Review of the book ‘Programming In C From Novice To Expert’ written by Mahesh Bhave and Sunil Patekar....
.........

There are some textbooks which terrify by their sheer appearance! We get goose bumps by their heavy weight and size and it raises doubts in our minds whether we would be able to digest it or not? But rest assured. Because Mahesh Bhave and Sunil Patekar’s 342 page book is in a different league! It is absolutely a lucid and reader-friendly book!

Mahesh Bhave is the former HOD and Professor of VJTI’s Department of Computer Technology and Sunil Patekar is the principal of VIT. So they have applied their vast experience in teaching field to present this book in such a user friendly format.

One can describe the USP of this book in many ways. Usually we find that the text books comprise huge amount of intricate theory.  There could be some examples, diagrams, illustrations interspersed but overall such books carry a scholarly appearance. And the beginners could be afraid to touch such books. But Bhave and Patekar knew the kind of problems the students face or the questions that crop up in their minds and hence they have written this book in a Q & A style. This helps the readers to know the solution to the queries they have as they go along reading the pages.
Another good aspect of this book is the use of Algorithms. This shall help the student understand ‘C’ programming with ease , even if he is from any academic background (be it science, engineering or even commerce).

Normally we learn any topic by heart if we read it often or revise it. To help the students, the authors have added the Summary of the topic with bullet points at the end of each chapter and also have added some exercises so that the students could judge and ensure how much they have imbibed from the book. There are many programs based on the real world topics. Also there is one special sub chapter on bit-manipulation which would help the students from IT and Electronics.

Many Universities have a standard set of questions. So this book contains such standard set of questions at the end of the chapter. There are instances that students suddenly come across certain terms which could be best understood only when they finish reading many more chapters progressively and this hinders their process of digesting the book. To solve this problem, the authors have designed the book in such a manner that there is smooth flow in the book for ease of understanding. The reader could simply go from one topic to the next without any obstacle in understanding any term.

So we could say that the book is written in a simple and easy to digest manner. Some student could finish it in one go or some others could finish it in a slower pace. But one thing is guaranteed that this book could be called a VFM (value for money) book!

This book is helpful for any beginner or even to an expert in the field of C programming and that’s why the name – ‘Programming in C – from Novice to Expert.’

Book : Programming in ‘C’ from Novice to Expert
Writers : Mahesh Bhave, Sunil Patekar.
Publication : International Book House Pvt. Ltd.
Pages : 342
Price : Rupees 300 /-

To purchase this book from Bookganga.com, please click here.

(To read this book review in Marathi, please click here.)