If you are looking for an excellent book on ASP.NET 3.5 using C#, I highly recommend Matthew MacDonald's Pro ASP.NET 3.5 in C# 2008
ASP.NET is a huge topic and you can't possibly remember everything about ASP.NET even if you have been using it since ASP.NET 1.0 like myself. Typically you need to have a reference book handy during those times when you can't remember all the various nuances of databinding, caching, asynchronous pages, file I/O and streaming, membership and role providers, cryptography, the page lifecycle, HttpModules and HttpHandlers, etc. I dare say that at 1440+ pages, you are going to have a tough time finding a topic that Pro ASP.NET 3.5 in C# 2008 does not cover.
Particularly what I like about this book and the previous version of the book which I also have ( Pro ASP.NET 2.0 in C# 2005 ) are that they cover the hard topics as well. Things like - how do you realistically use cryptography in ASP.NET when you need access to the keys but need to secure them as well? When using the various datasource controls ( SqlDataSource, LinqDataSource, etc. ) with a GridView or ListView how do you intercept and modify the various commands and parameters at runtime for advanced filtering? How do you provide real-world authentication and authorization using membership and role providers while leveraging the productivity of the various login UI controls, like Login Control, LoginView Control, LoginStatus Control, PasswordRecovery Control, etc? How do you write ADO.NET database provider-agnostic code when you web application needs to support multiple databases like Oracle and SQL Server? These are just some of the tough questions Pro ASP.NET 3.5 in C# 2008 helps you answer.
The book doesn't just regurgitate the MSDN documentation on ASP.NET, but conveys proven practices. Pro AS.NET 3.5 in C# 2008 goes beyond the simple tutorials you find in blogs and magazine articles and attempts to solve the common problems where the various ASP.NET features and controls miss the needs of real-world ASP.NET web applications.
If you don't have a solid, up-to-date book on ASP.NET using C#, I highly recommend Pro ASP.NET 3.5 in C# 2008.
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