Actually both books have the same two authors.

But why would their having collaborated on a Ruby book make you turn your nose up at a general programming book? This sounds more like bigotry to me than anything else. The best programmers in any language tend to know several - and like multiple ones. It is much easier to notice that a language over there has a nice feature that works well and borrow it than it is to come up with original ideas. Larry Wall knows this well, which is why Perl derives from so many sources. I hope he continues to do so.

Also see Why I Hate Advocacy by Dominus. And think carefully about what he has to say.

Don't knock a new tool until you have tried it. And just because someone likes one tool that you don't is no reason to never deal with them again.