The Year of Reading Dangerously: Self-Learning

The Year of Reading Dangerously is about readings things you wouldn’t normally read. Well, I’ve decided to start teaching myself Computer Programming. My son has been teaching himself for about 5 years, seriously concentrating on it the past 2 years. He is now doing some consulting work, which I did not know could be possible without college classes. He could have progressed more quickly, but spends much of his time blogging. While I don’t have as much time to focus on it as he does, I can read a book every 1 to 3 months and do tutorials on the internet. My first goal is to fully understand the technical work he has done for my blog. After that, who knows.

For my June selection, I decided to start my learning experiences with a beginning programming book-SAMS Teach Yourself Beginning Programming by Sams Publishing. So far the Liberty BASIC chapters are very similar to beginning BASIC that I did in high school (too many years ago to say). It’s a bit of a refresher and should give me a good foundation on which to build. I have already worked with HTML and CSS. There is some JavaScript in the book, which I haven’t done yet, but no PHP, of which I only have a vague understanding.

I really like the idea of learning something new-and maybe even turning it into a career one day. What’s even more interesting is that it gives my son the chance to be the teacher for a change, as I’m sure our discussions will help to clarify some things.

Any others interested in enhancing their websites or progressing beyond the noob level of programming and web design may wish to check out the following:

4 Responses to “The Year of Reading Dangerously: Self-Learning”

  1. Michael Martin Says:

    Thanks for recommending my blog!

    If you want to learn PHP, I’d recommend PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Websites, by Larry Ullman.

    It’s well written, easy to follow, and comprehensive.

    (Of course, I’m sure Matt could you better recommendations and help with PHP!)

  2. minerva66 Says:

    Michael,
    Matt recommended your site for web design. He also told me that he learned most of his PHP through web tutorials. I got JavaScript for the World Wide Web from the library which will be my next book to read. I’ll keep your recommendation in mind, but I’m taking it slow for now.

  3. Michael Martin Says:

    That was good of him. I’ll have to say thanks next time I see him then! :)

    Taking things one step at a time is definitely the best way for it. Good luck, I hope you enjoy the learning!

  4. minerva66 Says:

    I’m sure I will enjoy it. It’s exciting to be learning new things, especially when you can see immediate results. Plus, I don’t like not knowing what’s going on with my own project. The more I understand myself, the better.

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