Tomarrow is the 10th aniversary on get-a-book-after-getting-paid day. I don't have VS 7.0 yet, but I was wondering if you know any good general C# books that don't dwelve into Visual Studio but try to give the general programming for any compiler being used. Right now I'm using SharpDevelop for programming in C#. i prefer starting from the ground up with C# in the console to get the general syntax down. Thanks.

The only book I've needed to learn C# is "Programming C#" by Jesse Liberty. The first half of the book is about the C# language (all examples are console apps), and the second half about the .NET platform. I really liked the little notes discussing differences between Java, C++, and VB and C#. You will pick up the language very quickly if you are coming from Java or C++.

Highly Recommend: C# and The .NET Platform, Second Edition by Andrew Troelsen.
It even states in the book that the topics covered could be used in any C# IDE (such as SharpDevelop).

You can find it at http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?pwb=1&ean=9781590590553

Its a very good reference book, not a how-to-program book.