Re:Effective C: An Introduction to Professional C Programming
by clarry on Sunday March 29, 2020 @11:52AM
(#22719936)
I kind of agree with your point, with the caveat that I just don't want to spend much money if I'm not getting much out of it. I'd happily buy a book for 200 eur if I knew it's going to be worth my time. In the recent years, I've mostly regretted the time I spent on books. Life is short, free time is scarce, and there are so many other things I could be doing.
In this case, I'm definitely curious about the book and would like to skim through it just to satisfy that curiosity, but I have my doubts as to whether I'll get much out of it (I've been writing C for 15 years and I do it professionally). Maybe there are gems of wisdom (or things I've overlooked) in it that would make it worthwhile, but it's possible I'd just regret the time and money spent :-(
The book is supposed to be around 270 pages, so verbosity probably won't be an issue.
I am right now working through "Python Crash Course" as an intermediate Python programmer. I very quickly read through chapters 1-8 so far and did all the exercises (rather simple ones), just to make sure that I'm not missing out anything on the basics. In the last couple of chapters, I actually picked up two or three pieces of knowledge I wasn't aware of. I spent around five to ten hours on this so far. This approach sounds terribly inefficient.
However, working through a beginner's book as an intermediate Python programmer, and only getting half a dozen of really new information out of it, gives me the confidence I need at this stage. So I don't consider it as a waste, but rather as an exercise in patience and repetition.
Why am I telling you all this? Because I think people overrate the monetary costs of books.