As promised I have a review of The Definitive Guide To Catalyst.

I was somewhat disappointed with the book. It is poorly organized. There isn't a coherent example taken to completion through the book. And, while it may be definitive, it is certainly not comprehensive. Having said all that I found it easier than the on-line manual to get through.

The organization is poor. The book appears to be gaining steam when it suddenly takes a detour to discuss deployment. The next chapter then seems to pick up where the earlier chapter left off. I can fathom no reason why it was done this way.

Certain topics are given the hand waving treatment. A chapter, presumably about extending Catalyst, discusses Actions in one paragraph. Its key bit seems to be that the reader should look at Catalyst::Action::REST for a good example of an Action. No doubt good advice, but I don't need to buy a book to tell me that.

Someone on the perl.org blogs asked about the book just the other day. I agree with the second commenter, Michael J, on every point.

This is the only modern book about Catalyst. It is far from perfect, but I still have to recommend it. It supplements some items that aren't covered well in the on-line docs. You won't learn everything and you'll likely still be confused about certain things when you're finished reading it. But it's all there is and it really is better than nothing.