∞ /notes/why-i-like-books | 2007-07-12 | programming

Why I like Books

Cross-posted to: https://fsteeg.wordpress.com/2007/07/12/why-i-like-books/

I realized I like technical books in spite of abundant material available online, because they help me to take time to learn something for which there is no immediate need to learn. I just realized this listening to the Java Posse, where someone said he wanted to learn Scala for a while but didn't find the time for it. I feel the same, and I know the reason for it in my case: there's no book yet, I remembered searching for one. Learning a new language just isn't a thing I do during some browsing in a break from work. I remember a few things I wouldn't have learned about without the according book, like:

• Mastering Regular Expressions
• Programming Ruby
• Java Generics and Collections
• The Definitive ANTLR Reference

As all the books above are (or were, in the Pickaxe case) the first books available on the topic they cover, I guess the point I'm trying to make is how great it is that people write these kind of great books on topics yet uncovered. Oh, and one more thing, of course: I need a Scala book. Or, an ebook reader, maybe.