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Rating: 
Summary: Great as a first book on object-oriented programming
Review: I really enjoyed this book. The author covers all the important oo concepts in several languages. This allows you to get an excellent perspective on each concept without being distracted by each language's implemention of that concept. I also appreciated the writing skills of the author. He was always clear and precise. A lot of information is packed into a relatively slim volume. Of several introductory oo books I've recently read, this one easily tops my list.
Rating: 
Summary: Good practical interlingual introduction to OOP concepts.
Review: I used this text for an OOP course I taught to college sophomores whose previous background was Pascal and C. I chose this book because, almost uniquely in the field, it was NOT tied to one specific language and that language's OOP idiom, but rather pointed out significant differences among C++, Java, Smalltalk, Objective-C, and two different Object Pascals in their views of OOP. (I was disappointed by the absence of multi-dispatch languages such as CLOS from the list.) Budd introduces each major principle and programming construct in practical but language-independent terms, then illustrates how that construct is specified in several different languages. I found Budd's treatment of the basic concepts much simpler, clearer, and less jargon-laden than that in Booch. My students had some trouble, but they got through much of the book, whereas I can't imagine them wading through Booch at all. I still like the interlingual approach, but I would advise teachers using the book to pick two or three of the languages and simply ignore the rest of the examples, to avoid confusing students too much. I haven't found the ideal text for this course, but Budd is at least a pretty good one.
Rating:
Summary: Sets the proper foundation
Review: I've been using classes more as a means of organizing and improving the maintainability, understanding of various applications I've built over the past 3 years (VB). As I am about to develop solutions using the .NET platform (C#, VB.NET), I thought it would do me good to formalize my understanding of OOP/OOD. After reading this text (3rd Edition), I not only formalized my understanding, but was able to see OOP as clearly as I could structured programming (Code Complete). In my opinion, all should use this as the first book before trying to participate/apply J2EE or Microsoft.NET as it will allow you "properly" communicate, design and code systems from abstraction to detail.
Rating:
Summary: Great Introduction to OOP
Review: I've read a number of introductions to object-oriented design and programming. This one is the best all-around introduction that I have seen. It starts in the real world, with a discussion of how one plans and organizes a task (sending flowers to a significant other) that requires more than a single person to get done. That's a pleasant change from texts that begin with Dauntingly Dry Definitions ("encapsulation", "inheritance", and my favorite, "polymorphism"). To the author's credit, he avoids launching into inheritance until Chapter 8, by which time he has laid enough groundwork to reduce the concept to common sense. Other concepts are presented in a similar manner. Note that this book is a survey book, not an in-depth programming manual. You won't learn C++ or Delphi, or any of the other half-dozen languages used for the book's examples. And the book focuses on concepts, rather than implementation. you won't learn how to implement a Singleton pattern in C#, although you will learn what it is and why it is useful. Finally, the book assumes familiarity with traditional, procedural programming. This is not a Programming 101 text. I would recommend this book enthusiastically as a starting point for anyone making the transition from traditional programming to OOP. If you are moving to the DotNet platform, I have created a list ("So you'd like to ... Transition to DotNet") with some other recommended texts.
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