Steve Yegge
Programmer and essayist, formerly of Amazon, Google and Grab; author of the Stevey's Drunken Blog Rants and Stevey's Blog Rants essays.
Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools by Aho, Sethi and Ullman
and it's by far the hardest book in the list so far, even more so than The Algorithm Design Manual, in no small part because it's extremely dense.
on sites.google.com · 15 Apr 2010
Concurrent Programming in Java: Design Principles and Patterns by Doug Lea
Excellent book on concurrency.
on sites.google.com · 15 Apr 2010
Design Patterns by Gamma, Helm, Johnson and Vlissides
This book was incredible.
on sites.google.com · 15 Apr 2010
Mastering Regular Expressions by Jeffrey Friedl
This is a great book for exactly, precisely the reason that all O'Reilly books are great: it covers complex material in a way that's accessible to uncomplex people.
on sites.google.com · 15 Apr 2010
Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code by Martin Fowler
and there aren't many books like it. None, maybe. They don't typically teach you how to write good code in school, and you may never learn on the job.
on sites.google.com · 15 Apr 2010
The Algorithm Design Manual by Steven S. Skiena
I've read a ton of data-structures and algorithms books, and I've never found one like this one. Its unconventional approach is refreshing and keeps you interested.
on sites.google.com · 15 Apr 2010
The C Programming Language by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie
This is an odd little book. It's frequently mistaken for an introductory programming book, which inevitably leads to frustration.
on sites.google.com · 15 Apr 2010
The Little Schemer by Friedman and Felleisen
This is without question one of the weirdest technical books you'll ever encounter. But don't be put off by the format.
on sites.google.com · 15 Apr 2010
The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas
This is one of my favorite books on programming, although I burned through it in about 3 or 4 hours, and didn't learn a huge amount from it.
on sites.google.com · 15 Apr 2010
Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs by Harold Abelson
I went ahead and gave it another chance, and I was way wrong. It's awesome.
on sites.google.com · 13 Dec 2004
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