PLAI is on my short list for new reading, but thanks, that's good to know re: parsing.
I actually think that skipping parsing altogether, the way a lot of Lispy texts do is the way to go for intro PL stuff, because you can get to interesting stuff much faster.
My gripe about PLP is that after deciding to cover parsing and scanning, he goes too fast. I might have been happier if he'd skipped it altogether.