Review: "The Craft of Research" (Booth, Colomb & Williams)

I am loving this book - it's the book I should have read before starting my master's program. It certainly would have made my life a lot easier this past year.
There have been several times since starting my master's program that I have questioned whether I missed some sort of orientation. It didn't help that the qualitative research class was filled before I could enroll. That screwed me over with another class I was enrolled in (which should have prerequisites but doesn't for some odd reason).
I find it curious that with about 75 graduate journalism students that the qualitative class is offered only once a year, with maybe 25 seats. The full-semester quantitative class also is only offered once a year. (There is a lighter version offered during one of the five-week summer sessions).
Without being able to get into one of the research classes the first semester is a problem, however, because there is a language spoken around graduate school – and if you don't know it, God help you.
"The Craft of Research" is helping bridge the gap for me without qualitative my first semester and having opted out of enrolling in quantitative my second semester due to the scheduling. (With any luck, I'll take the lighter version of quantitative this summer and then do a special topics project in the spring to gain the full experience). I am enrolled in qualitative (finally) this coming fall.
Within its 300-plus pages (large type and easy to read), there is a wealth of information. The authors do suggest reading it twice if you're a beginner (like me) in academic research. For those people with more skills, they offer a gameplan for which chapters can be skipped.
After some of my experiences my first year, I especially appreciate the authors' compassionate tone. On Page 66, they write: "Know that uncertainty and anxiety are natural and inevitable. Those feelings don't signal incompetence, only inexperience."
I will complete my first reading and read it again. There already are several dog-eared pages. This book is one for the permanent personal library.