I went through LPTHW without losing motivation, wanting to quit, or being too confused to go on. I'd say this is what really sets it apart from other programming books. Also, very functional. You know what you're doing every step of the way and he tries to speak to you like a person while helping you graspt the material. There were only a few instances doing the extra credit where I really felt stuck. His books force you to write a lot of code. After 1/2 way, I'd genuinely be excited to go to the next chapter. In terms of simulating your own personal CS tutor, LPTHW was awesome.