"Must Have" Books on Your Bookshelf

Question

I know, that questions regarding books have been asked before. What I'm after is what books are "must haves" on your bookshelf?

You know, those books that, if you don't have a copy, it makes you feel uncomfortable. They keep vanishing because people keep, er, "borrowing" them.

I read Ed Yourdon's The Decline and Fall of The American Programmer and while the book was fairly interesting, his Appendix on what he has on his bookshelf, and why, is quite a revelation. Several of the books on his list are not directly concerned with coding but in the appendix he goes on to explain why they are on his list, e.g. Robert Pirsig's book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

This idea also comes from Peter Coffee's Agile 06 keynote address where he relates his choice of books back to the Agile Manifesto (mp3).

Here are my must haves:

1. Thriving on Chaos (1st ed.) Tom Peters
2. Systemantics: How things work and how they fail (1st ed.) - John Gall
3. The Psychology of Computing Programming - Gerald Weinberg
4. K & R C

What are your must haves?

Answer 1

"The Good Parts", written by Douglas Crockford on JavaScript.

Answer 2

1. Learning to tango with D - Lars Igesund and the other developers of tango
2. Thinking in C++ - Bruce eckel
3. Expert F# - Don Syme, Adam Granicz, and Antonio Cisternino
4. Real World Haskell - Unknown

Answer 3

Martin Fowler's Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture

Answer 4

I have a lot books on my shelf, some of which I think are just there to look good. There's one I often find myself turning back to though:

The Mythical Man Month by Fred Brooks

Answer 5

Code Complete by Steve McConnell

Answer 6

Code Complete, Second Edition by Steven McConnell

Answer 7

Code Complete of course...

and I'm going to be controversial and say the Dragon book as well!

Answer 8

• Martin Fowler's Refactoring
• Everything by Joe Celko
• Everything by Christopher Alexander
• Most of the O'Reilly JavaScript and DHTML References and Cookbooks

Answer 9

Story of philosophy by Will Durant

Answer 10

201 Principles of Software Development by Alan Davis

Answer 11

Programming Pearls by Jon Bentley

Answer 12

Don't Make Me Think - Steve Krug

Answer 13

The C++ Programming Language (Amazon link)

Answer 14

Assuming this question is about becoming a better programmer, I'll repeat what I said in another thread: beyond a certain level of basic competence, general intelligence is more important than technical knowledge. Read books that broaden your understanding of how the world works, not just about the hot new programming language.

Answer 15

• Mastering regular expressions
• Learning Vim
• Hacking vim
• Snowcrash
• Microserfs
• The whole Foundation series
• Life of Pi

Answer 16

Pragmatic Programmer

Answer 17

I think UML Distilled is a great book for UML. And of course The art of programming.

Answer 18

The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman.

Answer 19

So much hidden .NET goodness: CLR via C#

Answer 20

You need to know your limits:

Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid

Answer 21

I feel distinctly uneasy if I do not have a readily available copy of Douglas Hofstadter's "Godel, Escher, Bach"

Answer 22

a thesaurus is indispensable in helping select good variable/method/class/etc names.

i like this one in particular (USD$6.00):

Answer 23

A must have in my bookshelf is Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs. Well, maybe not in my bookshelf, as I only have the HTML version stored in my computer.

It is one of those books that changes the way you think about computer programming. The complete text, assignments and instructor's resources are available on its site. It´s true that the book is showing its age, but the fundamental concepts are still an enlightening read.

Another "must have" of mine is The Business of Software by Michael Cusumano. It discusses business models for software companies and software development issues from a managerial point of view. Always good to have one of these in your bookshelf to stay in the pragmatic side after reading a book like the SICP.

Answer 24

Chicago Manual of Style. I use it frequently. You gotta be able to write about your designs and your code.

(P.S. "You gotta" is probably not an acceptable construct in CMS.)

Answer 25

Working Effectively with Legacy Code by Robert Martin. Useful even when writing new code, since it helps you to keep it from turning into the sort of code that everybody hates to maintain.

Answer 26

C: A Reference Manual

It's not a book for learning C (read K&R for that), it's the best and most up to date piece of C reference material I've found.

Answer 27

Oracle PL/SQL Programming by Steve Feuerstein.

I know after months away from PL/SQL if I can't remember something Steve will help me.

Answer 28

Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel. It's not a programming book, but you should read it anyway.

