Book Review: Seven Languages in Seven Weeks

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I was hugely excited about reading this book. Some part of me thought there was some magic secret to learning programming languages that I was missing out on, and that once I had read this book I would be able to pick up a new language and start programming in it instantly.

I was wrong.

I did, however, still really really enjoy this well written, well structured and very accessible book.

It will not teach you how to pick up a language and become a master in it in a week. You still need a lot of practice before you become proficient in your new chosen language. It will give you some great advice on which parts to pay attention to for example; typing models, inheritance methods and other major language features. 

The book gives you a very nice introduction to all of the languages and teaches you just enough to get you started in, and excited about each of them.  It also gives you a nice metaphor for the language in the form of a character, (Ferris Bueler, Agent Smith) which makes it fun and also a little more accessible. It comes complete with exercises at the end of each "Day" (Chapter) which lets you get your hands dirty and as part of the exercises tend to be look up documentation, or feature x,y,z of the language, you'll also be taught how to figure things out for yourself and where to look to take the next step in your learning.

By no means is this a comprehensive guide to each of the languages inside, but this is made very clear before beginning but it is a great run through of some very cool languages, and will help you decide on one before you pick one up and run with it.

Loved:
Really well written, witty and funny.
Excellent format, broken down in to manageable chunks.
Coverage of the languages is a great balance between depth and breadth, showing off the cool features rather than standard if/else installation details.

Hated:
Nothing! Go buy it!