Allen Downey (the author of Think Python) was one of my CS professors at Olin College, and he always had a great and simple way to get his ideas across. Also ch

Allen Downey (the author of Think Python) was one of my CS professors at Olin College, and he always had a great and simple way to get his ideas across. Also check out his book on Synchronization for a fun look at the world of mutexes, etc. There's a great story in how he ended up writing the Python book. He had already written "How to Think Like a Computer Scientist" but completely in Java. At some point someone interested in Python decided to rewrite his book (which is released under the GNU Free Documentation License) and use Python instead. Downey actually re-read this version of the book in order to learn Python, and now teaches a popular Python course. Can you imagine reading your own words to learn something you don't already know? That's pretty amazing stuff!