The content ramps up nicely from basic to advanced. From the Foreword by Isaac Z. Schlueter, Node.js Project Lead

Node.js in Action is an example-driven tutorial that starts at square one and guides you through all the features, techniques, and concepts you'll need to build production-quality Node applications. You'll start by learning how to set up your Node development environment, including loading the community-created extensions. Next, you'll run several simple demonstration programs where you'll learn the basics of a few common types of Node applications. Then you'll dive into asynchronous programming, a model Node leverages to lessen application bottlenecks.