I'd like to hear how Jason or others feel this approach compares to online coursework which is arguably more dynamic and interactive than books (and often free/cheap). For example, Udacity's CS253 Web App Engineering course [1] taught by Steve Huffman which covers building a blog in App Engine.

I'll admit I had trouble staying focused in the coursework (and completed only ~25%) despite ASP.NET experience, and desire to improve my web dev skills.

1: http://www.udacity.com/overview/Course/cs253/CourseRev/apr20...