I figured I buy a book about Drupal to get a "kick start" on my Drupal learning curve. I found that Building Websites with Drupal by David Merceri s available now. But there is also Pro Drupal Development by John VanDyk and Matt Westgate that is coming in April.

My question is witch book to buy? I'm using Drupal 5.x so I'd prefer a book that is about the right version. Is it worth waiting for the later book?! Just can't wait, I want to dig in to Drupal now!

Comments

dnewkerk’s picture

I've read the David Mercer book, and personally I don't recommend it if you even have the slightest bit of Drupal understanding already under your belt. There are a few solid topics in the book, but all too often he goes off on tangents that don't really belong in a Drupal book - and I also found the book to be mercilessly wordy, filled with deadpan puns and repetition. It is definitely outdated... much has changed in Drupal 5. After reading the book, though I did understand some topics better such as (which I later discovered in the Handbook/etc), I don't think it did adequately prepared me for the "reality" of making an actual website with Drupal. In the end, I think my time would have been better spent reading from the Handbook, and asking some questions in the forum. Don't get me wrong - I appreciate that David Mercer took the time to write a book about Drupal - I just don't believe this book ended up as good as it could/should have been.

I have "not" read it yet, but the book by Robert Douglass is (I have heard) better. Also, Robert is an active developer in the Drupal community, and thoroughly understands "the Drupal way" of doing things. Like the other book though, it is probably outdated in some areas now.

The Pro Drupal Development book is likely to be terrific. However, it looks like it will be a pretty advanced book and not the best place to initially get your feet wet. Later - yes, buy this book :)

Fortunately, there are some new extremely excellent resources for beginners that have come out recently... and I would suggest them over the books for getting started.
http://www.lullabot.com - the articles and audio/video podcasts are amazing
http://drupal.org/node/120612 - Drupal Cookbook (for New Drupallers)... definitely read this.
http://drupal.org/node/119893 - Overview of Drupal 5.x screencasts
http://www.usingdrupal.com - Some great screencasts introducing you to CCK, Views, and more... and looks like more will be rapidly on the way
http://www.dudertown.com - Articles and screencasts
http://ventureskills.wordpress.com/2007/01/08/cck-views-the-ultimate-com...
http://groups.drupal.org/beginner-documentation
http://groups.drupal.org/drupal-dojo - Amazing.
http://www.drupaldojo.com - Friendly front-end resource for the above.

Also, rampantly subscribe to the many Drupal RSS feeds - I've found many a great tip through that.

And lastly... if you don't have one, I highly recommend setting up a LAMP on your home computer so you can rapidly test out new things with Drupal (check google to find the best one for your OS... e.g. WAMP, MAMP, etc). You can make quick painless backups by simply copy/pasting your Drupal folder and your MySQL folder - easy to restore in case something goes wrong :) Get Drupal up and running and then just open it up and mess with it. Look through all the areas, try it out. Install any module that you want and try them all out. I personally spent a long time reading and thinking about Drupal without really getting in the trenches.... but then I learned a ton just by getting in there and playing with it, not afraid of breaking anything.

-- Dave

CirruZZ’s picture

Keyz: Tanx for taking the time to write a thorough answer. That was the kind of answer that I was looking for!

Some of the resources that you mentioned have I already stumbled upon, and the rest I'll check out right away, or as lest as soon as I can. Tanx a lot!

Despite if the Pro Drupal Development book is a bit to advanced for a beginner, I think I'll buy it anyway. I feel that having a book, with hopefully a "red thread" to follow, is a bit easier to get along with in the beginning, than trying to find my own "red thread" through all the webb resources. But as the book haven't been published yet, I have some time to try and find "my own read thread"! Who knows, maybe I'll find it! ;-)

The tip about RSS feeds I have already found, and as you say, you can find many good tips through that!

I have a personal home page that is running on Drupal (what else!) that I use as my experimenting platform. The web server is running on windows with XAMPP, and I must say it works great!

Once again, Tanx for the answer!

/Anders

NancyDru’s picture

Thanks, Keyz, for plugging my book for me.

Nancy W.
now running 5 sites on Drupal so far
Drupal Cookbook (for New Drupallers)
Adding Hidden Design or How To notes in Your Database