Nope, that's a pretty good stack. Of course, you don't (A) read the books, and then (B) start programming. You read a chapter, try stuff out, read another chapt

Nope, that's a pretty good stack. Of course, you don't (A) read the books, and then (B) start programming. You read a chapter, try stuff out, read another chapter, read some code, try more stuff out, read a LOT more code . . . and about ten years later you're a very good C++ programmer. I'm not kidding. I've got several linear feet of C++ books on my bookshelf, have read most of those books, and I consider myself an average C++ programmer, not a language guru by any means.