I'm finishing up Dawson's "Beginning C++ Through Game Programming." I'm in the process of looking for another book that focuses on game programming, but w/so many out there, I really don't know which direction to head. I'm contemplating either "Beginning DirectX 10 Game Programming" by Wendy Jones or "Introduction to 3D Game Programming with DirectX 10" by Frank Luna. Aside from Dawson's book, I've been utilizing "Practical C++ Programming" & "Teaching Yourself C++" by completing the exercises (as well as Dawson's), and working on coding simple games (i.e. hangman, tic-tac-toe). What I'd like to learn is how to create the GUI's & input 2D graphics. Appreciate your recommendations. Maveryck

Of the two, I would go with Frank Luna's book. It has better reviews, and it seems to be pretty good from the parts I've read from it. Just a warning: this book is more about the graphics side of game programming (which sounds kind of like what you are looking for), there is no real game that gets programmed it's pretty much just a lot of demos of different 3D graphics that can be used in games.

If you don't have to use DirectX 10, you might want to check out Introduction to 3D Game Programming with DirectX 9.0c: A Shader Approach by Frank Luna. It has a whole chapter dedicated to DirectX sprites and 2D graphics before moving into 3D.

Thanks. I'll look into both of Luna's books. Appreciate the recommendation.