Essential .NET, Volume I: The Common Language Runtime by Don Box with Chris Sells
Ok so I finished reading this one about 2 mins ago, so I thought I would give you a run down of what I thought of the book. Well as you might expect the book was very good. I definitely learned a lot from the book however I don't recommend this book to someone just starting out in .NET. Some of the material gets kind of heavy.
Reading the Preface really gives you true insight on the book so do yourself a favor and read it to determine whether this book is for you. Don Box tells you it's going to get heavy and it's not a beginners book. He also tells you a reread maybe necessary to get the most out of the book. I whole heartedly agree with Don Box's recommendation for a reread but there isn't enough time in the day for me to read all the stuff I need to so once around is going to be it for me.
I found Chapters 1-6,8 to be relatively easy to understand after having read Jeffrey Richter's Applied Microsoft .NET Framework Programming. There is definitely a lot to be gained from reading these chapters even if you thought you knew the CLR pretty well after getting through another book. Chapters 7,9-10 however are very heavy in my opinion. These chapters cover remoting/security/interop among other things. I think my lack of COM experience may have something to do with it but I feel the need to pick up books on each of these topics to fill the void. I think they just might have been over my head.
People bust on Microsoft for having bugs in their code but after reading this book I have a new found respect for Microsoft programmers. Don Box does an excellent job exposing a lot of the details that Microsoft took care not to overlook. The flexibility and power of the CLR is simply amazing.
All and all I would recommend reading this book but the way I feel thus far in my .NET programming career is this book may not an essential read for everyday programmers. I feel that Applied Microsoft .NET Framework Programming is however and essential read and that if you are going to read only one book on the CLR that would be it. If you are going to read two or more definitely pick up the Don Box book, especially if you are going to do some hardcore programming.
Each time I read a new book I feel the need to pick up another because I realize how truly complex and monsterous .NET really is. That being said, on to Fritz Onion's Essential ASP.NET....
PS I apologize if the "review" is incomplete or has gramatical errors... it's bed time. Feel free to drop me a line if you want to ask me more specific questions about the book in general or anything else for that matter.