Railsspace by Aurelius Prochazka, Michael Hartl (2007, Paperback)

If you don't want to jump on the microsoft .net, .asp bandwagon, this book is for you. I have read and followed everypage and becoming proficient with ruby on rails. The authors assume you have basic programming abilities, but don't assume much beyond that. I highly recommend this book for anyone in or thinking about the field of web development. The authors have a sense of humor, express the pitfalls, and have very much "Get to the point" type writing style. Ruby on rails is also the prefered medium over PHP.