[barrkel]

I learned about machine code and two's complement from the Machine Code for Beginners book. It gave me a head start in college 10 years later. With it, I got my Amstrad CPC 464 to run a loop maybe 100 faster than BASIC, and I was enlightened.

The Usborne books were the single strongest teacher I had getting into coding. I never owned any; I relied on the library.

In the earliest days, I didn't have a computer either. I'd read an Usborne book, then hang around computer stores poking at the 4+ years out of date Commodore 64s and CPC 464s and even the Acorn Archimedes (fanciest most capable BASIC), putting what I learned into practice. I'd even practice on VTech devices with two monochrome LCD lines of text, in toy shops, to get my fix.

I don't think I'd be where I am today without those books.