I decided to read books (real books!) and many of them. For those (geeks) that don’t know what books are I will remind that books were used before the computers age, by people (!), to store and transmit high quantities of information. :-)
Today books are used to add extra height to different objects ranging from computers and laps to … babies. Books can be also found on shelves. If you find yourself between many shelves with many books it means you are in a library or a book store.
OK, funny enough. I tried to gather, from different sources, the high rated titles (tech and non-tech geeky books). The reading process will take me a few months (years maybe) but it worth.
It is obvious that one cannot enjoy all the books people recommend. Many times I found horrible a book rated by many with five stars. I am sure that from the list of books I want to read at least 10% will be abandoned after the first few pages. Some books just don’t have that… sparkle… that makes you want to continue the lecture.
Each book will get one of the following ratings:
- “Must read” (these books will get on the Books page)
- “Good book”
- “Mediocre”
- “Bad book”
Currently I am reading the first book in the list and seems to be a good one. Here goes “The List” in random order.
Did you read one of these books? Help me prioritize the list by telling your opinion about that book.
(+2 rating, 2 votes)
The Art of Computer Programming. Donald Knuth. I head from many teachers and friends, that’s the foundations of a good thinking in computer programming, or everything has to to with computers/ and some mathematics. I read some things from that book, and it very good, it’s all explained well, and you find ouy many interesting things.
The book is that kind of a more general book, that teaches you things you can apply them in many contexts.
Here are my recommendations:
1) “The Art of Computer Programming” (all 3 volumes) is boring unless you have an interest in theoretical stuff or you need special algorithms in your work. I treated this book like a reference until most of stuff was implemented in libraries (now I just use the libraries). My recommendation: read only the chapters that might interest you.
2) “They Mythical Man Month” is a very interesting software engineering book. In my opinion, you are not a true software engineer if you do not read this book. From the surface the book will feel a bit outdated in some aspects but if you read it from a historical perspective you find a lot of philosophical gems about the science of software engineering. My recommendation: read it from cover to cover.
3) “Peopleware” is an outstanding book about the human aspect of software. The examples presented in the book are software industry centric but they can be easily applied to any other discipline that requires team collaboration and deep thought. My recommendation: read it cover to cover.
I will pick “The Inmates are Running the Asylum: Why High-tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity” from your list. It will be an interesting retrospective on user interface perceptions from the late ’90s.
7 habits of highly effective people, Ive read this (with fast-forward where it gets boring actually). its an interesting book with a lot of focus on examples from the author’s life and work experience. its about bringing a good balance between work and family, the author speaks about his family a lot and the mentality he taught his children and so on. its a very family-focused book, imo.
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