Programming Books Suck and are Expensive
 

As I was perusing the selection of tech books at the Local B&N, I finally realized very few programming books give you very usable info or methods for the money. I had noticed this trend for years, but the reality of the matter finally hit me. It seems that many programming books have shifted focus from 'how to' accomplish something to 'these are the trendy standards'.


When is the last time you've bought a programming book that was worth the money you paid for it? What was that book. What are your recommendations?


Don't include ones you've reviewed for free....

The O'Reilly books are usually worthwhile. "Programming Perl" stands out as the most frequently-consulted for me.

I don't do much programming unless you count HTML and Director Lingo, but I have books on that stuff (as well as on many graphic design programs) and I've never read them. It would probably put me to sleep, and I can't imagine what would happen if I tried to read about C+, Visual Basic, or anything like that.

If I know exactly what I want to do, it's easier to do a search on Google to find the solution.

I think the only computer-related reference book I've really enjoyed/gained significantly from having has been Jakob Nielson's <a href="http://www.useit.com/jakob/webusability/">Designing Web Usability</a>. The huge tomes on Carbon which I've ignored, my O'Rielly Lunix book, K&R C, eh.. They're all sort of dense and only useful if, somehow, your computer lacks manpages, grep, and Google.

Maybe there are some people who have an easier time finding information with an indexed dead tree, but it just doesn't work for me.

Yes definitely. They have good organization and mention a lot of topics left out of other books. They also have one for almost all programming languages and concepts (i.e. They have one on security programming with C++, which I'll probably get).

If you need to learn a language like C++ or VB I would recommend any book written by Diane Zak. I self taught myself C++ with her book and thought the book helped me a lot. It was organized and to the point. Bad side: her books are sometimes used as school textbooks and can be expensive.

Even though you can find whatever you need on the Net for free, I'm still a holdover for printed material. When I'm programming, I usually have about a dozen windows open anyway, so it's nice to have a book instead of having to switch back and forth onscreen.

I third the props for O'Reilly's books. "Programming Perl" is wonderful. My copy is dog-eared and post-it-flagged like crazy. "Object Oriented Perl" by Damian Conway (not O'Reilly though.. forget who publishes it offhand) is one of the most amazing programming books I've ever bought.

eBay
 

The suggestion I have, if you're on a tight budget, is eBay.

I've picked up many good books there for 1/2 the cover price or less.

I actually purchased about a good 40-50 books from there, mostly Oracle Press (read: freaking expensive) books for anywhere between $20-$35 for the newer ones.

There was at least one eBay seller whom I bought books from who worked for them, read the books, and when he was done, put them on eBay.

I picked up books on Windows Server 2003 (.NET server, written when it was Beta), Oracle, C++, Computer Architecture, Gigabit Ethernet, UNIX, and Cisco there.

Amazon also has a good Used books section, which I used for a Secure Programming book at 1/2 the cover price.

Oh, if you're gonna go used, check out www.abebooks.com. They're right up there with ebay for encouraging me to get "things I really shouldnta bought". They've hooked me up with tons of stuff to feed my weirdly eclectic range of tastes, from grammars of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs to old Heinlein juveniles to the NASA Atlas of the Solar System.

O'Reilly kicks the shit out of pretty much everything out there as a reference for pretty much everything, my copies of Perl, XML, MySQL etc are always at the top of the heap.

For learning something, there are tons of great tutorials on the web for any computer-related task -- especially programming. There's no need to buy a $50 book if all you want to do is learn a new language and play around with it. Just look for resources on the web and dig in. Get a book if you want a reference guide.