The worlds best textbooks

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I am pretty convinced that I understand OO programming with Java pretty well. I even think I have a pretty good grasp on most common programming design patterns. You'd think that I'd find reading an introductory book on those topics to be pretty dry and boring, right? Not these books.

Head First Design Patterns and Head First Java (from http://headfirst.oreilly.com/) are easily the two most interesting and engaging textbooks I have ever seen. They don't bore you to death with pages and pages of dry academic prose, instead, they speak directly to the reader.

They anthropomorphise everything and tell stories about it. They use pictures, use humour and attention grabbing tactics. They turn what can seem useless and boring into something that seems fun.

I can't wait to see their HTML & CSS book due out in December, and I wish they had one for VB.NET programming.