a python book hint

[Cameron Laird]

In article <OkPsb.16752$9_.600184 at news1.tin.it>,
Alex Martelli  <aleax at aleax.it> wrote:
			.
		[typically apt
		and useful com-
		ments]
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>Fortunately is IS quite easy to check: e.g. you can visit
>safari.oreily.com, subscribe, and read Python in a Nutshell (and/or
>many, MANY other books) online for 2 weeks; be sure to cancel the
>subscription within 14 days, though, unless you appreciate the
>Safari site enough to pay for it -- only the first 2 weeks are
>free!  Still, 2 weeks should be plenty for you to determine if
>the Nutshell (or any other book you're considering) is in fact
>going to be helpful to you personally -- browsing in a store has
>the advantage of letting you check the physical layout &c, but
>most stores would complain if you kept browsing for 2 weeks!-)
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>Again, thanks.  The Cookbook is on Safari, too, by the way -- so
>you don't need to purchase it "blindly" based on favourable reviews,
>either; you can check it out for yourself.
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I'll summarize, in my words:  we have a standardized response to
anything like, "what's a good Python book?":
0.  read the tutorial;
1.  the more we know about your situation, the more
    precisely we can answer;
2.  you might not need a book the way other languages
    would have led you to expect;
3.  some of the good books are on-line;
4.  Alex's books, David's book, the other David's
    book, Fredrik's, and Alan's, and
    a.  if you have questions, you can read
	reviews of these
    b.  if you still have questions, you can
	read Safari for the ORA offerings
    c.  [see below]

I appreciate Alex' patient explanations of the opportunities Safari
brings.  Amazon recently added a new feature that gives yet another
approach.

I can't now do Amazon's text-search capabilities justice; they are
making for a sea change of the scale of Google or VoIP or other
"epochal" innovations.  Briefly, if there's a book that interests
you, and Amazon has it, it's likely you can bring up any of its
pages on-line.  You can sample it freely.
-- 

Cameron Laird <claird at phaseit.net>
Business:  http://www.Phaseit.net