[phakding]

I have seen head first books being recommend by many. The only one I ever read half way though was one on design patterns and I regretted it. When I am learning something new, I want every sentence to be information heavy. So I could learn much more efficiently. Head first books just drag on and on with jokes, unnecessary conversations, cartoons and stuff. I literally gave up and Google searched each design patterns.

All my engineers books were pretty dry and to the point.

[riffraff]

There is a balance to strike, I'd say. I recall Norvig's Artificial Intelligence as a great text which also had some pretty funny jokes (mostly relegated to footnotes, IIRC)

[kdbg]

I recommend the head first books pretty frequently. Never alone though, I've found them to be somewhat divisive. Some people learn well with that more casual writing style, some find it very annoying.

So while I recommend people try the head first series, I always have an alternative recommendation that is more seriously written. I've had allot of success with pre/early teens learning with the head first books.