I agree, but would recommend his video series to beginners. The books themselves are less important than the exercises in the book, which unfortunately sort of demand that you have the book because they refer back to them. But the package of (exercises, video lectures, book), in descending order of importance maybe, I think is a worthy recommendation. Ultimately, the book is the only part of that you actually have to "acquire", so it might be ok that it doesn't stand on its own.