Design pattern learning material
"Head First Design Patterns" by Kathy Sierra, Bert Bates, Elisabeth Freeman, Eric Freeman

It is always very hard to find appropriate learning materials. Writing a didactic text is very difficult and often confused by the writer, as much as by the reader, with writing reference materials.
Finding a pedagogic book of quality is not enough, it has to be appropriate for you. It needs to fit your general background. The issue for me is that I have a higher mathematical sophistication than the average programmer and even computer scientist (I know I am so great).
More importantly, it needs to match your previous knowledge on the subject. The key is that the material has to be challenging enough so you learn something new but not be completely out of your grasp or just demanding more time and effort than your motivation provides.

Sadly the perfect match never exists.

Back to "Head First," I wanted to refresh my memory on design patterns. My first introduction to the subject was the Gang of Four book and was probably a bit premature. The value of a solution to a problem you never had yet is not great.

So I wanted to get a different perspective and this book had some good reviews.

The style is very visual :
I was not very convinced at first but after the little introduction on why it is important to keep you engaged with the material I decided that I should give it a try.

Conclusion : not for me. It was a big error on my part to read an introduction book on a subject I am already familiar with. I needed a reference book to refresh my memory and learn more advanced patterns.

Also, it is not dense enough for my taste. I am used to reading difficult graduate texts and I need to be challenged by the materials.

I really like the annotations on the diagrams but the little story was not motivating for me at all. There is a lot of wasted space with gratuitous pictures. I enjoy some entertainment like the side notes in Concrete Mathematics but this is too much.

I think the book has huge value for a first time learner and someone that does not have a lot of academic dedication.

I am back to reading the GoF book and I really appreciate it this time.