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CaptainSeeSharp wrote: Do you read them? If so, how do you read them? Page by page? Reference only? Lazily skim?
Yes - not so much now but in my youth I read loads.
How I read them depends on the book and why I bought it. Some I read through, do the exercises et. and treat it like a course, some I read out of interest in the subject, and just read through, some I buy for reference (I used to own a lot of 'complete guide' type books which I used in preference to the manuals that came with the product concerned) and some I skim if the subject matter is only partly interesting or I need a quick overview.
CaptainSeeSharp wrote: Do you learn from them? If so, what would you estimate the percentage of information that the author intended for you to pick up do you actually pick up and remember?
Absolutely I learn from them - and I think I learn better form a book than online articles - just the ability to pick it up while lazing by the pool with a drink helps the information sink in.
The amount I pick up obviously depends on the book. My general feeling is that I retain what things are available but not necessarily how to use them exactly - then when I come to a situation where I want to use that technology, I can go back and look at the detail. For example, I read through a WCF book a while back - understood what it was about but didn't do the exercises until I started on a project using WCF - then I knew which bits were relevant to my situation.
CaptainSeeSharp wrote: How long does it take for you to read a 800-1000 page programming book when you read it page by page?
Twelve hours and seventeen minutes  seriously, some I read through in a couple of days, other I keep going for months. I find it much easier to learn when what I am learning is immediately relevant - so if I am just about to start on an ASP MVP project, I'll probably read a couple of books over a week or two before starting, then dip back in as I begin, but other books I'll ready a chapter or two every now and then.
CaptainSeeSharp wrote: How many have you read?
Probably a hundred or so - but then I've been doing it for a long time. I remember the day when I had to go to a specialist bookstore to even find a programming book - and I'd buy them for future reference. These days I tend to buy only those that are relevant to what I'm working on or about to be working on.
When I first started out in the industry (when the only programming books tended to be manuals that came with the language) I would read every page of everything available - and I soon became much more knowledgeable than many of my peers who rested somewhat on their laurels. I remember working on a mid-range system where very experienced developers told me it wasn't possible to communicate directly between workstations on that system - so they had implemented some really crappy polling system. I read some of the manuals (from memory there was a series of twelve ring-bound manuals covering everything from the hardware, through assembler, to the OS and high level languages), and found an example of how to do exactly what they wanted.
I confess I didn't tell them immediately - I wrote a simple program to send messages to a specified workstation, then sat back and waited until someone was playing 'Cave' - the original Text Adventure game. Then I sat there typing things like "A small wizard carrying a gold bar disappears to the West." you can't imagine the excitement it caused!
Max
In a maze of twisty passages, all alike.
___________________________________________
.\\axxx
(That's an 'M')
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Yes, in fact I read lot of programming books.
They way I read depends on the book. The first step is to skim through the book. Depending on how the book is written you grasp some main ideas. I can get an idea of what's in the technology or how the author has solved a problem. Then when I actually do some work using the technology, I refer to the book / msdn in detail. Msdn is good for detail and books good for overview.
A 500 page book takes about a week.
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Yes. It generally takes a while for me to read them, but I can remember a fair bit of what I learn. I've not got many programming books, but the ones which I do have are quite theoretical. I've got Modern Operating Systems, some books about network stacks, one or two relating to C++ and C++/CLI, and one book about VB.Net.
CaptainSeeSharp wrote:
Do you learn from them?
Always. When I'm writing articles, I'll often look through my collection for errata and side-points.
CaptainSeeSharp wrote: what would you estimate the percentage of information that the author intended for you to pick up do you actually pick up and remember?
I can't really answer that question because most programming books are intended for reference. However, when I read them cover-to-cover, I often pick up about 60-65% on the first read; it goes up to about 75% after that.
CaptainSeeSharp wrote: How long does it take for you to read a 800-1000 page programming book when you read it page by page?
A few days. Once I start, it's difficult to stop - I've forgotten to eat and drink while reading several times.
CaptainSeeSharp wrote: How many have you read?
About six or seven
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Et tu?
Visual Studio is an excellent GUIIDE.
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Yes I do, from cover to cover.
Not so much these days but occasionally even today. I might not remember the whole book albeit a pretty good memory but I do remember reading about it (so I know which book to go to for a refresher).
