Reading Matter

I got started with the Raspberry Pi by reading two books:

We have the Raspberry Pi today because of the author of this book, Eban Upton.  Even if you are an experienced programmer and hardware guru, this book is a must read.  Eban takes you back through the how and, most importantly, the why the Pi came to be. Of course the Pi is not useful by itself, so he takes you through the options of keyboards, monitors, SD cards, networks, etc, etc, etc.  The operating system is discussed as well as your interface to it through Linux.  Most of the book, however, is on programming.  There is enough of a tutorial, with plenty of example  Python code, to get you started .  Connecting to outside world through the GPIO ports is major part of this book.  Finally, he provides you with many, many references to go further in your Raspberry Pi education.

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Simon Monk's book "Programming the Raspberry Pi could be considered volume 2 to the "Raspberry Pi User's Guide.  While there is some duplication between the two books, Monk has included really valuable, additional knowledge. His discussion of Python extends to "Modules, Classes, and Methods" (title of one of his chapters).  He covers handling files, accessing the Internet, and creating a graphical user interface.  There is a chapter on creating games using Pygame, and, like "The User's Guide", extensive discussion of the GPIO ports.  He introduces the reader to combining the Pi with the Arduino and using the Pi as a robotics platform.  The book is filled with example code and references to other useful sources of information.

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The next book I want to read is Bruce Smith's "Raspberry Pi Assembly Language".

I see there are more and more Raspberry Pi books being published. There is even a "Raspberry Pi for Dummies". You know the Pi has really arrived on the scene if there is a "Dummy" book.

One last resource that needs to be be mentioned is the wealth of websites, forums, and blogs contributed by the Raspberry Pi community to help people like me. By this blog, I hope to be considered a part of that community.