R. Andrew "Andy" Rathbone (born 1961) is an author of a number of books, including For Dummies about Microsoft Windows as well as other computing books.

Rathbone was born in San Diego, California. He attended San Diego State University, majoring in comparative literature, and graduated in 1986 He was editor-in-chief editor of SDSU's Daily Aztec newspaper.^[1] He lives in San Diego, California.

The character of shy teenager Mark "The Rat" Ratner, who has a crush on Jennifer Jason Leigh's character in the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High, was modeled on Rathbone after writer Cameron Crowe befriended him during Crowe's research for the original book at San Diego's Clairemont High School.^[2] Rathbone's portrayal in the film was featured in an article titled "Geek God" published in the March 13, 1995, issue of People Weekly magazine.^[2][3][4]

Before becoming an author, Rathbone was chief editor at the Daily Aztec,^[1] a reporter for the La Jolla Light newspaper, an editor at ComputorEdge Magazine, and a freelancer for PC World, ComputerWorld and CompuServe.

In 1992, Rathbone wrote his first For Dummies book, Windows for Dummies, which was a New York Times bestseller.^[5] Since then, he has published some 50 computer books.^[6] His latest book is Windows 11 for Dummies (2021). Several of his For Dummies books have made USA Today's bestseller list.^[7] In 1992, Rathbone’s Windows For Dummies became the world’s best-selling computer book and remains so with more than 15 million copies sold by 2019.^[8]

Rathbone lives in San Diego. His late wife, Tina Rathbone, who wrote Modems for Dummies,^[9] died in 2023.^[10]