Beginning XML, 4th Edition

I went to the post office yesterday, to pick up a package: ten copies of Beginning XML, 4^th Edition. I had thought the book was due to be released in the summer, but it’s actually out this month.

There’s no feeling in the world quite like opening up a box, and picking up an actual, physical copy of your book in your hands. To see what the fonts look like on the printed page, instead of in a Word document. To see your name and picture on the cover. (Along with the other authors, of course, who did more work on this edition than I did.)

It’s a surreal feeling. Maybe the only thing that’s more surreal is being in a bookstore, and seeing it on a shelf there. Whenever I do, it’s an odd mixture of exhilaration, and humility.

Now, of course, I have to figure out what to do with ten copies of the book. Not to mention the ten copies of the 3^rd Edition, which I still have…