What makes a good C# book?

[PhilipDaniels]

I'm looking to write a C# book fairly soon, and the publisher I've
approached wants me to do a bit of market research to find out what
people like and don't like in this kind of book.

I've read loads of reviews of best-selling books on Amazon, so I've got
some ideas from there, but I'd be very interested in hearing what you
all think makes a good C# book.

Free gold bar/crate of beer/lap dance/trip to Bermuda with every book.

If you can't manage that, a copy in electronic form (searchable PDF)
is vital, because I can carry that with me on my USB drive wherever I
go.

Interesting and diverse examples/exercises. Please don't do a "lets
create a SalesOrder/OrderLines class" or I will be forced to go
postal!

 

[John B]

I'm looking to write a C# book fairly soon, and the publisher I've
approached wants me to do a bit of market research to find out what
people like and don't like in this kind of book.

I've read loads of reviews of best-selling books on Amazon, so I've got
some ideas from there, but I'd be very interested in hearing what you
all think makes a good C# book.

I'm interested primarily in stylistic things - how light-hearted, what
kind of code samples and how many, etc. Content suggestions are also
welcome, although I've a pretty good idea of what I want to do on that
front.

Anyway, all suggestions very welcome - either here or by mail. Thanks!

Real world examples (or lack thereof) is what annoys me about most books.
It's all well and good to explain how to do something but if there is no
explanation of where it would be useful or an explanation that I
cannot relate to it makes it a lot harder to take in.
An "story" such as, "I was facing this problem and this is how I solved
it" I find suits me well.
Light hearted with lots of amusing stories is always good in this sort
of reading.
Without knowing the planned content I cannot guess how many examples but
I like to see runnable example programs encompassing the printed code
available on the web or CD.

I'll look forward to seeing it

JB

 

[RobinS]

I read Tim Patrick's Start-to-Finish VB2005 book, and it was very humorous,
and kept me reading. But that's a really difficult way to write, I think.

My biggest gripe with books is they tell you HOW, but they don't tell you
WHY. They show HOW to use reflection, but don't tell you in what cases you
might want to. They explain how to create a bunch of DLL's and use them in
a project, but not WHY. They show how to use delegates, but not why you'd
want to. Drives me nuts.

But then, people post questions here about something they're trying to do,
and I don't understand why they're trying to do that. So maybe it's me.

I would buy a book by you in a heartbeat. If you need a (free) tech
reviewer, or just someone to read it through, let me know. It wouldn't be
my first...

Robin S.