win32 API Books
any Windows programming title by Herb Schildt is likely to pay for itself.
Also, I have heard good things about Charles Petzolds "Windows 98 Programming" (or something like that).
Good luck,
-mordell
Yeah, sure... we are laughing WITH you ...
A polar bear is a rectangular bear after a coordinate transform.
allbooks4less.com has Petzold for $25. Quite a good deal for such a gigantic tome.
(my byline from the Gamedev Collection series, which I co-edited) John Hattan has been working steadily in the casual game-space since the TRS-80 days and professionally since 1990. After seeing his small-format games turned down for what turned out to be Tandy's last PC release, he took them independent, eventually releasing them as several discount game-packs through a couple of publishers. The packs are actually still available on store-shelves, although you'll need a keen eye to find them nowadays. He continues to work in the casual game-space as an independent developer, largely working on games in Flash for his website, The Code Zone (www.thecodezone.com). His current scheme is to distribute his games virally on various web-portals and widget platforms. In addition, John writes weekly product reviews and blogs (over ten years old) for www.gamedev.net from his home office where he lives with his wife and daughter in their home in the woods near Lake Grapevine in Texas.