Some books I choose, some books I see mentioned (like here on hn). To find books on a fresh topic, I google site:stackoverflow.com books TOPIC to find an alrea

Some books I choose, some books I see mentioned (like here on hn). To find books on a fresh topic, I google site:stackoverflow.com books TOPIC to find an already-curated list or two (ex: [1]). I find a few of those books on amazon, inspect the reviews. Positive reviews often all sound the same, so negative reviews are usually more worthwhile. I try to ignore the reviews (and the books) from people who've never read another book in the genre. If the book is on Safari, I skim the ToC and jump right to the middle to see what they're building, how they're building it. I may even look for a pdf to skim (but not read, I don't like to keep/read e-books, I only buy paper). If the book is on Amazon for $0.01 (+ $3.99 shipping), I just buy it. If I still want the book, I check CamelCamelCamel for the 'proper' price to buy it at, and I set an alert. For example, I recently waited for Koza's Genetic Programming to hit $15, then I purchased. [1] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1017017/what-is-the-best-way-to-learn-erlang http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1017017/what-is-the-best-...