The part that strikes me as snobbery is your statement that you cannot learn language design from a small book. Based on my actual experience in the same regime, some of which involved reading books but far more of which involved thinking through code, I think you're just wrong.
"The part that strikes me as snobbery is your statement that you cannot learn language design from a small book. "
I stand by that. Design in any endeavor can't be learned from books, small or big. Before you can "design" you need the nuts and bolts skill to implement your designs.
The books I reccomended, if sincerely worked through, give you the nuts and bolts knowledge to implement the designs you do conceive. Reading through the source of languages you admire, will teach you a lot (I reccomended that too).
Since I never said you could learn language design (vs learning how to build interpreters and compilers - I started my reccomendation list with "If anyone is really interested in learning to build an interpreter or compiler, ..." -) by working though books, I fail to see what you are reacting against?
I maintain that a 44 page book (particularly this one which is an outright scam) doesn't have the space to cover even the basic implementation techniques, leave alone "design".
Please provide counter examples of such "small books" that teach "language design" if you disagree. One counter example is worth a lot of internet debate!
The shortest introduction I know capable of turning you into an interprter/compiler writer is Chapters 4 and 5 of SICP (and there is a lot of stuff in the previous 3 chapters that lead to these chapters).
