I have read the first two books when i was in 11th standard and then grew over it(I rarely use it for refrence).I was really dissapointed by the book,most of it were of no intrest to me.But i found the book "linux hacking exposed" to be very good and worth th money you invest for buying it.
May be you can also try the range of books available in the exposed series(web application hacking(or something like that), network security/hacking) .Hope this helped.I think you trying to go for windows specific programmming, i dont say that its wrong (may be you are older than me im only 18), so no advices only tips.
If you really want tolearn programming try linux ,i have read the codes and am proud to say that i didnt understand any thing i read (the c code that is).Visit www.paulgraham.com, read some articles and you will get my argument.