I have both Parker's Astrology and this book by the same author. Why buy this one if I already had the other? Well DK puts out good books for people who are left handed. ie right brain people. We tend to be able to grasp things faster with visual aids. In that respect this book was easyer to use than Parker's even though it essentially had about the same information. What makes me torn between the two? They didn't include the chart progression in this book and if they had I'd probably have given it a 5 instead of a 4.
If your interested in astrology and working your own chart by hand this book will help you do that much. It will also give you some information about what it all means. But unlike the first book Parker's Astrology it will not tell you how to progress the chart. if you just want to a copy of your natal chart though you can get it free at www.astro.com in minutes and the same results as doing it yourself. This a good book for all us right brained people who wanted to learn how to do it ourselves though.
This is an excellent general knowledge book. Great if you don't know a lot about astrology and want to learn. Like all DK books this one is illustrated beautifully.