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Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor your Wetware is another excellent book from Andy Hunt (co-author of Pragmatic Programmers). It is a good book for anyone seeking to learn how to learn, but is especially geared towards programmers.

Practices of an Agile Developer (another co-authorship of Andy Hunt, I like his writing, and no, I am not him). If you liked Pragmatic Programmer, you'll like this one too. It provides practical advice for development, coding, learning and working in teams.

Extreme Programming Pocket Guide is short, concise, and stuffed full of the extreme programming methodology. Easily the best gram for gram book I ever bought.

I'm surprised no one has yet mentioned
Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code, the seminal work on making code smell better. Provides patterns for making your code easier to maintain and modify without changing it's behavior.

Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor your Wetware is another excellent book from Andy Hunt (co-author of Pragmatic Programmers). It is a good book for anyone seeking to learn how to learn, but is especially geared towards programmers.

Practices of an Agile Developer (another co-authorship of Andy Hunt, I like his writing, and no, I am not him). If you liked Pragmatic Programmer, you'll like this one too. It provides practical advice for development, coding, learning and working in teams.

Extreme Programming Pocket Guide is short, concise, and stuffed full of the extreme programming methodology. Easily the best gram for gram book I ever bought.

I'm surprised no one has yet mentioned
Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code, the seminal work on making code smell better. Provides patterns for making your code easier to maintain and modify without changing it's behavior.

Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor your Wetware is another excellent book from Andy Hunt (co-author of Pragmatic Programmers). It is a good book for anyone seeking to learn how to learn, but is especially geared towards programmers.

Practices of an Agile Developer (another co-authorship of Andy Hunt, I like his writing, and no, I am not him). If you liked Pragmatic Programmer, you'll like this one too. It provides practical advice for development, coding, learning and working in teams.

Extreme Programming Pocket Guide is short, concise, and stuffed full of the extreme programming methodology. Easily the best gram for gram book I ever bought.

I'm surprised no one has yet mentioned
Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code, the seminal work on making code smell better. Provides patterns for making your code easier to maintain and modify without changing it's behavior.

Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor your Wetware is another excellent book from Andy Hunt (co-author of Pragmatic Programmers). It is a good book for anyone seeking to learn how to learn, but is especially geared towards programmers.

Practices of an Agile Developer (another co-authorship of Andy Hunt, I like his writing, and no, I am not him). If you liked Pragmatic Programmer, you'll like this one too. It provides practical advice for development, coding, learning and working in teams.

Extreme Programming Pocket Guide is short, concise, and stuffed full of the extreme programming methodology. Easily the best gram for gram book I ever bought.

I'm surprised no one has yet mentioned
Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code, the seminal work on making code smell better. Provides patterns for making your code easier to maintain and modify without changing it's behavior.

The Joel on Software series is my favorite read. First book and second book.

The Joel on Software series is my favorite read. First book and second book.

The C++ Programming Language, 3rd Edition is pretty excellent.

Ugh. He may have invented the language, but that book is as long as it is awful. There are *much* better (and more accessible) texts on C++.

[citation needed]

Can you give some examples?

Computer Networks by Andrew S. Tanenbaum (Author)
http://www.amazon.com/Computer-Networks-Andrew-S-Tanenbaum/dp/0133499456

Numerical Recipes 3rd Edition: The Art of Scientific Computing (Hardcover)
http://www.amazon.com/Numerical-Recipes-3rd-Scientific-Computing/dp/0521880688/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230069172&sr=1-1

Others that have been mentioned: Mythical Man Month, Art of Computer Programming, Code Complete, Design Patterns, etc...

Computer Networks by Andrew S. Tanenbaum (Author)
http://www.amazon.com/Computer-Networks-Andrew-S-Tanenbaum/dp/0133499456

Numerical Recipes 3rd Edition: The Art of Scientific Computing (Hardcover)
http://www.amazon.com/Numerical-Recipes-3rd-Scientific-Computing/dp/0521880688/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230069172&sr=1-1

Others that have been mentioned: Mythical Man Month, Art of Computer Programming, Code Complete, Design Patterns, etc...

