Programming is not something you can learn entirely from reading. It's something you have to learn by doing.

I've never been able to learn anything without the doing part. Decades ago, I worked my way through an APL text expecting that a system supporting APL would soon be available. That system never materialized. The only thing I now retain regarding APL is the critical factoid that you need to buy a special golf ball for your Selectric in order to be able to write/print APL source code.

In general, I've never been able to learn anything without being able to play with it, and the more play, the more learning.