I have the O'Reilly book "JavaScript, The Definitive Guide" 4th ed. but
I found it quite unlike any other O'Reilly book in my prodigious
O'Reilly collection. The problem is that it's nowhere near dense enough
for my taste so learning from it is a time consuming bore. In fact it is
a prohibitively turgid read and therefore useless to me because I can't
absorb information when I'm bored by it. I'm sure it would be possible
to covey the same information in a book a quarter of the size.
"Programming Perl" is the right kind of density for me; thorough and
complete but not condescending. The JavaScript book seems to be trying
to cater for total beginners and by doing so it excludes me.

What I'd really like is a JavaScript book that is no longer than it
needs to be to cover the material, is up to date enough to cover modern
"Ajax" techniques, has interesting example code, and challenges the mind
without assuming too much. Can anyone recommend such a book?

--
James Taylor