Hi,
Some time ago I found a book "Fatal Defect: Chasing Killer Computer Bugs" by Ivars Peterson. Those who read the book, most probably was impressed by thrilling stories of real live bugs around us.
Later I come across of well known Death march by Edward Yourdon. This book was describing so many things happing in my day by day job life.
And what books/articles "changed" your live? :)
The Smashing Book from Smashing Media GmbH which is not even available in the bookshop yet. I already like it and it already changed my life ;-)
"The C Programming Language" by Kernighan and Ritchie, and "Introduction to Algorithms" by CLRS.
To my mind, the sine qua non of books like these is Tracy Kidder's The Soul of a New Machine. I think it's seeing the hardware and software bugs get tackled at the same time which does it for me.
"You 2.0" was a good read that I found rather inspiring though it does require some actions to get the full value out of it, not unlike "Life Strategies" from Dr. Phil.
"Excuses Begone!" could be useful if you want to overcome negative thinking patterns.
Godel, Escher, Bach was one of the more inspiring books I read - sheer joy of concepts.
The beginning of Google. This must be the research with the biggest ROI of all times:
Definitely have to say that Joel On Software inspired me, and continues to inspire me.
The Pragmatic Programmer has inspired me to write better software.
The Design of Everyday Things. I can't look at a user interface - be it on software, or a piece of equipment, or a door - in the same away again.
Domain Driven Design by Eric Evans. There are so many useful nuggets of information, and when applied correctly can create a cohesive communication between at all levels of development from stakeholders right down to junior programmers. It's not light reading, but I value what its taught me, and look forward to working more in a way that focuses on solving the core business needs and being a good Agile citizen.
Very badly written, on tangentially related to programming, but 'I am right you are wrong' by edward di bono has some very nice concepts in it.
Agile software development with SCRUM encouraged me to start looking at agile
Beautiful Code made be realise that code can be beautiful and inspired me to write more beautiful code
What do you care what other people think?. The section about Feynman's involvement with the Rogers commission inspired me to not be ashamed to ask questions if I don't understand something.