I really like that this book was written but $30 dollars isn't actually cheap for a technical book, I'd much rather like to buy something like Land of Lisp, but I'm probably not the main audience and I don't know how well I fit into the target audience.
It is a short book for $30 dollars though, and I don't know if it is just Lulu's pricing that is causing this, but kudos for offering it for free.
Edit: well sorry that I called a short book short, it is short on content compared to the other beginning python books imo as it doesn't really get very far in depth (you will know basics but you won't really know how to program in python past the basics) so it isn't really teaching you the same thing in less time it is teaching you a subset of the same thing in less time.
I hate, Hate, HATE this logic. Your comment is what's wrong with the technical book industry right now. Publishers instruct authors to pad their books to increase the perceived value while at the same time pushing them to cover less so the publisher can sell a "Pro" follow up book.
If this book can teach you Python in half the pages that INCREASES its value as far as I'm concerned.
Agreed. I have a bookshelf full of 60+ dollar tech books full of obsolete stuff. 30 bucks is a reasonable price for a tech book and one I'll gladly pay. (Also, +1 on the C book)
that and "The Practice of Programming" are my two favourite programming books. They are succinct, yet easy to read, and contain minimal bullshit. Perfect.
I based the price on The Little Schemer, which is even smaller, has even less instruction, and goes for $29 retail, $23 street. If TLS were 8.5x11 like mine it'd be 30 pages long.
> I really like that this book was written but $30 dollars isn't actually cheap for a technical book
Is that a joke? $30 is quite literally nothing for a new technical book. Refactoring is still $45 new (hardcover but more than 10 years old now), Effective Java is about the same price, TAPL will set you back $60 and ATPL is $56 on Amazon, HTDP is $67, Koza's "Genetic Programming: On the Programming of Computers by Means of Natural Selection" released in 1992 is $67, SICP is $70, amazon asks for a hundred bucks for the purple dragon books, and then of course The Art of Computer Programming boxset will blow a $200 hole in your wallet.
$30? That's the price of a small and widely-distributed paperback like Friedl's Mastering Regular Expressions. It's basically the lower bound, even The Art of the Metaobject Protocol (345p, published in 1991) is $40.
Here's what's under $30: "For Dummies" books. Even the Head First collection bottoms out around $30.
It is a short book for $30 dollars though, and I don't know if it is just Lulu's pricing that is causing this, but kudos for offering it for free.
Edit: well sorry that I called a short book short, it is short on content compared to the other beginning python books imo as it doesn't really get very far in depth (you will know basics but you won't really know how to program in python past the basics) so it isn't really teaching you the same thing in less time it is teaching you a subset of the same thing in less time.