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Best programming books ?

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kartal:
Hey Guys-Gals-Furries

I am trying to compile a list of good programming books(that I can also check out from local library :) I am looking for not too advanced stuff somewhere between beginner-intermediate level. I saw some forum entries but not very spesific to snappy programming books. Bear in mind though I am not a programmer, just a hobbiest, but I have done some programming when I was very young like around 14 with Turbo Pascal (on 8086-80286), but that was a long time ago. Anyways I am trying to get back to programming. I am kind of sick of hacking stuff :) 

Here are couple I am enjoying at the moment 

-"Core Python Programming" by Wesley J. Chun. I love the way he writes and explains. He goes high and low without loosing any rythm.
-"Algorithms" by Teach Yourself. It is a nice and cute book. It explains various algorithms with pseudo codes. I kind of like it.


 

bgd77:
At the beginning I recommend this one: C Programming Language by Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0131103628

And then, for C++, see this topic (the books recommended by mouser):
https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=3269.0

Jibz:
Programming Pearls by Bentley is worth a read :).

mnemonic:
From an analysis point-of-view:

Applying UML and Patterns - Larman

Writing effective use-cases - Cockburn

And a disucssion of programming books wouldn't be (code) complete without mention of:

Code complete - McConnell

This is an interesting introduction to how computers work:

Code - Petzold

I'm with you too - took up development in Python years after leaving school, where I learnt in Turbo Pascal  :Thmbsup:

40hz:
+1 with you on Wesley Chun. Great author and a great book! :Thmbsup:

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I was always happy with the O'Reilly Learning (fill in the blank) books.  :-* As far as I'm concerned O'Reilly does it better than anyone. I have a ton of their stuff on various topics. (IMHO, their book Active Directory provides the only decent coverage of the topic. Better even than Microsoft.)

Many professional coders got their start with an O'Reilly book. These are professional tools. Look at the reference shelf in almost any coder's workspace and you'll likely see a few well-used O'Reilly books sitting there.

The material is paced nicely - neither too fast nor too slow. I also like their style. They speak to you as though you're an adult with a brain in your head who actually intends to learn something. They don't coddle you. But they also don't lull you with four slow chapters and then take off and leave you in the dust after that.

If you methodically work your way through an O'Reilly title, you will always come away with a good understanding of the topic. I taught myself Python with Learning Python and a few other titles in their Python series. And I use what I've learned in the book Python for Unix and Linux System Administration nearly every day.

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I also highly recommend Frederick Brooks classic The Mythical Man Month. This is THE book on software project management by the man who was central to the development of IBM's (at the time) radical System-360 operating system. It's at least 20 years old by now, but still incredibly relevant. I understand an Anniversary Edition is now out with a new Preface by Brooks himself.

This is one of the best computing books I ever read. 8)

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