What book(s) will take someone from 0 to "C# In Depth?"

Question

Duplicate of this question.

What book(s) best complement "C# In Depth"? ie provide a comprehensive introductory treatment that dovetails with the more advanced text?

EDIT: Note that this question is not intended to sound glib as in "What book will make me an expert". The intent is to ask to which book would best complement the specific book "C# In Depth" ie provide the foundations to C# with minimal duplication of the content in "C# In Depth". Yes, I'm aware of other questions about introductory texts but I was trying to be more specific with this question.

Answer 1

I'm sure this question will be marked as a dupe, but...

I would very much recommend the Head First C# book. Just search Amazon for "Head First". I love that entire series and am excited for the Data Analysis one to come out.

Answer 2

No books but experience. Book might show you the way but you have to walk it yourself. No book will teach you enough to become C# expert.

Answer 3

If you are very proficient in another procedural language, the EMCA specs would be an in valuable supplement. There are various texts that you can try for an introduction.

Then pick an interesting project and start experimenting :)

Answer 4

If you have some programming experience in another language, I would recommend Pro C# 2008 and the .Net 3.5 Platform. I think it handles the basic aspects of the language very well.

Answer 5

(This started off as a comment, but got too long.)

I'll be very interested to hear answers to this one - as I don't have an answer myself. There are other C# books I like (C# 3.0 in a Nutshell and Accelerated C# 2008) but they're not really introductory texts. I'm not as keen on Head First C# - although mostly on style grounds, now that the vast majority of the errors in earlier editions have been fixed. (If you're going to get it, make sure you get the latest edition.)

CLR via C# dovetails with C# in Depth in a different way, providing CLR details where C# in Depth provides language details.

One potentially odd idea would be to try to get hold of C# 1 in a Nutshell - there are some wacky mistakes in that (such as calling bool a floating point type, IIRC) but it's a relatively short introductory book.

I've also heard good things about a book called "C# Quickly" or something like that, but I haven't read it myself and annoyingly can't remember the exact name.

Some of the books mentioned in this answer have been reviewed on my blog in rather more detail. (I reviewed the first printing of HFC#, so as I say it's a lot better now.) One of these days I'll get round to writing the CLR via C# review...

Answer 6

I think the best complement to C# in depth is not a book, is a project.

Find yourself a small-medium size project you like and do it as you read the book, and go back to the book for reference to complete it.