Pro C# 2005 and the .Net Platform, by Andrew Troelsen
This book is well written, very clear and does not sacrifice any depth despite its broad coverage. Although targeted at developers with a few years experience, it is one of those rare books that are good no matter what your level of experience. The style is very polished and the book’s topics flow easily into one another. Highly recommended.
Content-wise, it covers pretty much everything you need to know about C# 2.0. One notable and surprising omission of .NET version 2.0 new (and very useful) features was the BackgroundWorker class.
This is one of two Apress books that I purchased approximately a year ago, after researching what ‘best of breed’ books were on offer for version 2.0 of the .Net framework (the other was Pro ASP.NET 2.0). Both were excellent choices.
As an aside, I’m not sure whether Apress still offer this, but when I purchased the third edition of this book, I was also able to download a free, fully searchable eBook as well. I have used the eBook many times as a reference source for C# language features.
Since I wrote this short review an updated special version of this book became available, Pro C# with .NET 3.0, Special Edition, that covers using C# with the .NET 2.0 platform and the .NET 3.0 extensions. It includes a section on the WPF features in version 3.0 of the .NET framework. If you buy the special edition of this book, you can additionally purchase (for US$10) and download a searchable PDF bonus book.
Both hardback versions of this book are available in the user group members library.
You can purchase from here:
http://www.apress.com/book/view/1590598237
http://www.amazon.com/Pro-2005-NET-Platform-Third/dp/1590594193
Disclosure: The Perth .NET User Group is a member of the Apress User Group Program. Apress make copies of their books available for user group libraries, and the copy of “Pro C# with .NET 3.0, Special Edition” reviewed here was kindly donated by them.