Technical Books… Do you read them?

A few weeks ago David Lean asked me if I ever read technical  books. Without a seconds consideration I said – “No way – I look online for everything I need, when I need it!”, to which he quickly replied – “I guess you wont be wanting this then!” and went to put the Programming Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 book back in his bag… “Wait!” I said – “I’ve heard about that book! Let me look at it!” **

Now true to my word of not reading technical books, I got home, popped it in my bookshelf (which funnily enough in itself contradicts my initial reply and if nothing else shows that I do have a great number of technical books!) and didn't look at it again…

Until last night. I was waiting for some VPC’s & service packs to download and as it was killing my bandwidth, I was looking for something else to do for a bit. I remembered the book!

I am so glad I did. Initially I just flicked through it to see what was in it, but then kept getting drawn into the examples & sample code and soon had visual studio open trying to work through some of them. I have to say – if you are thinking of doing any programming for CRM 4.0 it really is a fantastic book for you! It starts at the very basics – includes a hitchhikers guide to common questions when your getting started and extends to some advanced topics like building your own advanced workflows.

I am now tempted to work through the book from start to finish as there are so many cool examples in here that I haven’t yet had the opportunity or excuse to delve into. There are some great code samples & utilities tucked into the different chapters as well as addressing the differences in the 3 deployment options.

Details on the book are here so you can find it if CRM programming is your thing:

Authors: Jim Steger; Mike Snyder; Brad Bosak; Corey O'Brien; Philip Richardson

ISBN: 9780735625945

Basic blurb:

Get hands-on and conceptual guidance for creating and adapting customer relationship management (CRM) solutions—direct from leading CRM consultants. This reference details design and coding practices that allow you to customize Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 to meet specific business needs. Get expert insights on customization, integration, and extension; end-to-end solution designs from the product team; and numerous case studies that demonstrate how to customize Microsoft Dynamics CRM as a business solution. The book covers the major deployment options available: on-premise and partner-hosted.

So…… I guess now I am rethinking my initial answer to David’s question… I am interested to hear what other people think of Technical books, or how they look up technical information when they need it. What do you do?

** ok details of conversation may be a little sketchy – it was a few weeks ago but that’s basically how it went!! :)