The following list includes 2 books published by Variant Press.
LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Power Programming: Robotics in C, (Second Edition) by John Hansen teaches the text-based Next Byte Codes (NBC) and Not eXactly C (NXC) languages that the author has developed. The book also covers the BricxCC IDE, which the author also maintains. Besides offering a ton of programming examples, the book offers a few projects with building instructions. Although NBC and NXC are excellent text-based languages for first time programmers, the book includes a good deal of advanced content that serious programmers will enjoy.
Maximum LEGO NXT: Building Robots with Java Brains by Brian Bagnall discusses programming NXT robots with Java, which is made possible through the leJOS NXJ language. Author and NXJ developer Brian Bagnall teaches both the basic and advanced concepts of the language although having an understanding of Java is important. The book includes several interesting robots with building and programming instructions.