Shredevil,

I bought Slonimsky's book years ago and never got anything out of it either. I think I read an interview with Vai where he mentioned it.

If you want something that is much more guitar oriented and full of musical ideas you should check out Jack Zucker's Sheets of Sound book. It has tons of patterns and ideas for guitar using efficiency picking. It's in tablature and standard notation and includes pick directions and fingers where needed. It will give you a lot of new ideas for improvising and great picking exercises. I hope this helps you out.