I'll keep this post short. I read this book to prepare myself for iPhone development and give me a deeper understanding of Objective C. This book is probably the best book to start learning Cocoa Programming currently on the market. It gives chapter by chapter examples with exercises to follow along with. The only shortcoming of the book is that it's a bit dated to what the current xCode version is. A few of the examples might take the novice for a spin (which means it took me for a spin, sometimes a quite frustrating spin) because the step by step instructions are not exactly correct due to the fact some of the menu items have changed or been rearranged. Outside of a few minor issues, like the one I mentioned earlier, it's a pretty fun book and I would recommend it to other experienced programmers. Hopefully Mr. Hillegass will come out with a newer version.

The list keeps going, it really covers all you need to know for having a strong hold on the basics.