Programming books I have read and somewhat liked | Hacker News Reader

Programming books I have read and somewhat liked

mostlymaths.net

45 pointsRBerenguel29 comments

The Little Schemer is an updated version of The Little Lisper. It also happens to be much cheaper: http://www.amazon.com/Little-Schemer-Daniel-P-Friedman/dp/02...

It's an excellent introduction to thinking recursively. The others in the series (The Seasoned Schemer, The Reasoned Schemer) are worth reading too.

Thanks, I'll try to get myself a copy from a library. That's how I got to read the LL, and really loved it (that's why I have a try to A little Java).

Readers who liked that selection of books would probably get on well with Peter Norvig's "Paradigms of artificial intelligence programming: case studies in Common Lisp", which I consider a good candidate for Best Programming Book Ever.

SICP is by far the best book I have read in my life.

That is very sad. I feel bad for you. There are so many wonderful books in the world - the fact that a programming book is "by far" the best book you've read in the world is just tragic.

Try these ones:

- Narcissus & Goldmund by Hermann Hesse

- One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marques

- Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

I feel bad for you to feel bad for me. We each have different opinions and this book has a very special meaning to me. I never said I didn't like other books, but this one is my personal favorite, even if it's a technical book.

Oliver Twist is certainly a great one. But my Dickens' favourite is David Copperfiled. I still read it from time to time and it is always a great journey.

My personal favorite is A Tale of Two Cities, but I haven't read enough Dickens yet to be sure what I have missed.

But while I heartily agree that reading classic literature is very worthwhile, I also think that reading a nonfiction book like SICP (Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs) can be a deep and rich experience, a reading experience that can change someone's life for the better.

I loved a Tale of Two Cities. Amazing writing. Just amazing. The scene where they're escaping from Paris is just incredible.

I agree but just a small correction : s/Marques/Márquez/ (pronunciation : 'markes) they are both common Spanish family names leading to a common confusion.

Great fiction is one thing. SICP is another.

- Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell

- How the Steel Was Tempered by Nikolai Ostrovsky

One Hundred Years of Solitude

Completely offtopic, but...

i've never been able to finish it. The repetitiveness bored me out of my skull. It's on the stack of unfinished books with, among others, On the Road (by Kerouac) and Catch-22 (by Heller). I'd rather re-read Gormenghast (by Peake), The Plague (by Camus) or any book by Marukami.

Efficiency tip: don't read articles with "top 10" lists.

That's why I wrote it as 9. I just don't have 10 good programming books to give.

Now I read my answer, I missed a :) at the end. Don't want to sound harsh, it was just a joke. I could have added Stroustrup's C++ to make it a 10, but I don't really like it, personal opinion, as I think a lot of people love it.

http://sites.google.com/site/steveyegge2/ten-challenges

Good list, i'd be interested to know how much you've made off the links to amazon in a couple weeks.

I wasn't too interested in this particular post, but the rest of the site definitely had some good reading! The little algorithm-into-Postscript-thumbnail was very attractive and it would be interesting to see some code for that.

Glad you liked other things from it :) I think I have a direct link to my GoogleCode in the post about this C-2-PS, anyway here it is: http://code.google.com/p/rberenguel/source/browse/#svn/trunk...

It is still a very very beta version, intended only for my own use. I have plans to rewrite big chunks of it, add some more tweaks and then document, but it is somewhat of quite a lot of work (although more and more people show some interest on it) and I have a lot other non-urgent non-important fun projects... Not enough time :)

If you have some question on how it works or anything, contact me as you see fit.

http://isbn.nu/authorx/comer_douglas/

I'd feel a lot better about this post without all of the affiliate links.

D'oh! You mean the Amazon links? Well... I'd love if someone would buy anything from my posts :) But in fact, I guess that almost everyone interested in these books... has these books already. I just put them whenever I write anything about a book. I also did it back in time when I didn't have an Amazon Affiliates account, just to give the possible reader a quick link to see reviews and contents.

Yes. The amazon affiliate links call into question your motives for posting this on hacker news.

It makes me wonder if the affiliate links are the purpose of the post.

I post in hacker news because it is a place with people interested in the subject, sorry. Moreover, the links are quite clearly marked as buy on Amazon link. If you don't want to buy that book, you don't click on the link. If you found the review of a book interested, you keep reading, if you don't, you close the tab and keep on browsing. It's not like I'm putting a name and linking to another place.

The link got a few votes (thanks everyone who read and liked), so I guess I was right in posting it here.

Why do you complain about an individual sharing his thoughts, and not about NYTimes, which is stuffed with advertisement? Or like 90% other hn posts with advertisement on it's pages.

Perhaps because the advertisements are mixed with the content.

I don't think you can claim that mixing advertisements and content is a bad thing unless the advertisements are misleading. There is nothing misleading about those links.

"It makes me wonder if the affiliate links are the purpose of the post."

Is that a bad thing?

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