Answer 29

I can't believe I'm the first to say this but Peopleware, Duh! Owning something from Katty Sierra is recommended too.

Answer 30

What? No one has mentioned Joel Spolsky's crown jewel? I'll do then: "Joel on Software: And on Diverse and Occasionally Related Matters That Will Prove of Interest to Software Developers, Designers, and Managers, and to Those Who, Whether by Good Fortune or Ill Luck, Work with Them in Some Capacity"

Each time I read it I find something to learn!

Answer 31

I have been doing a fair amount of maintenance of late in consulting engagements. I picked up this book on a number of recommendations from the Development community.The book summary can be found at Working Effectively with Legacy Code by author and Object Mentor fellow Michael Feathers, whom is a colleague of the infamous 'Uncle' Bob Martin. A definite must to any professional developer's toolbox!

Answer 32

• Pragmatic Programmer
• Facts & Fallacies
• K&R C
• Don't make me think
• Peopleware

Too bad that it's really hard to get Code Complete 2nd E. here in Germany, I would love to read the book.

Answer 33

I'm surprised Rapid Development didn't make it on anyone's list. It is on mine: http://www.amazon.com/Rapid-Development-Taming-Software-Schedules/dp/1556159005

Answer 34

Bertrand Meyer's Object-Oriented Software Construction

Answer 35

Effective C# is invaluable to me. I look forward to the sequel coming out this month.

http://www.amazon.com/Effective-Specific-Improve-Software-Development/dp/0321245660/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223142349&sr=1-2

Answer 36

Joe Celko's SQL for Smarties.

Answer 37

Code Craft, The practice of writing excellent code.

Answer 38

Martin Fowler's Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture.

Answer 39

Effective C++, Third Edition by Scott Meyers

Answer 40

C++ Pointers and Dynamic Memory Management by Michael Daconta

Answer 41

Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code (Addison-Wesley Object Technology Series) by Martin Fowler, Kent Beck, John Brant, and William Opdyke

Answer 42

If you code C++ there are several must haves.

1. Exceptional C++ - Herb Sutter
2. More Exception C++ - Herb Sutter
3. Even more Exception C++ - Herb Sutter

Answer 43

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. No true programmer can live without it.

Answer 44

Accelerated C++: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Accelerated-Practical-Programming-Example-Depth/dp/020170353X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224457969&sr=8-1

PHP Objects, Patterns, and Practice: http://www.amazon.co.uk/PHP-Objects-Patterns-Practice-2nd/dp/1590599098/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224457998&sr=1-1

Professional ASP.NET 3.5: in C# and VB: In C# and VB (Programmer to Programmer) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Professional-ASP-NET-3-5-VB-Programmer/dp/0470187573/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224458045&sr=1-1

All very good books that have helped me either in the past and to this day.

Answer 45

Algorithms in C++ by Robert Sedgewick. Covers a lot of basic things (like many of the different sorts and trees) that you will probably never use, but now you will know why. :-)

Answer 46

Bertrand Meyer's Object Oriented Software Construction, 2nd Edition

Answer 47

How to Design Programs An Introduction to Computing and Programming

Matthias Felleisen Robert Bruce Findler Matthew Flatt Shriram Krishnamurthi

Answer 48

Wizard Book n. Hal Abelson's, Jerry Sussman's and Julie Sussman's Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (MIT Press, 1984; ISBN 0-262-01077-1), an excellent computer science text used in introductory courses at MIT. So called because of the wizard on the jacket. One of the bibles of the LISP/Scheme world. Also, less commonly, known as the Purple Book.

Answer 49

Code complete, second edition by Steve McConnell

Answer 50

Domain Driven Design, by Eric Evans

Answer 51

An Introduction to General Systems Thinking. Gerald Weinberg.

Whimsically written, profoundly true.

Answer 52

A Pattern Language, Christopher Alexander et al

The architecture book that inspired the software pattern movement. An incredible inspiration, and an affirmation of our need to re-think design in every aspect of our world. Right up there with Don Norman's Design of Everyday Things for anyone with aspirations to be a software architect.

Answer 53

HTTP Developer's Handbook

Answer 54

Applying UML and Patterns, by Craig Larman

Answer 55

Design Patterns

Introduction to Algorithms

OOA/D by Grady Booch

Thinking in C++

Refactoring

Algorithms in C++

[More] Effective C++

Effective STL

Answer 56

Think And Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill keeps me coding through DLL hell.