The Hillman Curtis book is inspiring and was a great stepping stone for me, but some of the projects involve film editing and use of other software packages.
If you don't have the software he uses or something that does the same job, you might find yourself a little frustrated you spent the money.
It is a great book and i hope to try some of the more in depth projects, but i don't have all the software yet, so i am limited to trying out half the projects.
Make sure you look through it to make sure you can get the best out of it.
Regards
Mike