Book publishers today are using the temptation of a free chapter download of recent books to induce prospective customers to purchase the book. Our list of free downloadable chapters from C# titles shows that you can learn the whole language without overpaying for any one book. Or if you just need a refresher on a particular topic that's bugging you.

Here's the scoop (starting easy and working up to advanced):

Background on C# A readable intro to the history of C#, where it came from and how it fits into .NET. No code, just an intro to the language's pedigree. By the ever-clear Murray and Pappas duo.

"Hello, World" and The Basics Clear, clean, approachable. By Klaus Michelsen

Variables and Data Types in C# Straightforward introduction by Bradley Jones.

Introducing Windows Forms in C# Charles Petzold's easy introduction to Windows interfaces for first timers.

More on Windows Forms Programming with C# With special emphasis on menus. By Joseph Mayo.

Collections Such as arrays, hash tables, and the like. From Microsoft Press's book on C# for Java programmers, so contains occasional references to Java; this should be little or no impediment. Written by Allen Jones and Adam Freeman.

Interfaces and Collections With lots of sample code, by Robert Oberg.

String Handling and Regular Expressions by Tom Archer and Andrew Whitechapel.

Drawing and Printing in C# Straightforward how-to info by Foxall and Haro-Chun.

Debugging C# Stack traces and debug classes, by Mickey Williams.

Advanced C# Class Construction Techniques by Andrew Troelsen. 42 pages with lots of full-color pics and code.

Multithreaded Programming in C# An excellent advanced discussion of threads by the ever-readable Larry O'Brien. For a small sum ($12, his site seems to imply) you can get an electronic copy of his 950-page intro to C#, which contains more than 250 programs.

Writing Applications

Reading and Writing XML with C# by Julian Templeman and Andy Olsen. Detailed and advanced.

Keeping State with C# in ASP.NET Applications A full 32 pages on a difficult topic. By Fritz Onion.

And the Free Development Tools

Who loves ya? Here are compilers and all needed tools for Windows and other platforms. http://www.thinkingin.net/tools.html