Computers: The New Hardware Made Easy

A poet's pun-filled primer leads the list of bestselling guides

To a neophyte adrift in a computer store, it may seem a beacon of simplicity, sanity and humor. Amid all the intimidating machinery and densely technical literature, its plain white cover asks disarmingly, "What are those television-typewriters anyway?" Inside, it offers quaint woodcuts, turn-of-the-century ads and plenty of soothing printed words. No wonder that The Personal Computer Book, at $9.95, has become the fastest-selling computer guide on the market and has made its author, an erstwhile poet and promoter of Transcendental Meditation, something of an overnight celebrity. Peter McWilliams, 33, who...