Not a definitive list, but these are good:

  The C++ Programming Language, 4th edition
  Bjarne Stroustrup

  The C++ Standard Library, 2nd Edition
  Nicolai M. Josuttis

  Effective C++, More Effective C++, Effective Modern C++ 
  Scott Meyers

  http://en.cppreference.com

I would also add Effective STL too.

A Tour of C++ by B. Stroustrup is a good start point for a beginner too

Well, don't forget about exceptions, unless you decide to ban them like many people do. So add:

Exceptional C++ by Herb Sutter

More Exceptional C++ by Herb Sutter

Exceptional C++ Style by Herb Sutter

And Templates:

C++ Templates: The Complete Guide by Josuttis & Vandevoorde

And of course you need some background in generic & metaprogramming, so add:

Modern C++ Design by Alexandrescu

Advanced C++ Metaprogramming by Gennaro

So you're looking at over ten books. What does this say about C++? Can you think of another language that has a ten book prerequisite?

All of that is hardly prerequisite for using modern C++ on a day-to-day basis. You can get away with just reading "A Tour of C++" and the Effective C++ books.

If you want to start writing highly generic libraries with the intention of submitting them to boost, then absolutely you should be reading everything in your list and more. But how many C++ programmers are writing boost libraries?

Yeah and the Exceptional C++ series is not 'about exceptions' either. It looks like he just googled 'c++ exceptions book', and the same for templates and metaprogramming, probably.

It is also excellent for people who have worked in an older style of C++ and want to get a jumpstart on modern practices and the new C++11 features and keywords.

Thanks, I'll read through those as well.

As an addendum, I highly recommend not reading decade old source code like this as an example of modern C++. C++11/14 have changed the language so much for the better that anything targeting C++03 should be ignored for new projects and especially for new learners.

Also, avoiding Boost and Qt early on is also a good idea. Both have tremendous stylistic and design differences from ISO C++ and while the language supports all of them when using the Boost libraries and Qt toolkit you need to shift mindset entirely in how you are writing code to match the backing architecture. Learn the core language first.

I disagree because writing a Qt program is often the end goal.

the STL is also totally unlike the standard C library. are things like <algorithm> or <string> to be avoided because the core language is <cstdio>?

I resort continuously to this list, https://stackoverflow.com/questions/388242/the-definitive-c-...

I really enjoyed Effective Modern C++. It covered the interesting stuff I wanted to know, and skipped the introductory "in case you've never programmed before" fluff.

http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920033707.do