I thought it would be a nice break from the Perl and C# programming I do at work to learn something new, and the Erlang seemed an interesting choice. I picked up Programming Erlang*.
It's a quiet Sunday, and I can learn about Erlang in lieu of chores. The problem is that this book is just boring. I've got through the first 150 of 383 pages (excluding appendices) and the author hasn't demonstrated a single program. The point of an introductory programming book is to evangelize and make your reader excited about solving their programming problems with this new language.
One of the things I don't think many people appreciate is just how good the llama and camel books are at getting people into Perl. I've read a lot of books about programming languages, and very few have sparked such motivation to want to learn more and start writing programs.
* http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/titles/jaerlang/
