Rating:  - Microsoft MVP Reviews Programming ASP.NET
There is a lot of hype around the ability to write .NET oriented code in multiple languages. In reality, the need or desire for a developer to write in multiple languages in ASP.NET will be rare. Thus, negating the benefit of writing books that show tidbits of both languages when providing code examples. It clouds the overall tutorial with information that is often not relevant to what the reader is trying to digest. Learning how to implement one .NET language with ASP.NET is hard enough. Learning two is downright painful. That being said, there is quite a bit of good information contained in Programming ASP.NET even if you do have to weed out items you aren't interested in. Here are a few of my favorites:
Debugging: The authors do a solid job of teaching the reader how to utilize the IDE's tracing and debugging features. They walk you through the whole process step by step providing you with some great screen shots and IDE debug reference charts. This is not the best chapter I've ever seen on utilizing the IDE's debugging features but it is better than most books and certainly sufficient for most developers.
ADO.NET: Many ASP.NET books fall short with this crucial subject. Programming ASP.NET covers all the expected areas such as SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, and Stored Procedures. Plus it focuses specifically on the DataSet object and everything it can do from dynamically constructing data sets to utilizing stored procedures to update data with or without transactions. There is a ton of sample code for syntax training in these chapters.
Managing State: One of the more challenging aspects of normal ASP is managing state. In ASP.NET, you are able to manage state without Session variables. There is a nice section on this topic that covers View State and the State Bag. I'd suggest reviewing this in chapter 6 before writing your first full web site in ASP.NET.
Object Caching: This is probably one of the most beneficial chapters in the book. I got a lot out of learning how to cache pages and actual objects such as datasets. The code examples and explainations thereof were just what I needed. I fully expect this to play a key role in future .NET sites I'll be working on.
Security: Number #1 topic of the day these days. Programming ASP.NET dedicates a pleasantly surprising amount of coverage to this topic. You'll learn various levels of windows authentication and how to make the most of them in .NET. You'll also pick up a few tips on configuring IIS and the web.config file.
All in all, Programming ASP.NET was a good read aside from the lack of coverage on XML and the language combination comments I mentioned above. If you enjoy O'Reilly books and the style they are written in, you'll definitely enjoy this one.
However, if you are a beginner with ASP.NET, don't let the combination of C# and VB.NET code throw you off track. If you stay focused on the aspects of ASP.NET, this book can help you out a great deal.
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Rating:  - Not the best resource for ASP.NET
This was the first book on ASP.NET I purchased. I'm usually pleased with O'reilly books but this one misses the mark.
A better choice for beginners is Murach's ASP.NET by Anne Prince and Doug Lowe or if your interested in something thicker try Microsoft's Programming ASP.NET by Dino Esposito (an excellent resource).
Also a good resource for datagrids is ASP.NET Data Web Controls by Scott Mitchell.
Rating: - Weak for an O'Reilly Book
I'm a profressional web developer, and I have probably a dozen O'Reilly books on my desk. This is the first one that has disappointed me.
1. Including both C# and VB code in a single edition makes the book much fatter than it needs to be, and quite inaccessible. It would have been better to print two editions of the book.
2. Some examples are too lengthy. I tend to find smaller examples more useful than large ones, because they're easier to get running and then adapt to my own purposes. I appreciate that the authors are trying to demonstrate "real world" applications like a Bug Database and a Stock Ticker, but unless you are going to spend hours digging through the code, these sorts of examples are not practical. It would have been better to include more small examples to illustrate key points.
3. No reference section! :(
So, I'm still hunting for a really great ASP.NET book...
Rating:  - Absolute crappiest book I ever bought
Talk about padding the pages! Hey O'Reilly - we don't need to re-print the whole dang piece of code to show a snippet. And have you guys ever heard of drag and drop on the page? Nah - couldn't do that either - let's just reprint the source code instead. It's more impressive that way - a thicker book *must* be better, we can price accordingly *and* it fills the "library".
Utter nonsense.
Rating:  - Get this for ASP.NET with C#
I was looking for a book that thoroughly taught ASP.NET and took the C# language seriously and not as an afterthought. This book is absolutely perfect. It explains the intrinsics of ASP.NET and its theoretical underpinnings. It also has very good practical information with regard to many of the decisions you will have to make in terms of the tools and different approaches you face when programming in ASP.NET. What I liked most of all was that it has every example in C# which most ASP.NET authors seem to shy away from for some bizarre reason. If you want to learn ASP.NET thoroughly with C# syntax I can recommend no other and I have read quite a few.
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