Recommended programming/computer book publishers

Question

Any of us who have looked at dozens of programming books start to notice the differences. One of the first things I do when choosing a book is look at the publisher. So what are our favorite computer book publishers and why? Share your experiences of the books you've read.

Please post only one publisher per answer so they can be voted on separately. :D

also see Is the quality of programming books between publishers noticeably different?

There a many good publishers so going wrong can be hard. But one fact I've rarely seen disputed is that Sam's "teach yourself X in 24 hours" books are terrible.

Answer 1

My choice is Manning.com

The books are good, well structured and to the point. Most of the books are some of the best in the breeds like "C# in Depth", "JQuery in Action" etc..

Specifically I like the "action" series as they are practical and result oriented and I think the MEAP is a great way to learn any new technology.

Answer 2

O'Reilly

Answer 3

I've read that APress is pretty good to the authors.

Answer 4

Wiley (aka "for dummies series") isn't specifically a computer book publisher, but the stuff they do have on computers is decent.

Answer 5

Pragmatic Programmers

Answer 6

Addison-Wesley can't be bad since they published the highly-regarded C++ In-Depth series.

Answer 7

I second Rajesh Pillai's reccomendation of Manning. I've found most of their books are very good and have the right mix of theory and practice. I'm also a fan of Wrox for down-and-dirty tutorials. APress is often good as well, similar in quality to Manning.

I advise people to stay away from the Sam's books and Microsoft Press, both of which I've found to be too much of a "Hey look at how cool this technology is!" type of marketing pitch without any real meat. Also stay away from the books that are clearly aimed towards hobbyists (e.g. Visual Quickstart, Xyz for Dummies, Xyz for the Absolute Beginner).

Answer 8

Generally it's not too bad of an idea to go with a reputable publishing company, however that doesn't mean a book not published by a reputable company can be better, nor does it mean all books from said reputable company are going to be good, every publishing company has its gems and duds.

Anything but Wrox. – Dave Markle Sep 13 at 15:36

I think for the most part experienced developers tend to avoid publishers such as:

• Sams Publishing
• Course Technology
• For Dummies

As usually the authors of these publishers aren't as reputed and experienced as the ones from:

• Apress
• O'Reilly
• Manning
• Pragmatic
• Addison-Wesley
• Morgan Kaufmann
• friends of ED ( Apress branch )

Packt Publishing, Peachpit Press Wiley ( Bible series ), No Starch Press and Wrox are somewhere in the middle as there can be some really great books but some mediocre ones.

So if we were to go look for a great beginner's PHP book for example this is how I would grade the books from the various publishers ( based on reviews and some of which I read, I admit I had to skim a few of them ):

Sams Publishing has, I would grade the books as such:

• C - http://www.amazon.com/Sams-Teach-Yourself-MySQL-Apache/dp/067232976X/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258266269&sr=1-1
• B - http://www.amazon.com/PHP-MySQL-Web-Development-4th/dp/0672329166/ref=sr%5F1%5F4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258266375&sr=1-4

Apress:

• B- - http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-PHP-MySQL-Novice-Professional/dp/1590598628/ref=sr%5F1%5F3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258266467&sr=1-3
• A - PHP Objects, Patterns, Practice - PHP Objects, Patterns, and Practice, Second Edition

Peachpit:

• A: PHP 6 and MySQL 5 for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide - PHP 6 and MySQL 5 for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide

friendsofED:

• A+: PHP Solutions: Dynamic Websites made easy - http://www.amazon.com/PHP-Solutions-Dynamic-Design-Made/dp/1590597311/ref=sr%5F1%5F6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258266511&sr=1-6
• A+: PHP Object Oriented Solutions - http://www.amazon.com/PHP-Object-Oriented-Solutions-David-Powers/dp/1430210117/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258267285&sr=1-1

Course Technology:

• C: http://www.amazon.com/PHP-MySQL-Programming-Absolute-Beginner/dp/1592004946/ref=sr%5F1%5F12?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258266511&sr=1-12

No Starch:

• B+: http://www.amazon.com/Wicked-Cool-PHP-Real-World-Difficult/dp/1593271735/ref=sr%5F1%5F23?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258266752&sr=1-23

OReilly:

• B-: http://www.amazon.com/Head-First-MySQL-Lynn-Beighley/dp/0596006306/ref=sr%5F1%5F5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258266851&sr=1-5
• B: Learning PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript: A Step-By-Step Guide to Creating Dynamic Websites (Animal Guide)
• C: PHP In a Nutshell - PHP in a Nutshell - http://www.amazon.com/PHP-Nutshell-OReilly-Paul-Hudson/dp/0596100671/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258267154&sr=1-1
• C: Programming PHP - http://www.amazon.com/Programming-PHP-Kevin-Tatroe/dp/0596006810/ref=sr%5F1%5F3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258267154&sr=1-3
• B: Web Database Applications with PHP & MySQL, 2nd Edition - http://www.amazon.com/Web-Database-Applications-PHP-MySQL/dp/0596005431/ref=sr%5F1%5F4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258267154&sr=1-4
• D: Learning PHP/MySQL - http://www.amazon.com/Learning-PHP-MySQL-Michele-Davis/dp/0596101104/ref=sr%5F1%5F11?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258267154&sr=1-11

Wrox:

• C: http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Apache-MySQL-Development-Programmer/dp/0764579665/ref=sr%5F1%5F2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258267497&sr=1-2
• C: http://www.amazon.com/Professional-PHP6-Wrox-Programmer/dp/0470395095/ref=sr%5F1%5F3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258267497&sr=1-3
• B: http://www.amazon.com/Professional-Design-Patterns-Wrox-Programmer/dp/0470496703/ref=sr%5F1%5F7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258267497&sr=1-7

Of course these are subjective personal ratings but nonetheless that's how I would rank them. While OReilly is usually great for more technical and advanced books ( I do realize it has a lot of gems like Real World Haskell, JS Definitive, Mercurial Definitive, and a whole slew of others ) , in this case I would go with friendsofED or peachpit for an awesome beginner's PHP book seeing as how there isn't really a great OReilly beginner PHP book - the Head First one in my opinion isn't as good as the David Powers PHP Solutions or Larry Ulman's PHP for the WWW. I hope this can serve as an example of why you shouldn't really go with the publisher in the end but the author.