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F atbrain.com has it for $31.95 in stock.

Bookpool. com has it for $24.50, on backorder. It cost me $9 for 2 day fedex and got it the next day for the first edition.

The sad thing is that there are always cheaper places to get good tech books than Amazon.cum.

bookpool for instance, has significantly lower prices on anything I've checked. A 35% on all O'Reilly books, as an example.

Amazon.com is for the dupes. I will never again buy anything from them.

In any event, you can get any of the books that can be acquired off the links at the bottom of the article at better prices elsewhere. Bookpool , for instance, has lower prices and is a pure techie bookstore, so you don't have to steep through all the dreck and nick-nacks when you're looking for the latest O'reilly book (which are all discounted about 45% off cover).

Amazon is the Sears Roebuck of websites. But Slashdot gets a cut of the sales, I suppose. So it's inevitable that there will always be links.

After reading this review I went to The Bookpool (where Refactoring is available for $28; sorry, Amazon) and ordered it. I've now had it a few days, sampled a number of sections, and started seriously on reading from cover to cover.

Maybe SEGV's seen something I haven't, but I'm tempted to give it at least 9.5/10, and thinking about more.

Yes, as many posters above note, I too have been refactoring for much of my career, to save my sanity if for no other reason. But I called it ``cleaning up the code'', and often couldn't articulate to my peers or bosses why it was the right thing to do. I was abstracting the form of the code, changing it to make it easier to understand. Fowler has abstracted the form of the changes, to make them easier to recognize and execute correctly. This higher level of abstraction is what makes the book worthwhile.

In addition, he's labelled and codified abstractions I haven't thought of, but which will be useful now that they've been brought to my attention.

It's also nice that he's given ``guest authors'' chapters to themselves, so we get different views of the subject. Fowler's upfront about what he owes to others in developing the concepts; he says they should have written the book, but since he's the one to get around to it, he's at least roped them in for their expertise.

All in all, if you ever have to touch sub-standard code, get and apply this book. I would have killed for this at my last job.

OrderHere is that link at bookpool.com and the price including fedex 2 day is only $30. Thanks for the link!

When things are in stock, they can't be beat.

Jon, if you just can't bear the sight of consumer electronics when you go to Amazon, then just change your bookmark from

http://www.amazon.com/

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/home/books .html/

Anyone who has followed Amazon from a business/investor perspective, rather than as a customer, has known for a long time now that Amazon's ambition extends well beyond the bookseller's market; that's why they used a non-descriptive name like "Amazon", rather than something with "Book" in the title. Their real intended competition is Wal-Mart, K-Mart, and Dayton Hudson (Target); if anything, that's more revolutionary than taking on small-fry like Borders or B&N.

I can see being upset with Amazon for pulling controversial books, videos, or albums (which they have done). I can see being upset if their expansion into new product lines caused their bookselling service to suffer; but that doesn't seem to be the case.

But throwing a fit just because they have started offering a new line of merchandise is just downright silly.

(BTW, I normally by technical books from Bookpool; they usually have the best prices, and I haven't had any problems with them yet.)

Well, if you're looking for computer books, I don't think I've seen a place that beats Bookpool. I just checked out fatbrain, which gives a 20% discount on O'Reilly books that I was looking at, compared to 35 or 36% at Bookpool. I've ordered from them a bunch of times, never had a problem, and their shipping is reasonable, too.

They're putting dimes in the hole in my head to see the change in me

Well, if you're looking for computer books, I don't think I've seen a place that beats Bookpool. I just checked out fatbrain, which gives a 20% discount on O'Reilly books that I was looking at, compared to 35 or 36% at Bookpool. I've ordered from them a bunch of times, never had a problem, and their shipping is reasonable, too.

They're putting dimes in the hole in my head to see the change in me

There are much better places to get tech books anyway.

bookpool has all the O'Reilly books heavily discounted. A far better deal than Amazon, and minus any of the hype.

I object to the way Amazon.com keeps an active database of my credit card info anyway. They should throw that stuff away when they're done processing an order. I made the mistake of ordering from them once, and now they have my credit info in a database online somewhere that it could probably be snatched. A few weeks ago I asked them to remove the info in an email message and they turned it into a quiz game (asking me to detail what I ordered on my last order). It should be as easy as possible to remove that info from their online database. However, it's probably in their interests to play games with the customer.

Maybe Rob looses the kickback from Amazon (if so, sorry Rob!) But truck on over to bookpool and you can find it for $16.50 vs. Amazon's $19.96. Bookpool is cheaper for most geek books. Still not as cheap as perldoc -f, but if yer gonna buy it...

Maybe Rob looses the kickback from Amazon (if so, sorry Rob!) But truck on over to bookpool and you can find it for $16.50 vs. Amazon's $19.96. Bookpool is cheaper for most geek books. Still not as cheap as perldoc -f, but if yer gonna buy it...

Ya callin' me a geek?

Actually, I did start with "Learning Perl" way back when I started to hack CGI scripts. Then, moved on to "Programming Perl" and "Mastering Regex". Of course, I had to buy the "COOKBOOK" and now the NUTSHELL. Some of you may think I'm crazy but it's not that bad. First of all, I buy my books from BOOKPOOL (I don't work for them) where O'Reilly books are 35% to 45% off list price. Then, all the books I buy are tax-deductible (I have an online business) so I save another 40%. So, if a book costs $100, I'm really only paying $36!!!

(Ok, ok, so I'm addicted to O'Reilly books...I admit it...)