I have not read any of the other advice yet, but I think that's too ambitious for somebody who has just completed two fundamental, but introductory courses. I t

I have not read any of the other advice yet, but I think that's too ambitious for somebody who has just completed two fundamental, but introductory courses. I totally agree upon building stuff for teaching the ropes--but this is probably a bit too early in for doing something meaningful (the raytracer example is probably too tough, since it requires at least some amount of linear algebra, analysis, etc. which probably lacks, too.) So good advice in principle, but probably too early IMHO. I have recently completed SICP (after having 15y of experience and knowing multiple PLs) and it is still one of the best introductory textbooks I can think of, if only for the breadth they cover using their examples. In addition to learning functional programming concepts, how an interpreter works and last but not least building a compiler is more than anybody can expect to learn in 10 months time, too. PS: One does not need to be a beginner to appreciate SICP. Actually, having a lot of programming experience enables you to work through SICP in a breeze... EDIT: After reading through the comments, probably it would be a good idea to skim through "Simply Scheme" by Brian Harvey and Matthew Wright. Many people think its the "predecessor" of SICP and probably would be a good complement for you: http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~bh/ss-toc2.html http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~bh/ss-toc2.html If you are choosing SICP, be sure to check the video lectures from MIT!