I never seem to be able to read technical books. It’s fun to buy them, but then I get a little ways in and forget about it. I usually treat reading as recreation. Maybe I need to treat reading a technical book as a project. Now, rather than the twin problems of not being able to read technical books, and not being able to do side projects, I just have the one.
(I can’t take credit for this idea. There’s a quote somewhere that, “You don’t read programming books; you work through them.”.)
I’m assuming it’s actually worthwhile to read technical books. I think it’s more fun to just mess around with something until I understand it, occasionally consulting the web where necessary. Here’s a new format for a programming book: 600 pages, divided into 6 sections. Each section starts with a 10 page tutorial, followed by 90 pages of reference material for you to consult while you’re messing around with whatever tech the book is about, designed to answer the questions of “so how do I do…?” and “why am i getting this error…?”.
Someone’s probably thought of this idea too. Know of any books like that for MVC frameworks?