Book Reviews

My students are always asking about book recommendations. I'm a bit hesitant to make recommendations as often a good book for one person is useless to another, and I'm a tough book customer and way too critical. Technology books are expensive and have a short life and I only buy those that have something special.

Here's what I look for in a book:

• Something that I can't find on the web. This usually means the book must be a complete, detailed and an ongoing reference. In contrast the web is full of tiny fragments on information (blogs, etc) and mind grinding endless documentation (MSDN for example).
• Full of stuff I can use today, and tomorrow.
• Examples that are complete and work.
• Not fluff, marking material or a meandering conversation.

Two excellent examples are:

• "Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007 Administrator's Companion" by Bill English
• Any of the "Inside SQL Server" books by Kalen Delaney such as "Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2000"

So here we go...Book review #1: Professional SharePoint 2007 Development (Programmer to Programmer)
more to come...

I have just not had time to write the book reviews I wanted to. So for now, here's a list of books that I have purchased and read, and highly recommend...


InfoPath Books:

For InfoPath books see here: http://techtrainingnotes.blogspot.com/2007/11/infopath.html

SharePoint Developer Books:

The best book for those getting started is "Inside Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0". The core framework for both WSS and MOSS is the same, so this book is the starting point.  I have not seen it yet (it's not out at the time of this note), but there's a 2010 version in the works...



SharePoint Administrator Books:
It's been around for a while, but if you are looking for the best complete book on MOSS then consider:


SharePoint Excel Services Books:
It may sound "Basic" but the best book I have seen on Excel Services is "Beginning Excel Services".