Despite high interest in learning to program, I was confused and bored in my first (FORTRAN) programming course. Browsing at the local bookstore I found 'The FORTRAN Coloring Book' and took it home. Kaufman's approach unlocked some kind of door for me, and the effort of going to find my own resources did as well. Forty years on, 'The Fortran Coloring Book' sits on the shelf next to 'Software Tools in Pascal' (same bookstore a few months later) and many of the other books listed in this thread (e.g. TAOCP, SICP, UPE, OSTEP.)