If you are a neophyte who knows absolutely nothing about bond investing this is a perfectly good first book for providing an extremely basic overview on the subject. However, in my opinion there is not nearly enough information here to make you even barely competent as an investor.

Although I have found some books in the 'Dummies' series quite valuable as a painless resource for learning new subjects, this one takes its title far too seriously and the author dumbs down the material to the point where too much of the 'meat' is missing.

I have been investing in bonds for a few years but always felt that I was going about it half-blind, not understanding many of the vagaries of what makes one bond a better buy than another. I hoped that this book would clearly explain the various buzzwords and metrics used in the bond market. Unfortunately the author provides little depth and I feel that I'm really no smarter than I was before reading the book.