An extensive list of top programming books available for preview on Google Books. Google Books provides scans of thousands of textbooks. The scans are not the best, most books have visible scan defects in them.
Even though the scans are not the best, there are some features that just work well. Just like Google Maps, where you can send a link to a map (with a set size, address, etc), with Google Books you can send a link to a specific page in a certain book with specific words highlighted. Google also has handy links such as the table of contents, popular passages, and where to buy the book (perhaps in a better quality PDF format).
All the books listed here have a 'limited preview', meaning that some pages are not available for viewing but for the most part you can browse through most the the book. Google Books does indicate the pages that are not available.
C/C++
The Concurrent C Programming Language
.Net/C#
The Visual Basic .NET Programming Language
Pro C# 2005 and the .NET 2.0 Platform
Java
The Java Language Specification
Effective Java Programming language
Python
Visual Quickstart Guide: Python
JavaScript/DOM
JavaScript: The Definitive Guide
Beginning JavaScript with DOM Scripting and AJAX
The Complete Reference JavaScript
Ruby/Rails
Rails Solutions: Ruby on Rails Made Easy
Beginning Ruby on Rails E-Commerce
Database
Visual Quickstart Guide: MySQL
SQL Server 2005: Developer's Guide
