I think this book is better for learning programming than SICP. Background on the differences is available from the paper the HtDP authors wrote about the diff

I think this book is better for learning programming than SICP. Background on the differences is available from the paper the HtDP authors wrote about the difference: http://www.ccs.neu.edu/racket/pubs/jfp2004-fffk.pdf http://www.ccs.neu.edu/racket/pubs/jfp2004-fffk.pdf