[baron816]

I'd say a middle out is probably more common. Instead of going for Rails or some other framework, or figuring out what's happening in memory and what the compiler is doing, start with writing code with a high level language. You move on to learning frameworks and CS fundamentals. So you're much closer to the top than the bottom, but you're still starting with some pretty basic stuff.

Anyway, learning without building stuff is very un-fun. I can't imagine trying to learn programming by just reading books for months and months without access to a computer.