If we are talking books we are talking two things; learning and referencing a subject, right? books are still the best for referencing, but these days there are new methods of learning like video tutorials, I found myself in the beginning stage of learning and video tutorials a better way to learn faster than a book (at the beginning learning stage) after that you keep you books to keep learning. I got some for .Net Excel, Access, etc, and before taking a class I get the video tutorial, take the class (including the class book that some times is hard to assimilate a 500 page book in a 16 class semester) and then read the books for ever. These video tutorials are very affordable from 20 to 100 dollars, and no I'm, not talking about Video Professor, those are very old way to learn, the new ones are more like recording a class, or somebody reading you the book and giving you samples in the IDE. Also let's not forget online video tutorials like http://www.learnvisualstudio.net/ and other good sites. Again this is when you start learning a programming language (with this I mean the majority of the Forum members)