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I found Vynnycky & White's An Introduction to Infectious Disease Modelling [1] fantastically interesting to go through. I know games are the traditional "fun" way to learn a programming language, but simulating a Resident Evil or 28 Days Later apocalypse is, for me, far more interesting :).

[1] http://www.amazon.com/An-Introduction-Infectious-Disease-Mod...

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