What is special about the O'Reilly Cookbook Series?

From the Perl Cookbook (1998, 2e 2003) to my own Java Cookbook (2001, 2e 2004) and the community-written Python Cookbook (2003, 2e 2005), O'Reilly has produced a long series of useful guides - currently around fifty titles in print - for developers and computer users.

Part of that utility has been a continued adherence to a fairly standard format: each "recipe" has a title, a short statement of the Problem, a brief summary of the Solution, a detailed Discussion usually including code examples, and optionally a See Also referring to additional information on the subject.

O'Reilly Cookbooks are available in traditional print format as well as online via Safari. Many are also available in eBook form (PDF, mobi, and so on).