I absolutely agree. Every time someone around me wants to start programming, I introduce them to Zed Shaw's books, and none of my friends disliked the experienc

I absolutely agree. Every time someone around me wants to start programming, I introduce them to Zed Shaw's books, and none of my friends disliked the experience. His pedagogy is lightyears ahead of most technical books writers. On the other hand, it's good that some books do actually target people with a programming background, but this is not really a problem anymore, since those people know where to find good books. Stackoverflow threads about books are here for that.