lucy24 - 1:33 pm on Sep 30, 2012 (gmt 0)

if you went to a bookstore and asked them for the 'best' book to help you learn flower-arranging

Or, then again, the bookstore might point you to a book by the world's leading authority on flower arranging, featuring the most thorough and best-researched text. Meanwhile there are other books with fewer facts and less detailed instructions-- but with clearer pictures, a better overall structure, copious diagrams and a more useful Index. All the things that Recognized Authorities might dismiss as irrelevant fluff if they start from the position that Only Text Matters.