I generally agree with this. When it comes to languages and implementations it's often better to just learn by doing/hopping around little blogs and documentation here and there. As you said, technology evolves too quickly for authors to keep up.

That being said, there are some pretty fundamental abstract concepts behind all forms of programming that have stuck around for a long time: those old comp sci course materials. I'd recommend turning to books for some of that content, as picking up some knowledge there will support you no matter what programming language you try to learn.