less obvious \TeX\ behaviour (for example, see the discussion on category codes). There is a useful chapter on `Tips and Techniques' which, among other things discusses ways of correcting `bad' page breaks, line breaks, and so on. I was slightly surprised that there seem to be no criteria proposed to describe what might be a `bad' break, or even more important, what comprised a good one. The typographic content of this book is low. No advice is given to dissuade the novice from those dreadful values of |\hsize| with 10 point fonts -- perhaps the most fundamental reason that \TeX\ often acquires a bad typographic reputation. There is a `Compendium of Useful Macros' which are indeed useful. But why are they there? I appreciate that they serve a similar role to the {\tt manmac} macros, but they seem odd in a reference book. I wouldn't use the one they give for the \LaTeX\ logo. Besides anything else, they omit the backslash before the {\tt TeX}. And curiouser and curiouser, instead of using |\TeX| in the body of the \BibTeX\ macro, they expand it to its kerns and boxes. But this is nit picking. They provide a set of commands to ease cross referencing -- one of the most significant omissions of {\tt plain} \TeX. They also give some macros for table construction: since |\halign| is so easy to use, I can't see the point myself, but\dots\ So far, I've actually found this book useful, although I'm not yet familiar enough with their division of commands into various sections. I agree that it is difficult to classify the whole range of \TeX\ commands, and any such classification must be imperfect. But by including a `Capsule summary of Commands', as well as an adequate index (with only two types of entry, unlike the \TB's more confusing three), they cover most options, and I can generally find something useful and appropriate. This is a reference book, not a book to be read cover to cover, recursively. That rather brings into question the illustrations: why are they there? Tenniel's illustrations to {\sl Alice}, on which these are based, are among my favourites. It is clearly appropriate to associate \TeX\ and {\sl Alice}. There are so many parallels. But why redraw them at all? I would have been inclined to use the originals, even allowing for the lack of continuity of using the impatient (white) rabbit as a theme. Do note that there is an unfortunate sequence of misprints, where a number of chapters have the `true' characters |{|, |}| and |_| transposed to other characters, but only in some headings. This is not as disasterous as it at first sounds. If you are using this book for reference, you will hardly notice, after the first few seconds of puzzlement. Karl Berry assures me this has been corrected for a subsequent printing. A useful addition to the \TeX\ library, although apparently ignorant of contributions outside the canonical trio of Knuth, Lamport and Spivak.\author{Malcolm Clark}