Speaking of new books, congratulations to Jeremy on the announcement of HTML5 for Web Designers. Here’s the gist of the book:
The HTML5 spec is 900 pages and hard to read. HTML5 for Web Designers is 85 pages and fun to read. Easy choice.
I’m sold, and will be pre-ordering my own copy shortly.
Since my return from the Big Nerd Ranch just over a week ago, I’ve received a number of emails asking “What books are you reading and what would you recommend to those interested in Cocoa?”. Depending on your background, there’s a number of excellent books available. Here’s a low down of some of the books I’ve been enjoying and learning from recently…
Learn C on the Mac ~ Lacking any real background in programming, the first place to start is to learn C. There’s some well-respected books on the language, but they’re also incredibly dry and hard reads. This title from Apress is both approachable and full of the foundations you’ll need.
Learn Objective-C on the Mac ~ The sequel to “Learn C on the Mac”, this is another great title from Apress. Its worth remembering that before you get to the Cocoa framework, you might want to ensure you’re comfortable with Objective-C. This continuation from the C book is well-written, as you might expect, and one of the books used as course text for the first portion of the Cocoa Bootcamp.
Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X (Third Edition) ~ Widely known as “The Bible” you’ll want a copy of this for your bookshelf. After a bit of preparation with the previous two titles, this book will be the one to tackle: exercises, challenges and more to get you on your way.
Learn Cocoa on the Mac ~ I don’t actually own this one (yet - it’s not on sale until September) however after reading the first two in the series, I’ll be picking up a copy of this alongside the obvious Beginning iPhone Development title too.
There’s tonnes of titles out there for Cocoa: so if you’ve got your own favourite, post it as one of Tumblr’s spiffy Answers.
I’ve never been further East than Poland, or farther South than Egypt, but I’ve always wanted to visit the Far East. China, Hong Kong, Japan. The culture shock, the utterly different history and the vastly different outlook on the world strike me as incredible things. Something to respect, admire and potentially learn from. I’ve also not read a great deal of travel literature, though that’s something may change after reading Peter Hessler’s “River Town”.
River Town is a fascinating diary about one Peace Corps teacher (the author himself) and his experiences teaching English (and English Literature) in a fairly remote Chinese river town through the course of 1996/7. It’s a thorough interesting read - particularly as it’s all happening alongside the handover of Hong Kong back to China, and I’d strongly recommend it if you’re at all intrigued by Chinese culture.
Thanks to Rebecca for the recommendation.
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