I like the “Step By Step” books; however, they are only good if you know what you are looking to do. If you try one of the “Exam Cram” books you might get and better base and prepare yourself to take a certification test. I also like the Unleashed series but the cover so mush I wouldn’t think of them as a good starter book. The first .Net book I bought was a Step By Step. The one I bought was for Asp.Net I like this one because it has both VB and C# code.

Are you checking to make sure your record set has values? Are you displaying a single record because I do not see a loop.