For those who’d like a peek inside The Unofficial LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Inventor’s Guide, you can read excerpts from Chapters 4 and 14 at the following link:
http://www.tinker.tv/download/nxtig_sample.pdf.
These two chapters are among my favorites. Chapter 4 covers all the pieces in the NXT set and topics such as, “What do I call the pieces?” and “How do I measure the pieces?” Chapter 14 shows how to build, program, and test Tag-Bot, the robot on the cover.