Canadian Internet New User's Handbook

Sarah Robertson is an associate editor of the Canadian Book Review
Annual.

Jim Carroll and Rick Broadhead are two of Canada’s best-known
cyberspace gurus, with several Internet titles (including the
bestselling Canadian Internet Handbook) and a national radio show to
their credit. Intended for readers who have little or no computer
experience but are thinking of going on-line, the Canadian Internet New
User’s Handbook is a nontechnical introduction to the Internet and its
applications, both practical and creative.

The book begins with a cross-country tour of selected Web sites—from
Anne Doyle’s Art Studio (Yukon) to the East Coast Trail Association
(Newfoundland)—designed to illustrate the diversity of offerings on
the web. Successive chapters discuss how the Internet works; how to join
the Internet; e-mail, the Web, and discussion groups; and how to search
the Internet. Appearing throughout are illustrative computer pages and
boxed inserts containing informational “tidbits.” In addition to a
glossary and index, the book includes four appendixes listing selected
Web addresses and Internet service providers.

While the authors claim to occupy the middle ground between Internet
“evangelists” and “sceptics,” they are plainly closer cousins to
the former. Their bouncy advocacy (expressed, in part, by a surfeit of
exclamation marks) may be off-putting to some readers. Others may take
issue with their relentless self-promotion (the preliminary material
opens with a section titled “Our Books”). Caveats aside, this
straightforward, user-friendly guide is a good starting point for
newcomers to cyberspace.