The book I have in mind is “Unicycling: First Steps - First Tricks”, by Anders-Wilkens Mager. Should I buy it? Can it possibly help me? Or is the only thing that helps practice, practice, practice? I am a novice who is struggling with learning to unicycle. I have succeeded to go 4-5 meters twice and shorter distances a lot more.
What are your experiences with (and consequent opinions on) written instructions about unicycling skills?
I really don’t think it will help you 
Just practice and eventually you’ll get it. Go! Now!
well, a book might help only to a point. but practice practice and more practice is of course the best way to go. I don’t know anybody that learned from reading. I would recomend reading other people hints and taking advice and save the money. I would recomend finding a fence or wall to start with and follow along the wall till you have the feel for what uni feels like. then it will sort of start coming to you. but if the wall starts getting to easy, learn without the wall. for me learning to mount was the HARDEST thing for me to learn. so spend more time on mounting. look around on this site and somebody probably has a tuturial somewhere for you to watch.
Learning from a book sure didn’t help the Karate Kid. Now show me Sand the Floor! Wax on, Wax off! In all seriousness though, just get out and practice, practice, practice. The one thing that really helped me learn was not to practice too much at a time. If I tried to go for any more than 30 minutes I’d either get too tired or frustrated and it seemed like I really wasn’t progressing any. Trust that it will come is all I can say. If I can learn I truly believe anybody can, I was horrible at first; now I’m competing in 12 hour mountain bike races!
If you’re still trying to get your first 10 meters, a book can help you avoid doing stuff that will slow you down. The more you can already do, the less you’re likely to get from a book on how to ride, but there’s plenty to pick up as a beginner, especially to avoid the pitfalls of time-wasting techniques of riding. If your seat’s too low, if your air pressure is wrong, correcting those things might be all you need to ride all the way down the street…
At the end of Feb I bought a book (might be the same one) while I anxiously awaited the arrival of my unicycle. It wasn’t really any help. You’re better off watching You tube videos and asking questions on the forum. Practicing is the only way.
I considered buying a book or getting one from the library, but with the info available here, on youtube and the like, why bother?
Unless your internet connection is too slow or unreliable to tolerate, the book couldn’t possibly provide such a wealth of useful information.
I have to agree with the half hour sessions. You spend some time practicing and then go away to think about what worked or what didn’t. Then get some rest, maybe google some of your issues and make adjustments for the next session. In my first couple weeks half an hour was enough to wear me out.
If you try something that didn’t work, post about it here and get some input from the community. Ask those questions you think might be ‘stupid’. No one here will laugh or poke fun, we’re all still working on one thing or another.
Good Luck,
-Mark
Here is a page with beginner tips and a free downloadable booklet that should get you past most beginner issues:
Don’t forget to have fun.
I say no, I dont like to read and am cheap, forums are enough! 
Forums are a fantastic resource for you to have, they are interactive and constantly updated, so much better than a book, plus they are free. Most people are more than happy to help you and perhaps even provide pictures and videos which are far more valuable.
I think it would help, but the forums, unicycle videos, and just practising are at least equally as helpful.
See if you can ride with some other folks, even if they’re learning too, it’ll push you to do more.
Unicycling takes a huge amount of practice, and I mean huge!
I started last June, progresssing from riding in the neighbrohhod to riding down single track in about six months, but I ride 3-5 times a week for an hour or more each time!
I do find my skills grow faster as I get better, but it’s still a hard way to get down the road and I do have days that are not so good, esp when I ride after work; probably because I’m tired and distracted.
If you ride a lot and stick to it, after a year you’ll be riding well.
YMMV. Ignoring unicycling for a moment, do you generally learn well from books? Some people do, some don’t.
I do, and I’ve learnt a lot of juggling tricks from books that I’d have struggled to learn otherwise.
When I first learnt to ride a unicycle I benefited enormously from written advice, both at http://www.unicycling.org/ (unicyclist.com didn’t exist back then) and on the unicycling mailing list (unicyclist.com didn’t exist back then). I probably benefited just as much from the advice given by a couple of unicyclists who passed by occasionally when I was learning, though.
If you’re a book learner then I’d say give it a go, but if you’ve already ridden 4-5m twice then better still would be to get a couple of experienced unicyclists to watch you ride and offer some constructive criticism.
+1
Although I’d say especially if they are learning too. There is nothing like seeing your own growth as a rider by watching someone else improve alongside you. Friendly competition never hurt either.
I progress a lot faster when I have somone who is close to as good as me to ride with. Sadly my competition has basically quite riding now.