Reddit mentions of C# 4.0 in a Nutshell: The Definitive Reference

> learning to program. Now as I want to make a living from it

> which pick gives more money? Programming vs web design

Wait, do you do want to make a living programming, or are you looking for what job in any field will give you the most money? Because web design is not programming.

To be a web designer you study color, composition, typography, user interaction, etc. To be a programmer, you study computers, languages, algorithms, data structures, etc. Totally different disciplines.

> Also, if programming is the pick, what is powerful language and not too damn hard to learn? [..] C#'s code looks simple, I like it.

I googled for "beginner programming book C#" and found this, which looks pretty well reviewed. Might be a good place to start.

What you don't want is just any old C# book. For instance, my favorite C# book by far is C# 4 in a Nutshell: The Definitive Reference. It's a fantastic book if you already know how to program, but next to worthless for you. You need a book that teaches programming.

Microsoft has some good resource here

Traditionally O'Reilly's "In a Nutshell" series have good books for newcomers. I have not read their C# book though.

I started getting interested in C# after PHP, and I absolutely love it now!

If you google for "C# tutorial" you'll find articles which take it form the very beginning. Only make sure they're recently written.

If you want books, you can check out C# 4.0 The Complete Reference and C# 4.0 in a Nutshell: The Definitive Reference. There is also a free language specification available from Microsoft: C# Language Specification 4.0.

Considering that you're a network engineer, you might want to use C# for solving network-related stuff. There's a book for that, C# Network Programming (although, it might be a little bit old.)

When you start developing in Visual Studio 2010, make sure you also install the ReSharper extenion, which can be very helpful even for a seasoned developer.

A free edition of Visual Studio is available under the name of Visual C# 2010 Express Edition. If you want Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate version, a 60-day trial is downloadable. Alternatively, you can get the free and open-source .NET IDE SharpDevelop.

I hope you'll love the language as much as I do. :)

Awesome exactly what I was looking for. I did order 3 books on Amazon yesterday.

Data Structures and Algorithms
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0201000237/ref=oh_details_o00_s01_i00

C# In Depth
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1935182471/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i01

C# In a Nutshell
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0596800959/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00

I did a little research and those came up as great books. I did get them used though, totaling 60 dollars free shipping with prime. Any good recommendations for a design patterns book?

This one for basic C# and OOP.

Beginning Visual C# 2010

O'Reilly has great reference books.

C# 4.0 in a Nutshell: The Definitive Reference

From there you can learn Mono for Android (and iOS)

Professional Android Programming with Mono for Android and .NET/C#

While learning XNA game development by example,

XNA 4.0 Game Development by Example: Beginner's Guide

And by detail...

Learning XNA 4.0: Game Development for the PC, Xbox 360, and Windows Phone 7

I really liked Introducing Visual C# 2010 and C# 4.0 in a Nutshell. If you have less than a week to prepare, I'd probably go with the latter. I'm reading Pro C# and the .NET 4 Platform now, but I don't think I'd recommend it. It covers some more advanced concepts that the others don't, but it's a bit long-winded and there aren't enough code examples.