[...] many books have tried to be the successors to Richard Stevens' legendary APUE. I think that "The Linux Programming Interface" is one of the very few successes in that endeavor. This 1552 book has truly encyclopedic scope, although it focuses only on the Linux flavor of Unix. It's best treated as a reference, rather than a tutorial to read from cover to cover. That said, I read a good portion of its chapters whole (in addition to skimming through the rest), and the book is so well written it makes a very pleasant read. It explains many complex topics in great depth; even topics which don't have good coverage in other places, like pseudo-terminals. I enjoyed reading, and I will definitely use it as a reference when the opportunity presents itself.
https://www.amazon.com/Linux-Programming-Interface-System-Ha...
I don't know if it's thirty dollars good (although I see I paid thirty GBP for my hardback back in 2011), but it's good.
Can anyone make a compelling case for any of the books in the $15 tier?
I'll see whether I can find that thread; I think I commented on it.
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P.S. Comment on that thread mentioning it. As I replied, it's also in O'Reilly's Safari online subscription library.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17360713
I guess the author has a lot of its content online, as well, maybe in somewhat different form.
I've always vaguely wondered about the economics of these bundles. As a consumer I love them, but I'm sure quite a few publishers and, more importantly, authors might feel like they devalue the content a bit too much.
