Raspberry Pi Cookbook: Software and Hardware Problems and Solutions: Monk, Simon: 9781491939109: Amazon.com: Books

The Raspberry Pi Cookbook is a good publication for using the PI to create Python applications. But it has some shortcomings.

I gave the book a 4* rating, but my view it is 3.5* or a little more. I bought the book so that I didn’t need to search the internet for for so many answers to basic questions, but I have saved bookmarks for more than 25 solutions. (I’m just starting out as a new Pi user although I have experience with Arduino and of course, Windows.)

First of all, even though the copyright date is June 2016, it does not cover Raspberry 3B which was released in February 2016, nor does the book discuss the programs and features from Raspbian Jessie that was released on September 29, 2015.

The explanation on how to initially load Raspbian to the SD card is missing the detail that is carefully explained on a file in the NOOBS unzipped folder entitled INSTRUCTIONS-README.txt. These detailed instructions admonish the user to download and use the industry-standard formatting tool for SD cards. Although the author shouldn’t have to duplicate the content, he should warn the user to carefully read and follow the instructions.

Section 3 on the Raspbian operating system is a good start. I was hoping to learn more about it than is covered in the 40 pages that the author devotes to this important topic.

Where the book really shines is using Python, and the author has many interesting examples and solutions. This portion of the book is definitely 5*.

One picky note is that the author advises the use of the IDLE Python Integrated Development Environment (IDE); however, there is an additional one included called Geany that is excellent, easy to use, and possibly even more comprehensive.

Do I recommend buying the book? Yes, but I would have hoped it would cover more breadth. I want to know more about my Raspberry Pi 3B than this book covers.