Cool, the Jeanna Matthews' book also looks pretty hands-on. I'll check it out (yay! I found it in my country's library network :-).
Otherwise, I know quite a few books that have good and interesting code (say, Norvig's PAIP, but a good list can be found in answer to this SO question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/282470/which-books-have-r...). But these books are more passive by nature. You just read and understand the code. While TECS is really all about the projects (there is not much point to the book otherwise).
I also had a good experience with Building Problem Solvers, but I think it's because I used with a particular idea in mind (applying the truth-maintenance systems of the book to debugging metabolic networks; see biohacker.googlecode.com). So I also took a very hands-on approach: not only understanding the code, but running it, fixing it, extending it, etc.
Otherwise, I know quite a few books that have good and interesting code (say, Norvig's PAIP, but a good list can be found in answer to this SO question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/282470/which-books-have-r...). But these books are more passive by nature. You just read and understand the code. While TECS is really all about the projects (there is not much point to the book otherwise).
I also had a good experience with Building Problem Solvers, but I think it's because I used with a particular idea in mind (applying the truth-maintenance systems of the book to debugging metabolic networks; see biohacker.googlecode.com). So I also took a very hands-on approach: not only understanding the code, but running it, fixing it, extending it, etc.