I am surprised that no one has mention "Thinking in C++" by Bruce Eckel (ISBN: 0-13-979809-9). You can even get it online! Of course you'll probably want to own a copy, this is a pretty good reference as well. http://mindview.net/Books/TICPP/ThinkingInCPP2e.html For learning about STL I highly recommend "The C++ Standard Library" by Nicolai Josuttis (ISBN: 0-201-37926-0). For learning how to make your own templates, I recommend "C++ Templates" by Vandervoorde and Josuttis (ISBN: 0-201-73484-2)

I can't be worse then MS Bob!!!