Rating: 
Summary: Lacks practical application of concepts
Review: Jesse Liberty clearly understands the concepts of object oriented programming and C#, but fails to apply the information effectively. The begining chapters may be a bit too advanced for someone who has not worked with object oriented programming (although the book says it will be ok, it wont). The chapters on OOP move quickly and unless you can grasp new concepts quickly, youre better off buying his other book, Learning C#. However be warned, Learning C# is a repeat of the first few chapters of Programming C#, but just longer. As you read Programming C#, you will wait for some tutorial based real world examples, but you will never encounter them. Overall this book gets a 3 because it will teach you the fundamentals of OOP, but you'll find it hard to apply it to writing a real program. I picked up the Wrox books after this and I'm very satisfied now.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the best language tutorials I've read
Review: The key purpose of a tutorial is to teach you the language, and in this case to then show you how to use the language to build applications. The topic of .NET is very large, but Liberty provides an excellent explanation of every significant aspect of C# specifically, and then he applies it to creating applications and using the .NET Framework.This book is divided into four parts (three in the book and then one on his web site). Part I is a solid, comprehensive, well written tutorial in the language. He covers it all, but he does so in a way that is clear and understandable. Advanced concepts like delegates are explained carefully and illustrated with meaningful examples. Part II is a brief introduciton to programming with C#. He covers ASP.NET (which he covers in more detail in his ASP book), Windows Forms (is there a book on this coming?) ADO.NET and Web Services. The latter two are introduced here but expanded on in his ASP.NET book. Part III goes beyond the language to show how C# is used with the .NET Framework, and this part alone is worth the cost of the book. C++ and Java programmers will find part I easy going, C and VB programmers will work harder. Part II is just an overview, and part III is simply terrific. The final part is the extensive support Liberty provides on his web site. Not only does he offer a FAQ and errata, but he has a link to a discussion group where he answers questions about the book! Finally, the writing is excellent, the examples terrific and the overall quality of this book superb. O'Reilly continues to produce excellent books and this is no exception. I highly recommend this book, unless you have no prior programming experience at all, in which case you might prefer to start with his other book, Learning C#.
Rating: 
Summary: Poor language coverage
Review: This book is really only a cursory guide to C#. It doesn't cover any advanced C# programming at all. But the book doens't cover basic language fundamentals very well. My rating may be harsh, but if the book doesn't cover the simple stuff well, but also isn't advanced enough for real programmers, what use is this book?
Rating:
Summary: First rate writing, excellent coverage
Review: This book is quickly becoming a classic. First rate writing is combined with depth of coverage and well designed and executed example code. Liberty not only writes well, and with a natural abiltity to explain difficult topics, he goes beyond by showing examples that illustrate exactly what he is trying to teach. The coverage of C# is excellent. The second part of the book is a quick intro. to programming in .NET and this is weaker, but of course the idea here is just to provide an introduction. The third part is an in depth exploration of advanced topics, and this is excellent. Finally, his book is fully supported on his web site, where you can get the source code and also post questions in his private discussion area. I must add that some of the negative reviews I've read about this book seem to be talking about another book, or were written by people with an interest in hurting this one. Maybe I'm missing something, but this book is so good, I've passed copies along to co-workers and friends and they've come back and thanked me and bought Liberty's other book, on ASP.Net. Excellent. Highly recommended and very useful.
Rating:
Summary: World Class Introduction
Review: This is a fantastic introduction to this important new language. The coverage of C# is excellent, the examples are clear and easy to use. The author goes further and provides a quick introduction to developing both windows and web applications, and then, in part 3, explains the more advanced aspects of programming C#. I'm surprised by one review here which says that that the author is wrong when he says
int myArray = new int[5]; creates an array of 5 integers. The reviewer points to this as an error, but it is correct. The reviewer is confused by 0 offset, but Liberty gets it right, and he explains well why this array will be indexed 0-4. More important, Liberty writes well and he fully supports his books, offering the complete source code along with a FAQ, errata and, most impressive, his own private support forum. This is by far the best book I've read on C#.
Rating:
Summary: Poorest O'Reilly book yet
Review: I wouldn't buy this book. It doesn't cover C# in nearly enough depth. Coverage of ASP.NET and ADO.NET is almost non-existent, and even the core C# language isn't fully coved: there's no coverage of date and time handling, and other critical language fundamentals are missing. The Sybex book "Mastering Visual C# .NET Programming" is much better.
Rating:
Summary: A Fine Book Badly Edited
Review: This is a very good introduction to C# but it's full of nasty little errors that the editors didn't catch. If you're new to the C family of languages the errors can be confusing. For instance, on page 162 Mr. Liberty writes: "myIntArray = new int[5]" and then states: "This declaration sets aside memory for an array holding five integers." The array really holds six integers. On page 223 Mr. Liberty states that "In Unicode (as in ASCII), a lowercase letter has a smaller value than an uppercase letter." Actually, in ASCII, "A" is decimal 65, and "a" is decimal 97. There are other problems like these, so, if something doesn't work quite right, don't take Mr. Liberty's text as gospel. Try some alternatives. It's surprising to see an O'Reilly book with errors like these.
Rating:
Summary: Errors, Errors, Errors, and More Errors
Review: I honestly believe Jesse Liberty should stop writing books. He does not seem to have the ability to form a coherent thought, much less the ability to convey said thought. He often rambles on about the importance of this or that, then complete neglects to actually discuss the topic. He constantly contradicts himself by espousing certain coding practices and then completely ignoring those same practices. Speaking of coding practices, don't you dare use his code to learn good programming practice. He has no concept of how to indent, apparently indenting at random, and he often forgets brackets; combine that with the random indents and you have completely unreadable code. And to top it off, he defines his variables at the END of his classes instead of the BEGINNING, unlike everyone else in the entire world.
Rating:
Summary: Best programming book I've read in a while
Review: This is an outstanding introduction to the language and some (but not necessarily all) implementation scenarios (windows forms, web forms, etc). Great review of fundamentals, too, which we all must pay attention to. Some reviewers complain that this isn't 'in-depth' enough. Well, C# is a new language for a new platform. Should one expect a writer to understand and examine the nuances, tips/tricks, etc. that typically characterize an 'in-depth' analysis? Not in my opinion. Instead, Jesse Liberty tells you what you need to know to be productive right away, in a clear, lucid style.
Rating:
Summary: Rapidly becoming the standard for C#
Review: This book is becoming the classic -- the K&R of C#, and for good reason. The book is incredbily well written, covers all the fundamentals, and then goes on to teach you how to write in C# for building real-world .NET applications. Other reviews have pointed out that the author provides extensive support through his web site, I will only say that the level of support is unmatched. In addition, the third section provides an excellent introduction to some of the more advanced and interesting aspects of .NeT programming. If you are a C++ or Java programmer, this is clearly the book for you. If you have no previous OO experience, however, begin with Liberty's other book, Learning C#. I was very impressed with this book, and recommend it highly.
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