Giles Bowkett wrote:
>> What books would you recommend for a course on Ruby and Ruby on Rails?
>>  I am currently evaluating books for a course I'm teaching next
>> semester and am trying to get a good sample before I make any
>> decisions.  I'd be happy to have separate books for Ruby and RoR.
> 
> My favorite Ruby book is still "The Ruby Way." "Ruby By Example" is
> also excellent, especially if you want to cover basic functional
> progrmaming. "The Rails Way" is aiming to be the dominant reference,
> currently that position belongs to "Agile Web Dev w/Rails," which is
> the default book. I'd say go with both there also and you can't go
> wrong.
> 
The only single book I know of that *adequately* covers *both* Ruby and 
Rails is David A. Black's "Ruby for Rails". Some folks think it's light 
on Rails and heavy on Ruby, but I disagree.

If you're going to go with separate books, I'd stick with the Pickaxe 
and AWDR. There just aren't any substitutes worth talking about.