In my opinion O'reilly continually puts out the best technical books and "C# in a Nutshell" further supports their excellent reputation. As usual with O'reilly's other offerings in their "in a Nutshell" series they leave out the fluff and provide just the facts. This approach makes "C# in a Nutshell" easy to recommend if you've already gotten your feet wet in C#. On the other hand if you're still green you're better off with books that offer a traditional tutorial approach and then come back when you're ready to get into some advanced topics or need a reference to the namespaces and C# implementation.

Understanding this book is not a tutorial for the beginner will help acclimate yourself to what to expect. Even though the subtitle reads "A Desktop Reference" ample content exists to introduce beginning topics that lay the ground work for its reference sections.

The first nineteen chapters, approximately two hundred and nineteen pages, cover beginning topics such as .NET Framework and C# basics to advanced subjects including reflection, XML serialization, and threading. The remaining chapters are devoted to a quick reference to classes in the namespaces. Several topics that I'm interested in, including GDI+ were mentioned only briefly and then referred to related namespaces. I'm hoping that GDI+ and other UI related material are covered in more depth in O'reilly's ".NET Windows Forms in a Nutshell" offering or the next edition of "C# in a Nutshell".

Code examples in the book were sufficient to reinforce my understanding of each topic and the 'animal tracks' notes were a nice touch and more than mere filler. Other niceties include UML diagrams detailing the namespace structures, DLL / namespace associations, and the C# API Quick Reference encapsulated in a Visual Studio.NET plug-in supplied on the included CD.

"C# in a Nutshell" has already helped me in a VB to C# conversion project. I'm already looking forward to the next edition that may address some of the missing namespaces, otherwise it's a very important tool that supports my day to day efforts.