I know Blender quite a bit allready. I’m not sure if it’s worth it to buy Blender Guide. I don’t know how much new stuff I will learn. And Blender is advancing so fast. 2.3 is too old isn’t it?
I say no. Save your money.
The 2.3 guide is nice but it is online, and it’s missing a lot of significant new features.
I think I read somewhere that someone plans to ultimately compile a new guide, but that’s a large undertaking so it might be a year or so before anything in paper comes out…
But I’m really just stabbing in the dark here…
I bought the guide in early 05 and I think its a great source. It also comes with (or did when I bought it) a texture disc with quite a few textures. However if you have constant access to the internet and dont mind looking for things in the guide on the net then it may not be the best bang for the buck. If you do a lot of blending on the go or with a laptop and dont have the endless resources that can be found on the internet then buy it. Its totally a person by person decision.
Is it out of date? In some cases, but not so much that you cant learn from it IMO. The net will be the best source for you if its available though. And when the next blender guide comes out, i’ll probably buy it to. Great source for beginners I think.
You might want to look here.
http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/Main_Page
And check the User’s Manual under Core Documentation, a lot of updates including things coming for the 2.40 version