Industry IT Water-Cooler for Power-Users: Free Programming Books! By Wes Peterson

Posted 9 years ago on 12/16/2013 Take Away: Good quality programming books. Read on to see how I found and acquired seven of them in less than 15 minutes. Or why we love our iPads, Kindles and other mobile devices.  Tags: Books , Programming , Free , HTML5 , CSS3 , JavaScript KB102528

Everybody likes free. When it comes to books on programming, though, what we expect for free is obsolete old news.

To get good books about HTML 5, CSS3 and JavaScript - for free - sounds too good to be true, doesn't it?

Nonetheless, just last night, I got a small trove of free books. These are the titles:

• CSS and Documents
• HTML for Publishers
• Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2012
• JavaScript and HTML Now
• Programming Windows 8 Apps with HTML, CSS and JavaScript
• What is HTML5
• What's new in Java 7?

Better yet, Finding and acquiring them took less than 15 minutes.

Are each of these books the best in their category? I have no idea. I haven't started reading them, yet. But I have a hunch that I'll find enough gems of information among them to make the price worthwhile.

Notably, several of these are published by O'Reilly.  Maybe Im just lucky (or particularly discerning), but I've never been disappointed by an O'Reilly book.  I'll put an asterisk in front of the titles by O'Reilly.

In a moment I'll give you the info on author, year published and the URL where you can get each. First, though, I'll tell you how to find these deals in no time flat.

These are all electronic books, Amazon's Kindle format at that. I don't have a Kinidle device, but I do have an iPad with the wonderful (and free) Kindle reader app. As far as I can tell, it's just as slick as having a Kindle device. Thanks Amazon.

The way to find them is to do a search in the Kindle Store, then Sort by Price: Low to High.  Obviously, if there are any free books, they'll be at the top of the list.

Here are the details:

* CSS and Documents
By Eric A. Meyer
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008RBQHTW/ref=oh_d__o01_details_o01__i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

* HTML for Publishers
by Sanders Kleinfeld
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005XE2CAO/ref=oh_d__o03_details_o03__i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2012
by Ross Mistry and Stacia Misner (Mar 27, 2012)
http://www.amazon.com/Introducing-Microsoft-SQL-Server-2012-ebook/dp/B007PJ6DSW/ref=sr_1_6?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1387218752&sr=1-6&keywords=C%23

JavaScript and HTML Now
by Kyle Simpson (Jun 30, 2012)
http://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-HTML5-Now-Kyle-Simpson-ebook/dp/B0084HJE0S/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1387218752&sr=1-3&keywords=C%23

Programming Windows 8 Apps with HTML, CSS and JavaScript
by Kraig Brockschmidt (Nov 26, 2012)
http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Windows%C2%AE-Apps-HTML-JavaScript-ebook/dp/B009WS8FCG/ref=sr_1_4?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1387218752&sr=1-4&keywords=C%23

* What is HTML5
by Brett McLaughlin (Jul 13, 2011)
http://www.amazon.com/What-HTML5-Brett-McLaughlin-ebook/dp/B005ISQ7JM/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1387218752&sr=1-1&keywords=C%23

What's new in Java 7?
by Madhusudhan Konda (Oct 20, 2011)
http://www.amazon.com/Whats-New-Java-Madhusudhan-Konda-ebook/dp/B005XSS8VC/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1387218752&sr=1-2&keywords=C%23

What I'd suggest (what I'm going to do) is visit Amazon every few months and try this technique again.

This may work with Sony and other purveyors of e-books. It certainly can't hurt to try.

Finally, just for fun (because I knew I wasn't going to get e-books), I tried it at half.com. I did a simple search for "HTML5" and, within the top 5 hits when sorted by price, I had four books, each about HTML5, with prices ranging from $0.75 to $1.22

Those will incur shipping and, possibly sales tax, but we're still darned close to free.

Man, I like a deal!

Wes Peterson

Comment 1 of 1 Update: Today, February 4 2015, Syncfusion is offering over 50 free books! Posted 7 years ago

Article Contributed By Wes Peterson:

Wes Peterson is a Senior Programmer Analyst with Prestwood IT Solutions where he develops custom Windows software and custom websites using .Net and Delphi. When Wes is not coding for clients, he participates in this online community. Prior to his 10-year love-affair with Delphi, he worked with several other tools and databases. Currently he specializes in VS.Net using C# and VB.Net. To Wes, the .NET revolution is as exciting as the birth of Delphi. Visit Profile