“Magento 1.3: PHP Developer’s Guide” explains many core aspects to ease the massive learning curve that Magento has. It is great book for new and intermediate Magento developers. For new developers, reading this book may overwhelm you if you do not already have some experience with the administration panel, theme customization, and knowledge of OOP (object oriented PHP). For intermediate developers (like me), if you are not atleast somewhat familiar with each subject covered in this book, you should be, it may save from doing something the hard way.