As I have said at Amazon and in the discussion that I unsuccessfully tried to kick-start in the theming chapters discussion board page, I think this book does a great job of explaining the "how" of template overrides, theme functions, theme hook suggestions, pre/process functions, and the render api's alter hooks in building and customizing a site from scratch. My only issue is that it doesn't have a dedicated section that concludes its fantastic coverage of the individual theming techniques by providing an all-inclusive comparative analysis or custom site build that demonstrates the logic of using one theming technique over another throughout the site build process (similar to how css management strategies were summarized in ch. 16 pages 347-348). As a newbie, I just quickly became overwhelmed by all the options to customize and I found myself reading and re-reading and re-reading chapter's 15 and 16 in order to rake together every piece of information on the when and why for each theming strategy and than determine the reasoning behind choosing one method over every other method so I could make informed decisions regarding development methodologies and develop a comprehensive plan of attack for an entire custom site build process, of which I've been documenting in the theming chapter section of this website and won't repeat here but I will say is unfortunately necessary to newcomers to drupal development who are reading the book. However, because I'm a newbie and there wasn't a dedicated section covering this larger context, I am relying on faith that this collected hodge-podge of mentions and comparisons is exhaustive and am still looking for a knowledgeable source that will shed some light in this area.