Thank you and some Java book news

[Warning: no useful info in this post]
Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of the Creating Passionate Users blog. It's so tough to find time to read blogs, and I'm honored and deeply appreciative of those who've taken the time to read (and comment here and on their own blogs) this one.

And I also want to thank our book readers for this -- Head First Java, second edition, was named to both of Amazon's Best of 2005 Computer Book lists -- the Top Ten Editor's Picks list and the Top Ten Customer Favorites, which is their bestseller list. Our Design Patterns book actually outsold Head First Java, but it was released in the fall of 2004, so it wasn't eligible for the 2005 list.

There's some other great books on the 2005 bestseller list including O'Reilly's wonderful Make magazine/book (the adult's version of science fair projects and other DIY fun--check out the blog!), and Dave Shea and Molly Holzschlag's book, The Zen of CSS Design. The Editor's Picks list also includes one of my favorite books, Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug.

And for those of you who've waited so patiently for the way-behind Tiger edition of our Sun Certified Java Programmer book (Bert and I were the lead developers of that exam), we got a nice little present on our doorstep today -- the actual book! That means it's actually shipping, and many of you know the drill by now -- even though Amazon still still shows January 31 as the ship date, that switch will be thrown any moment now. It's sitting on a loading dock somewhere, but Amazon should be recognizing it as available within the next few days (the holidays might slow things down a little).

And while we're in such a celebratory mood around here (Yay! The book was only 11 months behind schedule!), R. Marie Cox gave us an adorable Artypapers Award for Best New Site. Er, it wasn't actually best new site... it came with a qualifier Best New [to me] Site. But hey, it's this blog's first and only award, and we definitely heart R. Marie Cox for giving it to us -- (it seems she's a fellow 37signals fan).

The more I think about that award title, though... the more it reminds me of those quotes on the back of books with things like, "Best New Sci-Fi Novel by A First-Time Author So Far This Year" (when it's January) or the classic, "Leaves you wanting more" or "This book fills a much-needed gap." (Moses Hadas, who also said, "Thank you for sending me a copy of your book. I'll waste no time reading it.")

And if you like this sort of thing, you might find this just the sort of thing you like-- a list of self-annihilating sentences. It includes gems like:

"Before they made him they broke the mold."

"This man's work cannot be underrated."

But I also like the quote from Mark Twain's autobiography:

"Wagner's music is better than it sounds."
- Edgar Nye

And Dorothy Parker is quoted as saying:

"This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force."

(and I believe it was Dorothy Parker who said "... runs the gamut of emotions from A to B.")

And then there's the 1-star Amazon review we got for Head First Java, which was followed by a 5-star review with a nearly identical headline:

"Worst book ever! Just like MTV..."
and
"Best book ever! Just like MTV..."

I've violated the rule here that says posts on this blog must in some way help our users kick ass, and there's virtually nothing in this but shameless self-congratulations. I hope you'll forgive us this one indulgence, and I promise a useful post tomorrow.

Thanks again everyone, and happy [whatever]. 2005 has been a wonderful year, and I'm looking forward to learning a lot more from you guys [I mean "guys" in the California non-gender-specific way] in 2006.