Reddit mentions of Pro ASP.NET MVC 4

initially i would avoid learning webforms, have a go at asp.net mvc, this book is how i learnt, its a gentle introduction but you will need to do more to get a deeper understanding, particularly if you need to learn how to interact with a database.

http://www.amazon.com/Pro-ASP-NET-MVC-Adam-Freeman/dp/1430242361/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377855287&sr=8-1&keywords=asp.net+mvc

edit: seems this edition is no good anymore, the edition where they build the sports store application for learning mvc2 was really good but its out dated now.

These are the top 3 I'd say:

• Professional ASP.NET MVC 3 Framework (Wrox-August 2011)
  > Jon Galloway, Phil Haack, Brad Wilson, K. Scott Allen
  
  
• Pro ASP.NET MVC 3 Framework (Apress-June 2011) - [Pre-order v4]
  > Steven Sanderson, Adam Freeman
  
  
• ASP.NET MVC 4 In Action (Manning-June 2012)
  > Jeffrey Palermo, Jimmy Bogard, Eric Hexter, Matthew Hinze, Jeremy Skinner
  
  Don't get hung up over V3/V4; there's not a lot new in 4.
  
  Also don't worry about being "up to date", most of your time will be spent trying to figure out the best way to do something; the "how" to do something part is usually very straight-forward, there are just many options.

1. Yes, it is. Make sure you understand MVC which is quite similar. Model - View - Controller. MVC is essentially the future of ASP.Net application development. If you wish, you can delve into WebForms but it's effectively a dying technology (and good riddance)
   
   
2. I'd look at the following, they are pretty heravy so do take breaks, here and here. There are TONS of blog posts about ASP.Net security best practices, salting passwords, encryption etc.
   
   
3. The majority of .Net job offerings use ASP.Net in some capacity. The definitions of certain components will confuse you (Web API, MVC, WebForms, SignalR, I could go on...). It's WELL worth understanding this stack as you know, "The Internet is the future". I would recommend Steve Sanderson's book on MVC, it's not heavy and it actually goes through an application start to finish.
   
   
4. Most certainly, to be a modern developer and open to many career opportunities you will need to know JavaScript pretty well. Code School is fun and easy to use. It will teach you some quirks of JavaScript that you'll need to know. Always be aware that JQuery is not JavaScript. JQuery is an often used library.
   
   
5. Github is the best place for collaboration but you'll have to learn how to use Git (or use Windows Git or whatever the weird wrapper is called). Git and source control in general is important but might not be necessary to learn yet.
   
   My biggest piece of advice is to concentrate at one thing at a time, don't think "I have a great idea here for a web application, urgh, but what about security, what about scaling it!?" at your level, those problems are non-existent for you. Get the basic app running anywhere, then run through, security, scaling, testing, one thing at a time. It's only when you get to a senior level do you have to consider multiple things at one time and at the start of a project.
   
   Just remember, once you learn a language, it's behavior, it's syntax that's all that matters really. For every language. Frameworks and methodologies are easily learnt. The best thing is, once you learn one language, learning another becomes easier every time because most languages (like in the real world) have similar structures and syntax.
   
   Don't ever give up.
   
   As a sidenote, it's a good career to go down, I am mid-twenties and I earn more than both my parents combined and I am effectively my own boss, choose my own hours, wear what I want.
   

Prior to January, I knew nothing about C#, ASP.NET or webdesign. I did have some experience with Java, which obviously came in handy.

Right now I have no issue using ASP.NET MVC 4 to create the website I want. This was my personal experience, but I consider these 10 videos sacred. Definitely go trough them, they're entirely worth it.

I've also bought the book Pro ASP.NET MVC 4, definitely a solid choice as well. The first few chapters give you a detailed explanation of MVC and everything surrounding this design, then you've got a few chapters where you create an example application, followed with a big amount of chapters where everything is explained in depth. I'm still working trough this, but I can already tell you it's a very good book.

if you're looking to get into web development, I would look at the asp.net mvc framework.

I have this book: http://www.amazon.com/Pro-ASP-NET-MVC-Adam-Freeman/dp/1430242361

It is long, but covers the important topics well. Between this and stack overflow, it should be enough to get you started.