That was my impression of Programming Clojure at first, it seemed rather lightweight. What I came to believe is that Halloway's presentation focuses on simplicity but achieves reasonable depth. [1] The high level of accessibility reflects Halloway's background in the training industry and the his expertise in Clojure. His book is efficient in the same manner as Clojure.

Joy of Clojure is a good book. It goes deeper while assuming more of the reader. The technical detail is useful and interesting, but for me, the narrative seems a bit less cohesive [disclaimer: I have the first edition, not the second]. I haven't read Clojure Programming.

[1]: Edit. For example the running exercise is porting a Java build system to Clojure. That's full on software engineering, not a let's-pretend.

Thanks for the hint, I'll check the build system example.

I focused on Programming Clojure as it's almost half the size of Clojure Programming and I want to get to other, more focused clojure books (Reactive Programming, Macros). But for me, personally, the examples given so far (I've made it at least through the State-chapter) weren't well explained. I'll see how Clojure Programming holds up in that regard but so far many explanations have been better IMHO.