I'd like to add a 4th one: Those arbitrary and excessively long introductory chapters that teach you the history of the language. Granted, that might have som

I'd like to add a 4th one: Those arbitrary and excessively long introductory chapters that teach you the history of the language. Granted, that might have some merit in a classroom setting where an instructor is going to ask you a pointless question about who designed the first interpreter, but this is the sort of thing that should be kept to a minimum, or kept out. Zed Shaw's "Learn to code the hard way" are brilliant for this. They get right to it, nothing you don't need to learn and get your hands dirty.