

Books programmers don't really read - mlLK
http://www.billthelizard.com/2008/12/books-programmers-dont-really-read.html

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geebee
There are books that nobody reads because they don't contain good ideas, and
there are books that nobody reads because they're too dense. The second
category contains some of the most valuable books out there.

I'd put the gang of four design patterns book into the second category. Often,
a book or journal article is there to be cited as a breakthrough work on a
subject, but very few people read it - instead, they read the thousands of
other, more easily accessible books and articles on the subject.

This is why "Head First Design Patterns" is in the "books I've read list", and
"GOF" is in the books nobody reads list. GOF is on my shelf, and I've browsed
through it, but I go to other sources to understand and implement design
patterns.

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Retric
Personally I recommend the first half of Ivan Horton's Beginning C++ for any
beginning to intermediate programmer. It's a little dated, but it does a great
job of explaining what things look like in memory and why longs are not all
the same size etc. It's clear without being overly verbose. And more
importantly it's examples are strong examples of what type of code I want to
read.

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jrnkntl
In his list of "Books Most Programmers Have Actually Read", I miss a book that
I'm convinced that every self-respecting Mac OS X programmer read: Aaron
Hillegass' "Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X"

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silentbicycle
In short: _"Please stop recommending books to others that you haven't read
yourself."_

I've really wondered how many people have actually read TAOCP, in particular.
I haven't. I'm still trying to finish SICP (which _is_ fantastic, IMHO, as is
CTM), among others. It's too easy to just start reading yet another book, but
the real value comes when you get past the first chapter or two - that's
usually just rehashed intro material, anyway.

For discussion's sake, what are some programming books people consider worth
reading that _aren't_ Big Highly-Regarded Tomes?

I'm really fond of _The Little MLer_ (for understanding types), _Thinking
Forth_ (a lot of good ideas about refactoring and general program design), and
_Programming in Lua_ (as concise and well-written as K&R, lucidly covers
material like coroutines and prototype-based OO). Any of them could also be
mostly read in a weekend. Also, _Peopleware_, though it's more about the
industry, project management, working in teams, etc.

~~~
russell
I have, first edition even. :-) The first algorithms book that I really found
readable was Sedgewick's Algorithms now updated to C, C++ and Java. Even now I
will read Sedgewick first for clarity and go back to TAOCP or CLRS for
analysis.

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wheels
Meh. I'm not convinced. I've only read one book on his _list of books
programmers have actually read_ and have read more than half of the books (not
AOCP or Dragon Book) on the _list of book programmers haven't actually read_.

I've not even heard of a few of the ones on the first list.

CLRS _is_ a reasonable introduction to _computer science_ , not programming.
It starts off with basic concepts of the math in CS and then sorting
algorithms -- just like any decent intro to CS course / book.

The C++ Programming Language _is definitely not_ for language implementors.
For that there's a (fairly accessible) language specification that's also
published in book form, which is also useful as a reference for things which
are out of scope for the The C++ Programming Language. It is, however, not a
good intro book, and honestly, not a great reference book either. It's just
that it's somewhat more comprehensive than other references.

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ruddzw
I dunno about this. Of the books under "books most programmers have actually
read," the only one I've read is the C programming language (K&R). But I think
I'm probably more likely to read the GoF design patterns book or the rest of
my college algorithms book ( [http://www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Design-Jon-
Kleinberg/dp/0321...](http://www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Design-Jon-
Kleinberg/dp/0321295358/) ) than Programming Pearls or Effective Java.

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bootload
_"... I've read all of these books myself, so I have no difficulty believing
that any moderately competent programmer has read them as well ..."_

Books, books doesn't anyone read code?

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jherdman
I read a large portion of the Dragon Book in University. It was interesting,
but I didn't get all the way through it. I've honestly found books like
"Refactoring" to be a more valuable a read.

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jpcx01
Hurray for Amazon affiliate book spamming!

~~~
kqr2
You could always try this greasemonkey script which always substitutes your
own Amazon affiliate id so you can sponsor yourself.

<http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/3468>

~~~
jonknee
Which directly breaks the Amazon Associates TOS and would allow Amazon to not
pay you and delete your account.

<https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/agreement>

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