Jeff, I feel your pain, although I've not had a question list quite lke that one. You're right though, you do feel guilty when the recommended solution is "buy my book". If the solution is too complex to get over in a simple email I tend to try and give some pointers, list a few sites wth help and solutions and recommend the book. Dumping a complete solution on someone may well be what they want, but it isn't often what they need and they don't learn as much. It's a tough call though.
Just browsing clientcopia during lunch and came across my favourite quote: The shark with the sunglasses is too jewish. make his nose smaller.
kasia is 100% right. I'm a geek (no surprise there), but I'm not into Star Trek. I'm not really a compulsive person, so maybe that's it, but it never grabbed me as a series, in any of its guises. Science Fiction yes, but then I've been an SF fan since I was very young. In fact SF books were probably the first adult books I read. The Famous Five to Asimov may be a bit of a leap, but it's what I did, fuelled by my father's meagre collection of well thumbed 50's paperbacks.
She's also right that we don't pay for...