Some of the best reading I do comes from the patterns and practices group at Microsoft. Their prescriptive guidance documents are actually books, and I don’t know that everyone realizes that.

It isn’t just p&p that publishes guidance, either. The product teams publish good stuff, too.

I used to get real p&p books as swag at conferences and events, but I haven’t seen one in print for awhile. That’s why I decided to use FedEx (Kinkos) to do this with the latest Application Architecture Guide 2.0 CTP. $38.00, signed, sealed and delivered.

Given the cost of technical books, I don’t think this is out of line at all.

I know there are a lot of Kindlistas out there, but for my money there is just something about a touch and feel book. I couldn’t come up with a great way to read a PDF in bed, either.

Although I don’t think $38 is a bad deal, it isn’t exactly a bargain, either. The old p&p books could be had for less than $20.

So, while I can’t print the CodePlex library, here are the titles I would if I could:

• Smart Client Architecture and Design Guide – Still pretty relevant
• BI Architecture and Design Guide
• Team Development with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server
• TFS 2008 Branching Guide 2.0
• Upcoming: Acceptance Testing Engineering Guidance – This guide will cover the discipline of acceptance testing from several perspectives and contexts. It will provide models, heuristics and a set of actionable job aides rooted in a sample application.

But if you are poor like me, you can live with most of it online and get it easier with the Guidance Browser.

David Starr