Stean's book was also my first chess book. After that I read Irving Chernev's Logical Chess: Move by Move. I believe there are several verison of this move by move format that have more modern games but I thought Chernev's book was a nice repetition of a few concrete ideas such as the freeing c5 push by black in several 1.d4 openings.
Why do you dislike Siman? I had to admit I wasn't a fan of him too much in the beginning either but I've come to enjoy his humor and I believe there is merit to his books that many beginners would benefit from.
I have recently finished reading Michael Stean's Simple chess. The book was really instructive. The author may not be the best player in his era but he really knows how to teach people. I tried to read other books after simple chess but those ones look like the author only collected a couple of games put them into a category and annotated them in a way which is not really instructrive for humble beginners like me. What did you read after simple chess or how did you continue your study? Are there any other books as useful and easy as simple chess?
p.s: please suggest something else than Silman books
p.s2: sry misspelled author's name