Best Android Book?
I suspect someone’s going to give me an Amazon gift certificate for Christmas, and someone already gave me an Android. What’s the best book for learning to develop or Android? There aren’t a lot of choices yet:
- Professional Android Application Development (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) by Reto Meier (Paperback – Nov 24, 2008) $44.99
- The Busy Coder’s Guide to Android Development by Mark L. Murphy (Paperback – Jun 25, 2008) $30.00
- Android A Programmers Guide by Jerome DiMarzio (Paperback – Jul 30, 2008) $39.99
- Hello, Android: Introducing Google’s Mobile Development Platform by Ed Burnette (Paperback – Dec 28, 2008) $32.95 $21.75
- Android Essentials (Firstpress) by Chris Haseman (Paperback – Sep 18, 2008)
Which ones are worth the paper they’re printed on and which ones are headed for the recycling bin as soon as the next SDK version hits the ether?
January 7th, 2009 at 9:07 PM
My apologies for not responding sooner — I just ran across this post.
If you want a print book, and you want it now, the two best ones are Reto Meier’s and Ed Burnette’s. I’ve read Ed’s, and it’s solid, particularly on 2D/3D graphics, but it is about half the length of Reto’s and my books, so you don’t get quite as much depth.
Version 1.0 of my book is the one available on thinly-sliced tree, and that edition was written for the M5 SDK of mid-2008. Version 2.0 should be available in print by February 2009, and it should stack up well with Reto’s book.
If you’re willing to go with digital books, you can get Version 2.0 of my book now via Warescription ($35 for one year of all books/all updates). That will also give you my unannounced-and-upcoming Advanced Android book, plus updates to both books, plus anything else CommonsWare publishes during the subscription term.
Other print books on the horizon include Manning’s _Unlocking Android_ and an O’Reilly title due out sometime this spring.
Hope this helps!