There was a giant thread on reddit about introductory texts for pretty much any field of computer science... Here's what I found: http://www.reddit.com/r/books

There was a giant thread on reddit about introductory texts for pretty much any field of computer science... Here's what I found: http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/ch0wt/a_reading_list_for_the_selftaught_computer/ http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/ch0wt/a_reading_list_... Not the link I had in mind, but not a bad starting point. Ah, here we go: http://www.reddit.com/r/compsci/comments/gprp0/is_there_a_list_of_the_canonical_introductory/c1pcqe5?context=3 http://www.reddit.com/r/compsci/comments/gprp0/is_there_a_li... So, pick one that interests you, and start reading. The trick: The very moment you don't understand a concept it's referring to, explore that concept. (Wikipedia is your friend). You want to lay a foundation, so never just gloss over things. Make sure you understand. Trick #2: Take any knowledge you gained, and write code. You learned how a hash table works? Go write one, see what happens. Step through it with a debugger. Trick #3: Once you think you understand it, try explaining it. To really whoever you think is listening. It might be a mentor, it might be your blog, or it might be a plush animal. (Me? I've got Rico from Madagascar sitting on my desk. He's an awesome debugging buddy. ;) That should at least get you started.