Real World ASP .Net Best Practices is a practical book that reads from an “insiders” point of view. It consists of best practice techniques of ASP.NET’s objects (caching, DataGrids, web.config etc.) within applications.
The book is aimed at the intermediate ASP.NET developer as there are references and objects that you are expected to know that aren't explained within the text. The downside I found is that most intermediates would have come across the material and recommendations already. That said, the "best practice tips" riddled throughout the book do make this book worth reading and previous knowledge of the topics will allow any intermediate to skim through pages and benefit from the core pieces of information in this book.
What gives this book it's edge, is its benchmark tests performed on everyday objects within ASP.NET. However, you get the feeling the book that it has been purposely padding out to reach past the 200 page mark as they tend to overly explain their thinking behind their advice (and benchmark results). This is possibly on purpose to "drive the point home" but depending on your knowledge level, this can get annoying.
The layout of the paragraphs, code and tips has been done well and compliments the book’s readability. You can quickly read through what you know and just glance at the highlighted tips (and pit falls) at the end of each section.
There are some good "hand-ons" chapters focusing on caching (Chapter 2), comparing data objects performance (Chapter 5) and application configuration files (Chapter 8) and there's good advice on the options for developing with Remoting / Web Services (Chapter 7) however, I would have liked to have seen a bigger appendix to the book and more annotations leading to online sources with more detail (for those into that sort of thing).
It is a definite one to add to the collection, it's a good book, some useful information, but nothing ground breaking, if you're an intermediate you should know a lot of this already, although it's nice to be spoon fed. You'll only read it once (and be comforted by the benchmark results) and when coding next, in the back of your mind you'll remember their recommendations, "yep, I'll use the DataList on this one".
References
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1590591003/202-6237194-3453444?ie=utf8&coliid=&colid=http://aspnetbookreviews.blogspot.com/2005/08/real-world-asp-net-best-practices-best.html
www.amazon.com/real-world-asp-net-best-practices/dp/1590591003
