So I use Fractal Mapper 8 and have enjoyed the raster tutorial.

As an alternative to FM 8 I am really interested in using GIMP from the ground up. The tutorials on this site are great, but I feel I need a basic understanding of how the software works in order to understand the techniques I am picking up here.

To that end I seek a print book for the most recent GIMP version. I was looking on Amazon and came up with This book.

Any ideas or suggestions?
I would also appreciate any good basic tutorials in pdf format.

Thanks