The dragon book is very informative but is harder to parse (ha) than many other compiler books. People should definitely read it, it just might be hard to read as a "My First Compiler" book.
I must agree. It may be that you and I lean more toward the theoretical side and want more of a "grounds up" material (a chapter about transforming regexes to state machines? seriously?) than a "here's what to do to get it done by next thursday" book.
