That's a good point, but as I was looking over some of the chapters of the highest-rated books, they seemed to be teaching mostly high-level, abstract concepts

That's a good point, but as I was looking over some of the chapters of the highest-rated books, they seemed to be teaching mostly high-level, abstract concepts and ideas without discussing specific technologies or tools. I don't want to come off as naive for dismissing books like these, but a significant part of my CS education in college has used some of these textbooks and I wanted to learn more about specific technologies and services. I feel most inadequate reading about how start-ups are using actual new technologies like AWS or Couchbase. It seems as if tech talks often provide a good overview of the applications and constraints of new technologies. So given the fact that I do not really have any idea what specific projects I will be working on in the future, I feel that having at least a general overview of what tools are available will prove to be useful.