My tech book list for 2009
11 January 2010
The title probably tells it all, below is the list of technical books I read in 2009. I am -unfortunately :)- not getting paid for any recommendation that lies herein.
My Job Went to India
This one is a real motivation booster. Or it might function like love in the case of separated lovers: if you were motivated in the first place, you'll get a kick out of this book and want to do everything it recommends right from the next day. If you were not it might depress you to have to do so many things to stay afloat. Full of useful advices mostly drawn from the author's personal experience in India. 5/5!
(There is a second, reworked version under the name: The Passionate Programmer, you should probably buy that one.)
User Interface Design for Programmers
I real like Joel Spolsky's essays both for the content and for his witty style. I laughed out loud on several remarks in this book, too. The book reaffirms how important good UI is, makes it accessible for programmers by giving guidelines and provides some examples of good (and especially bad) examples. Its style makes the "dry" technical stuff fun to read.
The Pomodoro Technique
A time-management and productivity tool, the Pomodoro Technique is the latest craze. The technique can be summarized in a few paragraphs, the details fill about 40 pages which comprise this book. The e-book can be downloaded for free. Although I do not follow all the advices described in the book fully (like administering the tasks you have done at the end of each day) I think the technique is a great way to achieve focus especially if you have problems with it. (The PragProgs have also recently published a book about it)
Programming Clojure
Clojure is a functional programming language that runs in the JVM (hence the "j", I guess). This excellent book contains everything you need to know to start (and continue) programming in Clojure from multimethods to infinite sequences, from ways to deal with concurrency to understanding and writing macros. Clojure rocks and so does this book!
The Principles of Beautiful Web Design
I bought this book to be able to do a fancier design than putting black text on white background and using ugly textboxes with Times Roman fonts. It has certainly lived up to this goal and it has some very practical advices and links to resources (I particularly liked the chapter about color). Just as its title says, it explains principles rather than implementation details, which is what I was looking for. That said, I still feel I need another book (and a decent amount of practice, of course) to beam me to the level I had planned to reach before buying it. Any suggestions?
Test-Driven Development By Example
A true classic, I reckon this book is a must-read for anyone aspiring to adhere to TDD or in fact for anyone already doing it at any level of mastery. In the first two chapters two distinct functionalities are developed (the first one, the Money example, in Java, the second, the xUnit example, in Python) by tiny steps using TDD, at each step pondering on the problem at hand and giving an explanation of the chosen solution. The third and final chapter deals with TDD patterns and is an invaluable addition to the first two chapters. Now that I am writing about it I feel like I should reread this book in 2010 (and then probably once every year). Red, green, refactor!
Pragmatic Thinking and Learning
The fact that I have not finished only goes to show its splendidness, I simply don't want it to end yet. (I read this in a Paul Graham essay but I can't find it right now). Its subtitle, "Refactor your wetware", is telling: it shows you how to make yourself more productive by harnessing the innate capabilities of your brain and debugging its intrinsic "bugs". I guess it is also a very refreshing read because it is about our mind and its workings and not some dry technical stuff. The stories and anecdotes linked to some of the sections makes it easy to recall the message. In fact, I liked this book so much I created a "twitter mini-framework" and a twitter channel for the concise version of the advices.
Life is not just about stubbing, view helpers and achromatic color schemes
On a Christmas evening, I sat down on a comfy sofa with Révolutions by J.M.G. Le Clézio in my hand and was totally immersed in it right from page one. I realized I need occasions like this to repeatedly remind myself how much I miss of life if I only ever read technical books. (Sadly, my list of novels I read last year is a lot shorter than the above one but I heartily recommend you A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini and Poisson d'or by J.M.G. Le Clézio)
Any good books you have read?
I am also making a (so far, only mental) list of books for this year and would like to hear your opinion, too. So have you read any books lately that you would passionately recommend for others?
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