I never met Cary Lu except on the printed page. In 1985 my family assigned me the task of researching computers so we could buy the one right for us. I found Cary Lu's red covered book on the Mac, and read it from cover to cover. We bought a Mac.
Later I recommended the book to a friend who was looking to buy a computer. He said that book is for Mac owners, it's a book about learning the machine you have in front of you. I hadn't known that, and I certainly hadn't missed having the machine in front of me. Cary Lu's book was so clear, so well illustrated that I learned to use the Mac before I had actually ever seen one!
That's a gifted writer and teacher.