Title: Good ideas, bad book
Review: Fowler's book is has a lot of very good ideas, but it is poorly written, hard to follow, and incredibly disorganized. I think it would have benefited immensely from the services of a good editor.My two major complaints: First, Fowler tries so hard to be clever and witty that at times his point is completely lost in his misguided attempts at humor. Second, he constantly refers ahead to material not yet covered, so that it's impossible to understand Chapter N without already having read Chapter N+1, which of course presupposes that you have read and understood Chapter N.If you are going to read this book (and I concede that you probably should) then you should at the same time buy a copy of Joshua Kerievsky's "Refactoring to Patterns." Kerievsky brings far more organization and explanation to the subject than does Fowler. Read Kerievsky first, and refer to Fowler when he directs you there (which he very frequently does). But don't try to read Fowler by himself.
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