A friend asked me for some recommendations of SAS books and I hope it would not be too late! If I got the similar inquiries, I will just refer to this post:)
It’s not a good idea just to dump every SAS titles to beginners. If only one needed in your bookshelf, I will pick up this ultimate set:
SAS Programming Course Notes (I, II, III)
Typically people got such course notes by attending SAS trainings, but you can also get the electronic copies only from SAS bookstore (online of course, $100 for each). Well organized, easy to follow as self learner, with coverage from basic to advanced topics, these course notes will be definitely your best investment to boost your SAS career.
Note that SAS Programming I online course is set to free for one year period. You won’t get the free course note, the online training is fantastic.
Actually there was also one wonderful alternative for the course notes, if you can get it by chance:
SAS OnlineTutor
SAS Online Tutor (both for Base and Advanced) is best of best for beginners: step-by-step, interactive and with full coverage of SAS Base/Advanced certificate tests. It was once shipped with SAS 9.1.3 but gone since 9.2.
You might find the links online (once showed up in SAS-L) but use at your own risks due to the potential copyright issue:
SAS OnlineTutor®: Basic and Intermediate SAS
http://web.utk.edu/sas/OnlineTutor/1.2/en/60476/paths.htm
_SASOnlineTutor®:Advanced SAS_