I'd disagree. They're better off getting some feedback on books that might appeal to their learning style and background better. Otherwise they may tire quickly and not learn well-enough.

Or to put it mathematically, the optimal amount of exploration time in this explore/exploit problem is far less than you might think.

Actually, having gone through multiple programming books, I disagree with that. I highly recommend HTDP because of their design recipes. The book shows you an approach to solving problems with programs rather than just the syntax of a language. This book has had the largest impact on my (very humble) approach to programming.