I put together some helpful book reviews for the suggested reading list from the WEEK 1 videos. I hope this helps you choose the right one / ones !
1. The Busy Coder's Guide to Android Development
Click Here
Click to Buy
Positives:
This book covers all of the basics and gets you started on your own
app development quickly. It has a very straightforward, clear, and informal writing style with
good illustrations of examples. There are a few associated books (see the Busy
Coder’s Guide to Advanced Android Development - below) so you can step through the
series as needed. The author is active online in various blogs and
does a pretty good job at answering email if you have a specific question.
Negatives:
It’s a good source for using the Andriod SDK but is a bit
out of date (references SDK 1.0) It is not specifically focused on JAVA
programming – and is not specific to the Android Studio interface. It’s not as
searchable for specific topics as other books if using it as a quick reference.
Associated Books:
Click Here
Click to Buy
2. The JAVA Programming Language - 4th Edition
Click Here
Click to Buy
Positives:
Academic, text-book style writing very specific to help program
in JAVA. Very comprehensive covering all aspects of the programming language
and its parts. Makes for a great catch-all reference book to look up topics as
needed.
Negatives:
This is written for more experienced JAVA users to use as a
reference rather than to teach beginners. There are not a huge number of
examples so you would be expected to be able to put different parts of the
information taught together to create something that works. It is also not
specific on programming for Android App development.
3. Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software
Click Here
Click to Buy
Positives:
A very well-known book for programmers, this book will teach
you how to “think” about programming in object-oriented languages. Identifying patterns in code (where you are
essentially doing the same operation over and over again) is extremely
important for properly structuring your program to run smoothly and
quickly. The great thing about patterns
is they tend to fall into different types and this book explores how to
identify and simplify your code in a way that follow its operation’s natural
patterns.
Negatives:
Primarily going to be helpful if you are trying to do a
large task with a little bit of code (Which is exactly what we want to do when
programming for our limited Android Apps!) If you are a beginner to programming it may not be obvious immediately where and how you would use this information.
4. Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software
Click Here
Click to Buy
Positives:
Part of a five-book series it’s often compared
to another programming staple “Gang of Four’s” Design Patterns: Elements of
Reusable Object-Oriented Software (see # 3). This book is great for exploring the
deeper thought that goes into what the “best” ways of coding are and why, and for
the expert to raise their level of understanding of the complex trade-offs and
choices that come up when programming in Object-Oriented languages.
Negatives:
This book often references items and ideas from the “Gang of
Four’s” book so it works best as a companion. Probably best suited for the
mid-level to high level programmers out there who are tackling larger projects
and need to start to understand different ways to organize larger amounts of
code cleanly. It’s not going to
specifically address JAVA or Android development/Android Studio but learning
how to think about software architecture IS very important if you have an
ambitious project in mind.
