Ask HN: Do you read programming books? What are some good ones? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Do you read programming books? What are some good ones?

7 pointsritchiea2 comments

When I read the submission "Stack Overflow ranks #2 for Google Search for "Stack Overflow" I also came across this early blog post by Joel Spolsky that explains stack overflow's beginnings:

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/04/16.html

Early on he says "Programmers seem to have stopped reading books." Is this true in your experience? Do you read books on programming or just rely on the web? One of my co-workers told me he definitely doesn't read books on programming and he believes all the information he needs is available on the internet. Personally I've made a point of reading a lot from books this year instead of mostly reading on the web and I find:

1. I read more because I don't get sucked into occasional videos or image heavy sites.

2. I read better quality material presumably because the vast majority of writers on the web don't have editors.

3. I read content that is intended to have lasting value rather than addressing fads or issues that are small in their scope. (this could also be a function of what I'm reading since I've taken it upon myself to read some "classics" like Pragmatic Programmer, Code Complete, The Mythical Man Month & Edward Tufte's Envisioning Information)

Do you read books about programming or software development? What do you read? What do you recommend?

I usually read books when I'm trying to learn something new and complex, such as a new programming language. I have a few reasons for that:

- The information in books is complete. Tutorials on the web usually cover only a tiny fraction of everything there is to know about a specific technology. Tutorials often go deep into a specific part of the technology, or try to cover everything in a very shallow way. Books provide a thorough explanation of everything, nut just a tiny fraction.

- Books (if you make the right selection, I usually type "best [some technology] book" in google and read the suggestions on stackoverflow or other programming sites) are usually written by authoritative people in the industry. Very often by the author of the programming language that you're trying to learn. Not by some amateur who has some spare time and wants to write a blog post.

- It's much more pleasant to read long texts on paper than on a bright computer screen where you have to scroll all the time and cant place physical bookmarks.

As for your last question (what I read and can recommend):

Tech:

- Design patterns : elements of reusable object-oriented software

- Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture

- Code Complete 2

- Clean Code

- Pro ASP.NET MVC (if you're into MS stuff like me)

- Scrum and XP from the trenches

Marketing/business:

- Business model generation

- Purple Cow

- Permission marketing

- Rework

(how to do these line breaks correct?)

I didn't like SICP. I can handle boring books, but this one is pretty extreme.

"The Pragmatic Programmer" is one of the best books on programming I've read. When it first came out I read it and then went out and bought a copy for every member of my team. It's fabulous.

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