Good Programmer to Programmer Books

[serox]

I was shopping for a good ASP reference book to pick up with the release of ASP.NET 3.5. After looking at the vast selection of crappy revision updated books, it got me to wondering if there are any books that are actually decent "Programmer to Programmer" books. I see Wrox publishing makes that claim very often, but I feel they still drop the ball either by skipping detailed explanations of things or by numbing you down with explaining generics.

I figured a good way to solve this is for people to recommend good reference books (not "Teach yourself in 24 Hours" books) that have the right balance of explanation and understanding.

Here are some of my recommendations:

Ruby: Programming Ruby PickAxe, version 3 (Pragmatic Programmer)
Ruby on Rails: Agile Web Programming with Ruby on Rails, version 2 (Pragmatic Programmer)
C++: C++ for Java Developers (forgot who published this one)

 

[tfinch2]

O'Reilly FTW

 

[ncage]

I really don't go by publisher because some books by one publisher suck but others are great. For example never been a fan of the "unleashed" series of books but ASP.Net Unleashed 3.5 is the BEST. When i want a good book on a specific subject then i go read reviews. For example i just bought a WCF book and i end up purchasing a book from Oreilly by Michele Bustamante which is great.

 

[George P Burdell]

Originally posted by: ncage
I really don't go by publisher because some books by one publisher suck but others are great. For example never been a fan of the "unleashed" series of books but ASP.Net Unleashed 3.5 is the BEST. When i want a good book on a specific subject then i go read reviews. For example i just bought a WCF book and i end up purchasing a book from Oreilly by Michele Bustamante which is great.

Agreed. There is little consistency in computer books to rely on a single publisher or author.

I usually go to the local bookstore, spend some time with each book to see which one has the best vibe, then go to Amazon and read the reviews before deciding.

 

[nordloewelabs]

Originally posted by: George P Burdell
I usually go to the local bookstore, spend some time with each book to see which one has the best vibe, then go to Amazon and read the reviews before deciding.

me too. i usually visit a couple of book stores, sit down and browse 3-5 titles at each store. that usually takes me about 2 hours at each place. then, i too, go online and read some reviews.

at the end i buy 2 of browsed books and alternate between them while studying.