Graphics and Compute: Primer Volume 1 (Hardback)

The clearest explanation of programming I have come across.

There is a particular kind of technical book that is dense without being difficult, and this is one of them. I appreciated the honesty about what the book does not cover — it saved me from expecting things that were not there. It is denser than the page count suggests, and I found myself slowing down around the middle. If you have the prerequisites, this is an easy recommendation. I will be keeping it on my desk rather than the shelf.

I got a lot out of this, even if a few sections felt rushed.

I read this over a couple of weekends alongside a small side project, which turned out to be the ideal way to approach it. Some of the diagrams are dense and I had to reread a few sections, though that may just be me. A few of the examples could be more realistic, but the underlying points come across clearly. The balance between theory and practice is well judged; neither side dominates. Solid, and I would buy another book from this author without hesitation.

A few useful pages, but mostly material I had seen better elsewhere.

I was looking for something that would bridge the gap between tutorials and proper reference material, and this does that well. The exercises at the end of each chapter are worth doing — they caught a few misconceptions I did not know I had. The writing is direct and does not waste space on filler, which I value in a technical book. The index and cross-references are surprisingly good, which matters for a book I will come back to. I would look elsewhere unless you have a specific reason to need this particular title.