I just read that Stephen King hates Patterson's writing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Patterson
"Horror novelist Stephen King has dismissed Patterson's bibliography as being made up of "dopey thrillers," and in one interview called him a "terrible writer""
I always find the opinions of a person's peers to be interesting.
I have a tendency to keep up with all the men in my career who helped me with my career, directly or indirectly:
Mark Ruzicka: Navy petty officer who turned me on to DOS 6 and hacking in general
John Grosshandler: my first software sales job
Leo Linder: helped me with MCSE certs and got me into network admin and support via his consulting firm
Larry Spear: CEO of a voice over ip company who supporting me being hired and doing Java dev
Brett Slaski: Network and DBA manager who let me talk the company into revamping their software and use C#
My current boss: unbelievable support and encouragement from him allows me to make mistakes and recover.
I could not be programmer, my life love, without these guys.
:)
edit: To answer the OP's question, I would start with a specific goal/project in mind and find out what steps are required to get it done. The best way to learn programming is to do it. If one book doesn't click, try another on the same subject. And another. Until you get it.
Summary of below: Since I was not aggressive/assertive and since I was coming up as a female in the 80's, a lot of my life track on the way to becoming a programmer was spent trying to deal with the stigma associated with my desire to do so.
1982-83 (grammar to high school age):
My parents bought a word processor in the 80's that you could also program. It had orange letters on a black screen. I picked up the manual and I tinkered with it, typed in a few BASIC programs.
My parents didn't want me in the house playing with it and I wasn't motivated because what I got done was so limited and my imagination could only take me so far at that point.
In spite of that, I went to the neighborhood library to learn more, but there was nothing really there except for books on electronics. I tried to get friends and family to help me but no one could or would. For some reason going to the library I felt the need to hide my interest. I vividly remember hiding in the library stack with a few books on electronics one summer.
I am pretty sure they thought I was weird for having this interest. I was supposed to be doing more "female" things. My mother actively prevented me from doing other geeky things like bike maintenance (too greasy! and not feminine!).
1985 (17 years old):
When I got to college, they didn't teach programming in a sane way. We had this book, "Oh! Pascal" and it sucked so hard I dropped the class. But the only work-study job I could get in college was administrative assistant work. They hired me then fired me (I'm not a secretary type), and strongly suggested I work for the computer geeks. To this day I have no idea why they pushed me there. But they had me doing tape back-up and whatnot. I enjoyed it.
1992-1994:
When I was about 22 or 23, I got into programming while I was stuck in the Navy. I hated the Navy and they treated me like an idiot so I used my free time to self-study C language programming. Once I got through the course I realized I would have to pass a real university program and I just couldn't take the classes where I was stationed (not available).
1995:
I got a career in software sales (6 years of that). I was entered sales info into a Unix box with an Informix database and I got to the command line by accident and started using gopher and usenet and Pine. I figured out how to install Slackware Linux.
I eventually became a sales engineer (1 year of that), then started work in network administration (2 years) which led to web development (Javascript/ASP) and eventually I taught myself Java (about 2001), then C# and now I do C++.
While I was working in network support/administration (hoping to eventually work my way into something better) for a public relations firm in Chicago, one of the PR seniors asked me where I went to school while I was fixing his computer. I told him and he realized I went to the same school as he did (prestigious, expensive midwestern university). He then said, sorrowfully, "It really is a shame then." He meant to imply that I was doing work beneath my capabilities and shouldn't be happy about it.
My battle may be dissimilar from others here. As a black woman I was supposed to be aiming at being a lawyer or business owner, not a software geek. My father worked as a tech in various roles for the phone company and I went home for a holiday a few years ago and I was so proud I got my first real programming job and he responded with "why would you want to do THAT for a living?"
It was at that moment I realized I had been living for approval of others and I felt released to do exactly what my talents and desires drove me to :)
On page 10 or thereabouts, it is noted that the line between "coder" and "programmer" was blurred and women often took on the more intellectual aspects of programming, not just data entry.
I am amazed at how little credit has been given women and how easily a male-dominated board like this "pooh-pooh's" the female contribution.
I also think the male majority on this forum does not even realize how knee-jerk their response is to this topic. And this comment will be modded down (or won't be seen).