Re: Do USA bookstores look like this nowadays?

On Tue, 23 Jun 2026 16:20:57 -0400, jayjwa wrote:

> Today there's just a small spot. I'd imagine most people are getting
> their computer science information online rather than buy expensive
> books.

When we started the Angular project I bought 'ng-book The Complete Book on 
Angular 6' 6 was May 2018. By the time I became involved a year the 
project had moved to Angular 8. One of the programmers gave me the ebook 
version. It's up to 22 now, with even more changes. My calculus text from 
60 years ago, if I still had it, would still be pertinent. A software book 
from last year, not so much.


> My Java book is around $50+,

I bought 'Java in a Nutshell' in the 2nd edition. It was a fairly slim 
book to match the slim, lithe Java of '97. Like the high school hottie 
that turned into a 350 pound harridan I lost interest about the time Swing 
reared its head.

 
> The "for dummies" series was pretty popular for awhile. Last time I
> checked the physical store, there were only a couple books about games
> in Python, something non-trivial to do with C, and maybe a few about
> specific applications in the Microsoft orbit.

I've got 'Flute for Dummies' and it's pretty good. I can play an Irish 
flute/tin whistle but they only have 6 holes and do D and G. I bought a 
cheap Boehm flute and it has a lot more moving parts to figure out. An 
Irish flute has zero moving parts so that's a low bar.