Rating:  - Good book...
This book is extremely good for beginners. If you have already worked on ASP, you might find this a bit boring at some places. Something thats missing in the book is the explanation of how exactly the ASP.NET works with respect to CLR or the overall .NET framework. But there are some topics like data access using ADO.NET, ADO Data Updates, Data Binding are the best and very easy to understand with out much effort.
Rating:  - Well.....
I am not going to say this is the worst book I have ever read, because it was useful considering that I didn't know anything about .NET before starting on this book. However, there was just way too much space spent on the calendar control, and on setting up the database. More time and pages should have been spent on actually connnecting and using the data! Yes, stored procedures are essential to writing real apps..but I bought this book to learn ASP.NET...not how to write complex sql stored procedures. And if you are going to spend so much time writing the procedures, then at least build an app worth having them! Overall, this book wasn't bad, but it is very frustrating as a reference. It DOES cover the controls very well, but if you want a real world application example, you will be left in the dark. I am now reading Programming C# by the same author, and it is a great book for learning the language...which is what led me to believe this book was going to be good. This book is worth having on your shelf for the control coverage. (Especially the calendar!) For COMPLETE coverage of how to use ASP.Net, buy something else.
Rating:  - Excellent start to ASP.NET
I can't add much to what others have already written in terms of content. What I will say, though, is that Jesse and Dan have done another outstanding job with this book.
There is quit a bit of overlap with Jesse's Programming C#, but the good thing is that you get to see how it works with ASP.NET.
The one thing that I didn't like about this book is the fact that there is both C# and VB code quoted everywhere in the text. I found it a little distracting initially. As I got used to the idea, though, I ignored the VB and found that it was no longer as much of an issue.
I asked Dan about this and he pointed out that it is tough to get seperate C# and VB versions of this kind of book published and that this was the compromise that was reached. I'll deal with it. The content is worth its weight in gold anyway.
I have also had the opportunity of attending two successive user group meeting where Jesse presented the material in a six hour crash course. It was extremely fast-paced, but I'd worked through the book previously so that having it presented was more of a refresher than anything else.
The insight that Jesse and Dan have on the industry as a whole is clearly from years of experience and I can only say that these are two authors who should be mandatory reading on virtually any subject they choose to write on.
Definitely a "must-buy".
Rating: - Programming ASP.NET (O'Reilly Windows)
This book is very helpful for beginners. There are lot of examples in both VB and C# and builds good understanding about ASP.NET , so I would rank as four stars.
Rating: - Best of the best - The right place to learn ASP.NET
If you are an ASP programmer, or have never programmed the web before, this is absolutely the very best book to learn ASP.NET. The authors start at the very beginning and provide page after page of useful information. Every concept, control, approach and idea is illustrated with an example in both C# and VB.NET (which is great) and the authors provide the complete source code (and an errata) on their web site.
There are few books that make ASP.NET this clear, and there are few that cover as wide a range of topics. I just hope they write a book on Windows Forms soon.
I was really impressed by this book and I recommend it highly. The book is large, but you can pick and choose the topics that are of interest, and the writing is so good you move through the material very quickly.
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