Do you read books? Recommend one! 📚

Doing a small personal research here. How many of you actually read books on software development (I don't mean buying and collecting them :P)?

ALSO, I've a train in 3h as well and I would love to start reading sth nice. So recommendations are welcome :D

We can't do pools here on dev.to, please pick one of:

1. I've read 5 or more books in the last year.
2. I've read between 3 to 4 books in the last year.
3. I have read 2 or less books in the last year.
4. I didn't read any book in the last year.

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PS: btw I'm building a job board for remote developers and companies with remote-first culture. If you are interested here is a link: devsonremote.com

Comments

[Renan Ferro]

By the way, nice topic!

So this one is really different (not about development, but it's a good choice)

[Dev on Remote]

Read this one, really makes you think about life and not only. it changed how I perceive some things. Also recommend this one!

[Renan Ferro]

Surely you have also read “The Courage to Be Happy”? It looks interesting too...

[Dev on Remote]

Wasn't aware about this one. Did you read it? From what I see its also using Adler's psychology, so it might be nice.

[Renan Ferro]

Not yet, but I'll read it!

[Shariq Ahmed]

Currently reading this and so far it's amazing

[Renan Ferro]

Yes, really cool and interesting the way we think about life, right?

[Michael Tharrington]

Well, I'm in camp #4... at least when it comes to programming books. 😅

That said, I wanna give a shout out to @integerman who I know recently published a book in the past year for all those C# devs out there.

Refactoring with C#

Also, I'm a Community Manager at DEV and seeing your post reminds me that I should advocate for us to add polling abilities. We've discussed it previously but haven't yet been able to move on that functionality. I'll remind the team!

[Matt Eland]

Thanks @michaeltharrington! I had a blast writing it and it's great to write in public.

If my book interest you, it's 10% off for the next week on Amazon, but if you like digital it's also featured in its first Humble Bundle at the moment and that's far more affordable than purchasing the book alone.

[Rachel Fazio]

I like to think that I am a pretty good reader but don't read many software dev books!

This year I read a few that are related to general career stuff + one HTML book for a course I was in!

1. HTML & CSS design and build websites by Jon Duckett
2. Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman (Loved this book. Of course. Read it. Yes.)
3. Orbiting the Giant Hairball by Gordan MacKenzie (More of just a general career-related book about an illustrator who works at Hallmark— this was so fun and great to read. )
4. Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad by Austin Kleon (Honestly, I have books I would recommend over this one but I do think it was a nice quick read!)
5. How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell (If you get one thing out of this message please read this book. I love this book. It was incredible. Highly suggested read that summarizes the perils of the anthropocene, reconnecting with nature, and crafting balance in your life..... among so many other things.)

Okay I take it back I think this is a pretty impressive list.

[Dev on Remote]

I will start, for me its nr.2 and The Pragmatic Programmer, really like this one 🚀 Cheers!

[Dénes Kellner]

SQL Performance Tuning, by Peter Gulutzan & Trudy Pelzer

These guys know everything I learned the hard way during my 20+ years of optimizing SQL - and gave me a lot more! This book finally tells you why your queries are slow and how you can make it easier for the server to find out & return what you ask for. Just put it on the shelf! You'll find yourself reaching for it every now and then, and it's gonna save you days of headache.

[Cesar Aguirre]

1) here. But this year I decided to change my approach from reading just for the sake of reading and keeping a list of read books (just in case learning) to reading for the sake of answering questions or facing a challenge (just in time learning)

Here's my to-read list from last year:
The Programmer's Brain
Your Code as a Crime Scene (that title man!)
Designing Data Intensive Applications
Working Effectively with Legacy Code

[Dev on Remote]

Only heard about Designing Data Intensive Applications. All added to my list! :D Damn so many good recommendations came out from this short post :P

[Schalk Neethling]

Number two, but then I am a technical reviewer for O'Reilly so not really fair :)

Recommendations:

• The JavaScript Definitive Guide
• The CSS Definitive Guide
• Engineering management for the rest of us

[Dev on Remote]

I try to be framework agnostic, looking for some general knowledge. All of your books fit this criteria. Thanks!

[Prasad Saya]

I have a copy of "Database Design for Mere Mortals", by Michael J. Hernandez - I am using for reference.

Then, I also have a copy of "The Goodbye Cat", by Hiro Arikawa. This might not be a bad choice for reading while travelling by train.

I am also referring "Understanding Exposure", by Bryan Peterson. This book is about photography and its basic concepts - mostly for learning.

[Athreya aka Maneshwar]

Non-Designer's Design Book

[Dev on Remote]

This one is interesting and its sth I actually need. Thanks @lovestaco!

[Mike Talbot ⭐]

1.

My favourite book on technology is The Art of Game Design - it makes you look at everything differently in my experience, not only games but interfaces too.