Now, I’m no expert, more of a hobbyist trying to turn a passion into a job (somehow…), but:
I love programming books.
I like the ‘how’ style of books (Programming Ruby, and The Ruby Way in particular), are very nice. Also books that introduce a framework are interesting (I have Beginning Ruby on Rails E-commerce) are nice. They serve as quick introduction (good language introductions include a reference of the language, too) into a topic, and allow me to ask the right questions, and help me in getting to know the problem domain or language domain.
And I also like the ‘why’ books. Or books covering a certain area in depth, too. They can be especially useful if they cover libraries like the .NET library (it is huge, I have little to no clue where to look to get to know the features), similar the Java library.
And lets face it: API/library documentation on the web can be nasty, too.
However, there is a real issue in finding good books. And for that, I rely heavily on recommendations by others, more expert than me.
I think I have almost all books Jeff recommends in my Amazon wish list.
I’ve also noticed, that the quality of a book depends highly on the publisher, too.
And the ‘For Dummies…’ books are a real mixed bag, I’ve noticed. They can be real hit and miss (The SQL book is next to useless, while the Crystal Reports book was a tremendous help to me).