looked around, found a few promising looking books
http://del.icio.us/kellan/photoshop+book
in particular Photoshop CS One-on-One looks promising.
(its very odd shopping for a non-programming related tech book, i’m used to being the “smart kid in the class”, and looking for the books that are accelerated, and heavy on theory. for design i’m looking for something that holds my hand, takes it slow, and shows me pretty pictures)
