Almost anything you get on a program that complicated is going to be a big and difficult book.
For Christmas I got the book..."Beginning GIMP" and it goes just under 600 pages also.
There are so many 'bells and whistles' in these Graphic manipulation programs that they are difficult to learn if you are not a Geek!
Wish I could be more encouraging but the best way to learn something like that is a 'hands on' class.
~~~GB~~~