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I tend to buy (every now and then) books, such as Code Complete, on generic programming topics rather than on specific products. However, I did buy some books on .NET when it first came out because it was new and I wanted to get up to speed quickly and, as a contractor, it was useful to get some more than superficial knowledge. But with .NET 2 I've largely not bothered. The one exception was the Wrox book on Generics, as that was a new topic and went into a lot of depth that you can't easily get elsewhere.
Kevin
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I am in a lucky position to get a subscription to books24x7.com via my employer. I must say that it is nice but I still love real hardcopy books.
I have a book case full of old books for which the technology is so old now (like VB6 and ASP). That's why e-Books are better because they are replaced by new ones all the time.
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- I do not have enough time to read them. I have some books waiting for me for years. I still regret the waste of money, since the price is made for USA and I live in Eastern Europe. I am always on the run. I need short and clear answers to my problems. I do not have time for philosophy. The ideal book would have 50 pages, at most.
- Probably there are only few books you should really read. Somebody said you must choose books the same way you choose friends: very carefully.
Regards,
zdf
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zdf wrote: I do not have enough time to read them
Yeah, that's true, especiallly when working on new stuff like .net, it such a vast framework to learn, you never get time of look at anything else.
Never send a human to do a machine's job Agent Smith
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.NET is a logically designed framework; if you make an effort to understand the concepts behind the machinery, all else you need is Intellisense.
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zdf wrote: Somebody said you must choose books the same way you choose friends: very carefully.
Very wise advice.
I'd love to help, but unfortunatley I have prior commitments monitoring the length of my grass. :Andrew Bleakley:
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I take all information from the Internet.
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more over we get quick results using internet but reading books take a lot of time and why a developer read a book? just for some problem learning and now a days we get fast ways for this
Regards
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However Internet and great communities like this are very helpful, but there are cases that we need to buy a book.
But for people like me it's always a big problem to buy a book! I live in asia and not a lot of books are written(or translated) in my language, I have not a credit card to go to amazon for example and buy a book, and if I had one, It's always very expensive to me. that's why I try to find e-books. But there is not an e-book for every topic! 
What does solve the problem? invaluable time.
//This is not a signature
while (I'm_alive) {
printf("I Love Programming");
}
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Hamed Mosavi wrote:
//This is not a signature
while (I'm_alive) {
printf("I Love Programming");
}
Syntax Error: Invalid Identifier: I'm_alive
(just kidding.) 
SDX-{5A853460-2944-42f8-84B8-2432DE3657EF}
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//This is not a signature
while (I'm_alive) {
printf("I Love Programming");
}
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I don't tend to buy programming books these days - I still buy the odd one when a new technology comes out and I want something in depth that covers as much as possible and that I can later use as a reference - but for the most part I buy books that I can read on the train.
I'm currently reading Christopher Duncan's[^] excellent book Unit the Tribes: Ending Turf Wars for Career and Business Success[^]
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."
--Charles Babbage (1791-1871)
My: Website | Blog
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But that is the only programming book I've obtained in the past year.
If I need a quick reference, I'll use google or online articles such as those found on this fine site 
-Steve
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I usually buy books about the software development process, methodology and managment. Unless a fantastic book like Inside C# comes along, I tend to avoid buying language books - google, CodeProject and MSDN tend to provide me with all the reference I need for learning new languages and the like.
Although saying that I've started reading a lot more books on CSS/Ajax, as it is nice to have the books to hand when delving into this new world.
Michael
CP Blog [^] Development Blog [^]
-- modified at 16:32 Monday 22nd May, 2006
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Michael P Butler wrote: I usually buy books about the software development process, methodology and managment.
I'm the same these days.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."
--Charles Babbage (1791-1871)
My: Website | Blog
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Can you suggest some good books on dev process and methodology. I've been doing this for 7 months or so now and before this job I have never worked in a professional development environment. I am the only developer in my unit, so no one to guide me. I have read as much as I can on the Internet, but I'm having trouble finding good stuff on the development process. I finished a large project in April and I have been spending time recently fixing things I know would have been ok if I had a real dev process. Anyway, within the next couple months I will be starting two very big projects and I want to get it done right this time.
Thanks
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and typically they're books that describe various graphics algorithms. once in a while i might buy a small language reference for a language i need to use but don't know all the details of (ex. Perl, JS).
but, like Gary, below, i have no use for the hot-tech-du jour books that precede every hiccup MS makes.
Cleek | Image Toolkits | Thumbnail maker
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My school doesn't progress fast enough for me so i branch out on my own. I would read the free online articles, but i find it just more effecient, and more resourceful to read the book.
However i rarely buy brand new books, half price books is my primary source (1000 page books for $6) The only books i buy new are ones on graphics programming, since half price books NEVER has anything on them.
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You know the problem with being the coolest dude in the computer world? It really doesn't set the bar very high. (This post is meant in jest and not as a personal attack)
"Until the day of his death, no man can be sure of his courage" -- Jean Anouilh
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Firstly, because of the fast pace of technology the book will be out of date about one month after I buy it.
Secondly, a lot of the articals, tutorials etc. are non-commercial (I mean they're writen by people who don't want to make money writing books) - hence, they're only available online (In many cases the articals on this site make better Windows training material than commerically written books  )
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ed welch wrote: the book will be out of date about one month after I buy it
Sometimes they are out of date before you buy it. There are so many out of date books in my local bookstore.
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It has been said (blatant wiki parody) that one must read 3 books on a subject per year to be considered an expert. If I buy one industry/programming book per month what does that make me? (Other than egotistical) Actually, all jest aside. Books really are a crucial tool and a large library provides a handy reference and in a lot of cases more so than the web. Sometimes authors will mention something obscure that is nearly impossible to find on the web. For example: how big is an integer in c++?
"Until the day of his death, no man can be sure of his courage" -- Jean Anouilh
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You can read books 'til your ass bleeds (to paraphrase Eric Cartman ), but I would not consider anyone an expert, until they get in the trenches and apply what they've learned.
Ennis Ray Lynch, Jr. wrote: Sometimes authors will mention something obscure that is nearly impossible to find on the web. For example: how big is an integer in c++?
True, but it will probably end up in someone's blog anyway, so someone will find it. Use sizeof(int) - assumptions makes an ass of the compiler and me.
This is all in jest, of course, reading is fundamental and knoweledge is power!
- S
50 cups of coffee and you know it's on!
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The last two programming books I bought were The C++ Programming Language 3rd edition by Stroustrup and the CSS Pocket Reference by Eric Meyer.
I don't bother with the screen-dump mega-tomes or the Major Hot Technology De jour for Dummies books. For the one or two pages that are worthwhile, they're awfully expensive and either poorly written or a scraping of the application help text (which can also be poorly written, but that's another rant).
I only buy basic references, since they seem to be the only books that have any utility, and hold their value long enough to be worth the price.
Software Zen: delete this;
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