Essential C# has always been widely acclaimed as one of the must-read C# related classic books. The content throughout the book is comprehensive and systematic, and the structure is clear and concise. All was so carefully choreographed that the writing and examples are impeccable. In a word, it is seen as one of the preferred works for learning C# language.

As a tailor-made new programming language for Microsoft .NET Framework, C# (C Sharp) has both the powerful functions of C/C++ and user-friendly characteristics of Visual Basic. And now, it has evolved to 6.0, with various features emerging in endlessly. While it's rare to find C# teaching materials that can stand up to scrutiny on the market, and this might be because the reference on MSDN has been pretty comprehensive.

Knowing very well about the nature and principle of computer system is crucial for each programmer who wants to study programming in depth. Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective (CS: APP for short) is the prestigious authority work in this field, regarded as one of the greatest computer teaching materials by a great number of professionals. Meanwhile, it's also been the preferred textbook for computer system courses in a lot of famous colleges around the world.

Speaking of Windows Internals, you must have heard of it as long as you are interested in the Windows architectures and internals. For it is committed to the underlying mechanism, it won't cover all Windows contents, such as Windows window management, graphics, COM/COM+, .NET, etc. If you are willing to know more about Windows underlying principle, then this book is very suitable to you.

About how hard it is on earth for learning MFC, this should vary from person to person. If you are experienced programmers started from the base Windows OS, you'd likely have been a member of programmers developing the MFC class libraries; on the contrary, if you just have learned few years of Windows programming, then you may have not any knowledge on the underlying system. In the latter case, you must have one book on your desk for reference anytime (every technology needs this). For MFC, it will be Programming Windows with MFC.