Amazon notwithstanding, are there any good programming book review websites?

Question

Despite the trend that programmers don't read books, I still prefer to read books over "random" websites when learning a new language, etc. (It helps that I have access to Safari Books Online through my former college and Books24x7 through work)

The problem I have is separating the good books from the bad, and evaluating what would be a good introductory text vs. an advanced text.

Are there any good websites, excluding Amazon reviews, with good book reviews? - preferably showing required experience levels - introduction, intermediate, advanced, reference, etc.

Answer 1

Ive had good experiences with books.google.com: http://books.google.com/books?q=programming&btnG=Search+Books

Answer 2

I've started reviewing books that I've been reading. Obviously as it's only me, there's a very limited selection of reviews so far - and I'm biased, as I have my own C# book out too - but I'd like to think that the reviews are pretty thorough.

They're on my blog under the Book Reviews tag.

Answer 3

ACCU

Answer 4

Java Ranch has a decent section that is all book reviews, and while Java centric it is not exclusively Java related like DB, UML/Design, certification, PM, XML and a non-trival amount of .Net/C#.

Answer 5

http://books.slashdot.org/

And true to form, the Slashdot community reviews the reviews and aren't shy about what they think.

Answer 6

Not a review site per se, but: ProgrammingBooks.org

Answer 7

Even though there are no reviews, I've found that Bookpool.com often has pretty good prices when it comes time to actually purchase them.

Answer 8

GoodReads is a pretty good, though it is not much different compared to Amazon in that reviews are written by ordinary users and not experts.