He also states the Hammer and Nail situation. If your only tool is a hammer, every problem becomes a nail. I get the impression he wanted to use something he knew instead of spending time learning something new.

Do you have experience with it yourself? I haven't tried it for several years, but it was not at all usable last time I did.

For a project like this, I think it's a good choice to go with something more declarative over a WYSIWYG tool. Latex would have been a very good choice, but only if you already happen to know it or have an interest in learning.

Yes, I've used it -- along with Inkscape and The GIMP -- for advertising [layout of flyers, for print magazine adverts].

Probably about 3 years since I used it last for this type of work.

I follow one of their support groups and people mention they publish newsletters, pamphlets, and books with it.

I use it for graphics heavy stuff like product packaging, instruction manuals etc.

For a book I'd just throw it in latex for sure.

1.5 onwards I think has been entirely usable; before that I found it bizarrely unstable.