A week, depending on workload.
Too many bad, too few good...
rgds /Jonas -- a programming bookworm
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CaptainSeeSharp wrote: Do you read them?
No.
Cheers,
Vikram. (Cracked not one CCC, but two!)
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Depends on the book, I read and followed a begining C# book cover to cover, but the pro c# book was more of a guide, so I only read bits that I'm interested in.
Most of the time its reference only.
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CaptainSeeSharp wrote: Do you read them? If so, how do you read them? Page by page? Reference only? Lazily skim?
Skim - so I know what's in it for later if I need it.
CaptainSeeSharp wrote: Do you learn from them? If so, what would you estimate the percentage of information that the author intended for you to pick up do you actually pick up and remember?
Depends on the book. on average probably about 60-80%.
CaptainSeeSharp wrote: How long does it take for you to read a 800-1000 page programming book when you read it page by page?
Months - because I only skim it.
CaptainSeeSharp wrote: How many have you read?
40.
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I'll skim a 1000 page book in about 20 minutes looking over the areas I am interested in. I have a number of technical manuals at my disposal but I use them mostly for reference material.
With my level of experience in the field I was taught how to do research years ago. As a result, I have learned many of my technical skills what we used to call "by reference". We didn't memorize all the details but instead learned where we could find information when we needed it.
If you are learning something new than sitting down with a good technical manual and going through it step-by-step is an excellent approach. However, unless you have a penchant for reading technical materials, tinkering and experimenting is a far better approach to understanding a new technical area.
Steve Naidamast
Black Falcon Software, Inc.
blackfalconsoftware@ix.netcom.com
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CaptainSeeSharp wrote: Do you read them?
Yes.
CaptainSeeSharp wrote: If so, how do you read them? Page by page? Reference only? Lazily skim?
I typically skim it first and then read page by page.
CaptainSeeSharp wrote: Do you learn from them?
Yes. Sometimes I learn useful things and sometimes not but I rarely regret reading a programming book.
CaptainSeeSharp wrote: How long does it take for you to read a 800-1000 page programming book when you read it page by page?
Depends on motivation and available time.
CaptainSeeSharp wrote: How many have you read?
Probably less than 100 
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CaptainSeeSharp wrote: Do you read them? If so, how
Yes. I start at the very beginning (it's a very nice place to start) and proceed to the end. Then it becomes a reference book.
CaptainSeeSharp wrote: Do you learn from them?
Yes, but your mileage may vary.
CaptainSeeSharp wrote: the author intended
The author intends only to make money; he only hopes the reader learns enough that he buys the next edition.
The last one I read is only 400 pages; I didn't read it in one sitting, it took about a week. Now I have to go back through it and try out some of the stuff.
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If it's an entirely new subject to me I generally read through it once just to get an overview of how things work together then re-read from the start to pick up the details. Depending on the nature of the material I may apply that approach to single chapters or sections of the book.
I'm not a programmer but I play one at the office
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Cool !!!!! I spoke to the bosses where I worked about the lack of female programmers in our office, and they said not one had ever applied.
Christian Graus
Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista.
Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
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Message Automatically Removed
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It's closer than you will get to either of those things!!
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Sorry to be disrespectful, but CSS might get an award for least respectful and least respected member of CP.
Visual Studio is an excellent GUIIDE.
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Says the HTML "programmer".
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The moniker does not make the man (supposing my username is what you are referring to). Although I do not look down upon those who develop with HTML either.
Visual Studio is an excellent GUIIDE.
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Point taken... still won't get him laid though!!
The only way that would happen is if he crawled up a chicken's butt and waited!!
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_Damian S_ wrote: still won't get him laid though
If he moves to Nevada, he can pay for that. There is hope for everyone. 
Visual Studio is an excellent GUIIDE.
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AFAIK the women there get to choose if they want to do it with a potential customer. He'd need to go to some 3rd world hellhole where the women are slaves.
On the plus side since HIV medicine is undoubtedly an evil plot by the govt to kill people; inside of a decade the only thing he'd be offending would be worms.
3x12=36
2x12=24
1x12=12
0x12=18
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aspdotnetdev wrote: If he moves to Nevada
I think a prison sentence would probably it sort out too...
Panic, Chaos, Destruction.
My work here is done.
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Yeah right, in your dreams pal. 
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