Silverlight book recommendations

Question

So my boss calls me from the PDC last night and says, "Dude, go order and read some books on Silverlight because every demo here is using it." And now my task is to find a couple of books on it and learn it. Having plenty of .Net development but zero Silverlight experience, I'm looking for something that'll start with the basics and get into a very low level detail of all Silverlight can do and what I can do with it.

I know there are similar questions (asking for best Silverlight 2 books), but is that something a Silverlight virgin should start with? Is there a difference between Silverlight and Silverlight 2 (just a newer version)?

UPDATE: I know books are outdated as soon as you get them, but I'm specifically looking for book recommendations for two reasons:

1. Company pays for them, so why not?
2. Having very little time to do online research while I work, I'd like to take advantage of the time I spend on the couch with my wife while she's watching Girls Next Door or some other crap on E!.

Answer 1

Read and or print this before you bother buying any books. At that stage you will be much better informed and probably ready for a more useful reference book. I say print if you need to circulate offline to the team.

If the management insists on spending money i'd suggest a subscription to msdn safari booksonline

Answer 2

I've only had a chance to skim it but Essential Silverlight 2 by Chritian Wenz looks good.It has a neat Up-to-Date feature that allows you to incorporate author updates right in the book.

With this unique new book, you not only get a concise, easy-to-understand introduction to Silverlight 2, but thorough coverage of the CTPs, betas, and RTM releases as they become available. Once you buy the book, you'll be able to download free PDFs of all the revisions to Silverlight that you can print and insert right into the book's unique binder format.

Answer 3

In case anyone is interested, I ended up ordering:

• Introducing Microsoft Silverlight 2.0, 2nd Edition
• Silverlight 2 Bible

Answer 4

Here are some books with some information with popularity index.

http://www.silverlightshow.net/Books.aspx

I am personally waiting for the following book.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0596516126?ie=UTF8&tag=silverl-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0596516126

Answer 5

Old Thread, but heres a May 2010 update. We just started using Microsoft Silverlight 4 Data and Services Cookbook by Packt The book is available as an online PDF purchase also.

I have thoroughly enjoyed it so far, its geared toward creation of LOB apps.