OS X Mavericks, also known as OS X 10.8, is the ninth iteration of Apple’s cutting edge operating system. OS X combines the stability and robustness of the underlying UNIX operating system with Apple’s elegant and user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI). It is a very powerful operating system, and for the most part it is extremely intuitive. However, if you want to make the most out of the experience with your Mac, as well as if you want to simplify your workflow, then it would behoove you to invest a bit of your time to familiarize yourself with as many subtleties and features of Mavericks as you can. However, if you are too busy (and who isn’t these days), then you may not want to invest too much time in going through a long-winded book that takes you systematically through all of the aspects of Lion. If you just need to know very specific things that you need to know immediately, then “Mac OS X Mavericks on Demand” is an ideal book for you.

The book is built out of many individual tasks, which are grouped in thematic units. These thematic units are essentially book chapters, although they are much more loosely organized. You don’t have to go through chapters, or event the book, sequentially – you can focus on all the tasks that interest you at the moment, and each task is completely self-contained.

There is no prior knowledge necessary for reading this book, and even if you are an absolute beginner you will not feel intimidated with its content. However, there are many tasks and chapters that deal with the latest OS X features, and even people who use Macs professionally in their daily work stand to benefit from learning more about these by reading

Each task is presented on two facing pages. This greatly improves readability and accessibility of the content, and makes it easier to work on those tasks while simultaneously reading the book.

Many tasks involve manipulating or modifying various files. All the files that are required for the completion of the given examples can be downloaded from the publisher’s website. This is a fairly straightforward procedure, and the files are relatively small and don’t take long to download.

The book also provides plenty of insights and advice about items that go beyond the simple everyday tasks that you might need, such as the recommendations about the compatibility of various software and hardware add-ons. Unfortunately each new generation of Macs and OS X are not entirely backward compatible with all of their predecessors, so it will be advisable to do a bit of a research before you buy new software or decide to upgrade your hardware.

A lot of the information that can be found in this book is available online on various helpful websites. However, in my experience it is always easier to just leaf through a book when you need to find out something “on demand”. This particular book is very useful in that regard, especially if you are new to OS X. If you’ve already had experience with previous versions of OS X you could still benefit from knowing what’s new in Mavericks, but getting this book might be overkill for you.

Overall this is a very well written and informative book. Highly recommend it.