I'm 65% through the Pragmatic course, and the answer is that it of course depends on your learning style.
Books are great, but I enjoy the lectures, combined with the follow up exercises. I intend to supplement with books and the amount of free material on the web, but I feel the quality so far is worth the price.
Unlike a book, the instructors check in on you to see how you're doing, and ask for honest feedback. And you get access to a mailing list where so far I've seen any question answered very quickly, and without some of the intimidation one can feel asking "noob" questions in other places.
Again, I don't think it is an "either/or" proposition. But I do feel like this combined with other resources is a good option.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4101355