So honestly I don't think C2 needs a guide book, its simplicity and the open nature of the tutorials from Scirra means its not as difficult to pick up, even for a novice.
I am always open to any sort of criticism and bad reviews, especially if supported by constructive feedback, but I wish people wouldn't dismiss someone's work without really knowing what that work is actually about...
A lot of effort was actually put in making this not only a book about step by step tutorials but also about illustrating what works and what doesn't in designing a game and where to start in the design process. That's what the "from the ground up" means in the title and this was actually the reason why the book was published by CRC Press: they liked the idea of having both aspects covered to add value to the overall book while other publishers I talked to were only interested in the tutorial side of things and thought that anything else would be useless. I disagreed with that and actually rejected a much better contract since I really didn't want to write a tutorial only kind of book, exactly to avoid comments like those by Silverforce (with which I tend to agree, actually).
Now, there are excellent online tutorials here and on other websites to learn making games in C2 that you should definitely study but, if you prefer to read from a printed page and also learn how to "think" about game design to start crafting your own game ideas following a reliable methodology, in C2 as well as any other engine you may learn in future, I trust you will find something worth your time there.
Cheers!