Recommend a book on Illustrator....

Question

I know there are zillions of online tutorials, but I like to have a hard copy book for learning software. I tend to look online to solve specific problems or needs I may have at a given time, but reading through a book I learn things more organically. Besides, I like to be able to look at a page.
To give you an idea what I'm looking for:
I've been using Illustrator off and on for a few years, and increasingly so over the past year, but I still come across pretty basic stuff that I don't know. So I'm somewhere between absolute beginner and intermediate, but I can use something pretty foundational.
Additionally, I'm still using CS3, so although I will likely upgrade at some point, I don't want a resource that spends half its time on CS5 features. It's much more important for me to get help learning and mastering the more legacy tools.
I know I could buy a zillion books, but don't have that kind of time or money, so want to focus on one or two that would meet my needs.
Some of the books I've looked at on Amazon that seemed interesting for my purposes are below:
CS4 Bible by Alspach: http://www.amazon.com/Illustrator-CS4-Bible-Ted-Alspach/dp/0470345195/
Adobe Illustrator CS4 How-Tos: 100 Essential Techniques by Karlins: http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Illustrator-CS4-How-Tos-Techniques/dp/0321562909
Illustrator CS5 Digital Classroom by Smith et al: http://www.amazon.com/Illustrator-Digital-Classroom-Video-Training/dp/0470607831
Illustrator CS5 Visual QuickStart Guide by Weinmann and Lourekas: http://www.amazon.com/Illustrator-CS5-Windows-Macintosh-QuickStart/dp/0321706617
Real World Adobe Illustrator CS5 by Golding: http://www.amazon.com/Real-World-Adobe-Illustrator-CS5/dp/0321713060
Adobe Illustrator CS5 On Demand by Johnson: http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Illustrator-Demand-Steve-Johnson/dp/0789744457/
Of the above, I'm leaning most toward the Visual QuickStart Guide (a series I've used with profit before) and Real World (the description and reviews sound promising) but would like others to weigh in.
This book also sounds like something I could use, but hesitate to get it unless I can find one Illustrator-centric book that pretty much meets my needs by itself:
Vector Basic Training by Glistschka: http://www.amazon.com/Vector-Basic-Training-Systematic-Precision/dp/0321749596/
Any thoughts from experience would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

I only know one of the books mentioned above, which is the Real World one. I can very much recommend it, because it teaches the basic principles of Illustrator, but I can't compare it to the other ones.
As for the versions: I wouldn't recommend using a CS5 book to learn CS3. Too much has changed. It's not only functions that have been added, but stuff like the meaning of the ALT key in the pathfinder panel. If you can live with getting confused from time to time, OK...