This book was written for Director 6.5, and currently Director is past 8.5 (MX is basically Director 9). So forget about anything about behaviors, library palette, anything 3D.. in short, this book was out of date 5 years ago.

Beyond this, the nutshell library is designed as a reference for programmers who want to quick-reference a new language. If you're already up to speed on C++, Java, SQL, etc, then the nutshell format will make sense as you seehow Director includes functions and classes in the form of handlers and properties. However, for the novice programmer looking to learn more about scripting Lingo, this book is awful.

I'd recommend the Director Demystified series instead, whatever's the latest edition. Macromedia's version updates aren't drastic, so at this point a book covering 8.5 is just fine.