Rating:  - It is a good book but it is somehow confusing!!!
I have read this book twice except for the last two chapters, and I skip chapter 13.
It is relatively easy to understand the concepts and the organization is relatively good. However, it would be better if the author could have summed up the main keys in each chapter in a conclusion or summary. I have to take notes here and there in the book to remember the key points. There were also a couple of errors in the book.
I think it is a good book for a beginner with some basic background in C/C++.
Rating:  - Don't waste your time with this book
This book claims "noted author Jesse Liberty gives experienced professionals the information they need to become productive quickly."
IT MOST DEFINITELY DOES NOT DO THAT.
This book might be great for relative rookies, but it is WAY too verbose for getting an "experienced professional" (which basically has to mean an experienced Windows C/C++ programmer) quickly up to speed on C#. The book covers a number of topics, all superficially, with no depth, and little insight.
Any experienced professional needing to get up to speed with .NET and C# is far better off with a quicker introduction to the specific concepts of C#, then using other books with more in-depth coverage of the various major areas of .NET.
It is often said "there are those who do, and those who write about it". Mr. Liberty is clearly one of those who just writes about it, and there doesn't seem to be a concept in .NET that is too trivial for him to take an extra couple pages talking about it in lieu of providing useful content. The code examples in the book are superficial and offer no professional level insight. The myriad cutesy and ridiculous asides such as discussions of trivial elements of coding style in a book obviously written by a programming lightweight have absolutely no place in a book for experienced professionals. The way Mr. Liberty continuously proselytizes for .NET, often pointing out shortcomings in C# syntax as features that save we programmers from ourselves is just plain bizarre.
As I said, this book may be OK for neophyte programmers who haven't had years' experience doing serious work in Windows programming, and aren't likely to do so, but it's a total waste of time for experienced professional programmers. As this book artfully avoids mention of any of the nastier issues in developing in .NET, and offers only very vanilla insight into C#, I doubt it is of any value to anyone unless they really badly want to write a "hello world" type .NET program, and don't intend going any further.
There's a reason why this book sells near new for $5. I'm not going to bother taking up valuable shelf space with the copy I bought.
Rating:  - Good for beginner/intermediate
Excellent book for beginner to intermediate C# developer. Beginners will suffer from the lack of meaningful examples. Clear explanations and concise language. Good coverage of basic libraries, however somewhat short, as to be expected, on ASP.NET and Web Services. Definite recommend.
Rating: - A great book to begin C#
This book was one of the best books I have read thus far. I was absolutely impressed with the delivery of Jesse Liberty.
The book opens with a preface that made me really appreciate the mindset of Liberty. He completely skips through the mumbo-jumbo and simply says: if you want to know what is new, put this book down and go get this other one about blah, blah, blah. Then he gives you all of these different categories of reader and if you fit, then this book is for you. That really made me appreciate that he knew he was dealing with a beginner in C# but still a real programmer. None of that intimidation stuff here.
The book is divided into various sections namely the language, programming and the .NET Framework.
There are a lot of do's and don'ts throughout the book even with a brief explanation of why not. There are even tips, but not just any tips. The tips in this book are for the reader and developers of other languages C ++, Java and the like that already understand the topic at hand, but probably know the terms, philosophy or other things relating to that language differently, so he shows how they relate to those other languages.
CODE SAMPLES
It is very helpful that the code samples are available for download to use along with the book. It saves a lot of typing and allow for editing. There are many instances where Liberty gives instructions to cause the code to fail. Then when it does he explains why it failed. That takes us to the warnings that are throughout the book. He even explains the capabilities that C# has and why it would be better to use these instead of the older style of programming that others may be used to.
EXAMPLES
There is also a good dosage of scenarios are used as well. A complex matter is always easier to understand with a good scenario. The tutorial aspect is really good since nothing is assumed about the reader's level of knowledge with C#. Everything is explained, nothing is left out and the really fancy terms are explained before he begins to regularly use them.
OTHER TECHNOLOGY
While the book is about C# you don't get tunnel vision. This book touches on other .NET technologies C# plays along with similar web services, SQL, ADO.NET., ASP.NET to name a few. By the end of this book you will see how C# is a big part of a much, much bigger .NET Framework.
I recommend this book for anyone that wants to know, but are afraid to ask. Read this book.
Rating: - This is not THE book for experienced or inexperienced
This book goes too much detail into intricacies of language syntax while the examples are too basic and confusing. Some times the important syntactical explanations are too vague and confusing while the infrequently used items are explained in too much detail. I have found that Wrox books are doing a much better job with explaining the concepts and their examples are more in depth and easier to understand. However, it does cover most of the .net concepts and some topics like Threads are covered in an extremely helpful manner. I find this book to be boring to read but will keep it as a reference, as overall, it is not a bad book.
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