What is the single most influential book every programmer should read?

Re:What is the single most influential book every programmer... by edw519 on Monday February 28, 2011 @04:44PM (#2273076)

Hard to argue with any of the books in OP's post. The ones that I have read (at least half of them) are great. If I had to pick one, it would be the Rhinocerous book, simply because Javascript is everywhere.

I've been a professional programmer for many years, but oddly, programming books, as good as they often are, have had surprisingly little affect on me. I've learned much more about programming from working on projects, other programmers, and websites about the technology at hand.

Programming has always come naturally to me, but business hasn't. So since the original question is "most influential book" and not "most influential programming book", I would prefer to mention some of my favorite business books. They helped me become the programmer I am much more than any programming book.

  Differentiate or Die - Jack Trout
  Art of the Start - Guy Kawasaki
  Controlling Software Projects - Tom DeMarco
  You Can't Teach a Kid to Ride a Bike at a Seminar - David Sandler
  Carnegie - Peter Krass
  Do More Faster - Brad Feld and David Cohen
  Founders at Work - Jessica Livingston

But if I had to pick only one:

  How to Get Rich - Felix Dennis

because it got me to dreaming, it's so much fun to read, and for the line, "If it flies, floats or fornicates, always rent it - it's cheaper in the long run."

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Re:What is the single most influential book every programmer... by qqqq2010 on Monday February 28, 2011 @05:22PM (#2273233)

Oh man... the Rhino is a good reference, but lacks all kinds of best practices and essential style pieces.

Between 'proper' OO style, short circuiting on falsey assignment (var a = b || "default"), checking existence to avoid errors ( if (myObject && myObject.getJSON()){//block to deal with JSON} ) and the DOM, I feel like this is only useful to look up the Date() and Math() methods.

Sorry, just griping because it was the first 'real' programming book I got, and I feel that it misled me for quite a while. </rant>

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Re:What is the single most influential book every programmer... by bad_user on Tuesday March 01, 2011 @05:50AM (#2274932)

I wonder why they don't add the <rant> tag to the HTML5 standard.

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Re:What is the single most influential book every programmer... by wheels on Monday February 28, 2011 @06:05PM (#2273390)

Most of those books wouldn't interest 99% of programmers.

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Re:What is the single most influential book every programmer... by robryan on Monday February 28, 2011 @06:45PM (#2273518)

I think it's more startup founders who also have to have a foot in the business side of things. Sure people who just program don't need to know that stuff.

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Re:What is the single most influential book every programmer... by zeteo on Tuesday March 01, 2011 @01:20AM (#2274514)

"Differentiate or Die"

Sounds like the punchline in a math joke.

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Re:What is the single most influential book every programmer... by Natsu on Tuesday March 01, 2011 @04:48AM (#2274849)

Or possibly an anime, like Read or Die.

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Re:What is the single most influential book every programmer... by alinajaf on Tuesday March 01, 2011 @04:28AM (#2274825)

+1 on the Felix Dennis book, I read it whenever I'm feeling unmotivated. Its a great way to get your head out of the 9-5 mindset.

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Re:What is the single most influential book every programmer... by mikeryan on Monday February 28, 2011 @06:52PM (#2273537)

Just a note, I've switched from "Art of the Start" to "Reality Check" from Guy Kawasaki as my favorite, practical starting a business book. I think RC covers most everything in Art of the Start plus more.

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Re:What is the single most influential book every programmer... by weaksauce on Monday February 28, 2011 @09:05PM (#2273918)

I loved that book by Dennis! It's a very enjoyable read that I could not put down. Very inspiring.

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