Ask HN: Programming books that are more like math books?

So lately I've been trying to learn to program. It's quite clear that the best way to learn will be by doing. What I find odd is the structure of programming books (or educational materials) don't support this notion. Even the most interactive resources I've found (why's Try Ruby, Eloquent Javascript, etc) follow a structure like this:

1. describe concept

2. demonstrate application (sometimes)

3. provide a related exercise (sometimes) with solution (sometimes)

A typical (basic) math book, and what I'd like to find in a programming book, goes something like this:

1. describe concept

2. demonstrate several applications

3. provide 30-50 related exercises of increasing difficulty

4. provide solutions (with explanations[1]) to most or all of the exercises

[1]Math books usually don't provide explanations, but I think they would be helpful in a programming book.

It may not be pretty, and math books often use terrible exercises (especially the "real-world" exercises), but if you sit down and work through all of them, you will learn.

Programmers often say, "Just start a project." I've found that's a good way to learn how to do a particular project, and a good way to learn how to piece together frameworks and plugins and libraries, but not necessarily a good way to learn how to program (I understand all of that is part of programming, but I think there's a self-sufficiency that I'm looking for that is separate from the piecing together of things).

At any rate, does anyone know of a resource that's closer to the math book style (preferably Ruby or JS)? Is there a reason why programming books aren't written in that format?