Comments on: 30 books everyone in software business should read (and why)

By: New Swift To-Do List 7 Ultimate edition released – Dextronet.com Blog

New Swift To-Do List 7 Ultimate edition released – Dextronet.com Blog — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 10:28:55 +0000

[...] really great over here! We are growing our business and products big time, expanding our website, connecting with other developers and companies, and swimming in praise from Swift To-Do List customers. You can be sure that there [...]

By: V S

V S — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:45:47 +0000

my top 3 are

Web Design Digital Classroom by John Wiley and Sons
Microsoft Mobile Development Handbook by Andy Wigley
Cloud Computing Bible by Barrie Sosinsky

By: Jiri Novotny

Jiri Novotny — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 07:41:12 +0000

Hope you get some sales out of the mention Joanna. Keep up the great work! Cheers

By: Joanna Wiebe

Joanna Wiebe — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:32:53 +0000

I’ve never heard of someone hatin’ on “Elements of Style”, Petr. It’s such a foundational text. But I guess there are always flaws with any book.

…If you’re looking for a great book about grammar + writing well, I highly recommend the out-of-print, hard-to-find “Grammar As Style”. It’s written by Virginia Tufte… who just so happens to be the mom of data visualization guru Edward Tufte.

BTW, thanks for including “Copy Hackers” on your list, Jiri. Feels awesome to know my little books are getting recognized and helping! :)

By: Jiri Novotny

Jiri Novotny — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 22:05:48 +0000

Umm… how that relates to software business? :-)

By: Mr Mister

Mr Mister — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 22:02:43 +0000

American Psycho

By: A Cheap Tart in a Pond

A Cheap Tart in a Pond — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:53:33 +0000

Good list. As for those who don’t think reading is important, why did they read this & then comment? Kill your tv, rftb!

By: Jiri Novotny

Jiri Novotny — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:51:39 +0000

Thanks for the tip Andrew! The book is from 1989, but it looks like it’s still sound.

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:42:32 +0000

Cool – it’s a short book & potential game-changer for the creative environment in which you write code & for deciding which code to write.

By: Jiri Novotny

Jiri Novotny — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:36:49 +0000

Hi Dave, thanks for the suggestion. I will read Slack.

Just to clarify – I am having a total blast doing what I love. Lunch is not a really dead time for me, but transit to/from office definitely is. When I relax, I want to do it fully, so I have a dedicated time for that as well.

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:31:15 +0000

If you work 8-12 hours a day (work as opposed to being productive) & see lunch as “dead time” you should definitely absolutely add ‘Slack: Getting Past Burn-out, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency, by Tom DeMarco’ to your reading list.

I have only a few books that I consider essential reading, the rest I learn from the internet (which is the greatest tool for informational exchange in human history, bar maybe writing itself).

By: Boris P

Boris P — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:21:41 +0000

No problems =)… Knuth is my #1! The art of Computer Programming + Concrete Mathematics: A Foundation for Computer Science is something that every CS student or programmer must read!

By: Alderaan

Alderaan — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 08:24:55 +0000

“Business is war” – Jack Tramiel

By: Patrick Cummings

Patrick Cummings — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 05:32:19 +0000

Number one on the list ought to be Appendix B in “the Unix Hater’s Handbook”. Very enlightening

By: Paula B Green

Paula B Green — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 04:21:10 +0000

Wow, Boris, I haven’t thought about Knuth in years… Thank you for a blast from the past.

By: Andrew Ferk

Andrew Ferk — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 02:27:46 +0000

Sorry, I have not read many of these books on this list (but I would like to read the majority of them when I have time). Do any of these books cover quality and process management, or even at a finer level, metrics? “Managing the Software Process” by Watts S. Humphrey is a good example (http://www.amazon.com/Managing-Software-Process-Watts-Humphrey/dp/0201180952/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327285391&sr=1-1).

By: itoctopus

itoctopus — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 23:55:03 +0000

The only books really worth reading are those written by Paul Graham.

There are also other basic programming books that I think everyone should read:

- C: How to Program
- LISP: A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation

Learning LISP will make any programmer think outside the box. It’s probably the most “free” language out there, but the world is still not ready for it.

By: Jiri Novotny

Jiri Novotny — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 16:57:18 +0000

It’s there, just not in the 30 books. I wanted to bring attention to some less known books as well.

By: dodgy_coder

dodgy_coder — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 14:05:41 +0000

I put together a compilation of responses from a question on stack overflow that I believe has some greatest titles ever written about programming – this post lists the top 30 … enjoy!

http://www.internetsecuritydb.com/2011/09/top-ten-most-influential-programming.html

FYI, top 5 are:
1. Code Complete (Steve McConnell),
2. The Pragmatic Programmer (Andy Hunt & Dave Thomas),
3. Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, Second Edition (H. Abelson, G.J. Sussman and J.Sussman),
4. The C Programming Language (2nd Edition) (B.W.Kernighan & D.Ritchie),
5. Introduction to Algorithms (Thomas H. Cormen, Charles E. Leiserson, Ronald L. Rivest and Clifford Stein).

By: Stefano Guandalini

Stefano Guandalini — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 13:58:22 +0000

What about “the mythical man month”?