Grady Booch's excellent text on OOA&D is certainly a classic: Object-Oriented Analysis and Design with Applications (3rd Edition) http://www.amazon.com/Object-Oriented-Analysis-Applications-Addison-Wesley-Technology/dp/020189551X/ref=sr_1_2/189-9216128-5749116?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230068582&sr=1-2

... with 100,000 Normal Deviates

http://www.amazon.com/Million-Random-Digits-Normal-Deviates/dp/0833030477/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230067178&sr=8-2

Kept me excited 'till the very last page.

Toast to John Von Neumann!

I have been meaning to read it, but I can't find it. Without Me You're Nothing by Frank Herbert

This book seems so obvious to so many of us that it would seem that it's not worth mentioning, yet there are still so many math/engineering/tech/CS types who haven't read it (perhaps for that very reason). So for those of you who haven't read it, it is a must-read for math- and tech-oriented people. http://www.amazon.com/Godel-Escher-Bach-Eternal-Golden/dp/0465026567

I found Algorithm Design, by Kleinburg and Tardos to be more accessible than Introduction to Algorithms. It's not as comprehensive as CLRS, but it's an easier read.

This is my favorite and a must for anyone for interested in computers. Puts all the other excellent books recommended here in perspective.

Computer Science by Brookshear

http://www.amazon.com/Computer-Science-Overview-Glenn-Brookshear/dp/0321524039/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230062205&sr=8-1

PC architecture, cpu design, programming paradigms, TCPIP, np complete, neural networks, etc. Excellent explanations. Brief but dense. Wonderful starting point.

You get to see all the beautiful forests instead of getting lost in a few groves...

If you're looking for a computer book that won't put you to sleep, why not try The Story About Ping? It's a short read, but gives a great overview of the ping command, one of the most useful commands in the history of UNIX.

It's a very short and simple read, so if you really hate your kids you could read it to them and make them want to grow up to be sysadmins. A warning, however: steering your children toward system administration is considered child abuse in some states.

In my estimation, the most useful statistics text ever written is Draper and Smith's "Applied Regression Analysis" (ISBN 0-471-17082-8). I know that that book caused me to write more computer algorithms than any other book I've ever read.

The flying circus of physics with answers

The elegant universe

Also, the 1936 Chemical Dictionary had some neat syntheses.

The flying circus of physics with answers

The elegant universe

Also, the 1936 Chemical Dictionary had some neat syntheses.

Teach Yourself C++ Programming in 21 Days

What? No? Alright then...

The C++ Programming Language, 3rd Edition is pretty excellent.

While I agree that it's an excellent read, let's not jump the gun. Bjarne's 3rd edition does not teach C++ from the bare-ground up. This tome, as no other words seems to do justice to the words contained within, has been written almost entirely with generic programming in mind - that is, it begins by twisting the reader's mind with templates. Templates, as a lot of C++ developers are aware can be quite painful for experienced developers, let alone lowbie magi.

I'm going to do a public service announcement by introducing "C++ Primer 4th Edition" (Lippman/Lajoie/Moo) (clickity).

Then, after mastering that excellent read, partake of "The C++ Standard Library: A Tutorial and Reference" (Josuttis) (clickity).

If after reading those first two, and maybe many others, one finds oneself still up for more mental anguish, then and only then could I recommend "The C++ Programming Language" (Stroustrup).

Teach Yourself C++ Programming in 21 Days

What? No? Alright then...

The C++ Programming Language, 3rd Edition is pretty excellent.

While I agree that it's an excellent read, let's not jump the gun. Bjarne's 3rd edition does not teach C++ from the bare-ground up. This tome, as no other words seems to do justice to the words contained within, has been written almost entirely with generic programming in mind - that is, it begins by twisting the reader's mind with templates. Templates, as a lot of C++ developers are aware can be quite painful for experienced developers, let alone lowbie magi.

I'm going to do a public service announcement by introducing "C++ Primer 4th Edition" (Lippman/Lajoie/Moo) (clickity).

Then, after mastering that excellent read, partake of "The C++ Standard Library: A Tutorial and Reference" (Josuttis) (clickity).

If after reading those first two, and maybe many others, one finds oneself still up for more mental anguish, then and only then could I recommend "The C++ Programming Language" (Stroustrup).

Introduction to Algorithms was a textbook in one of my college classes. I never use it.

The book I always use instead is one I got before college, Algorithms by Robert Sedgewick. Sedgewick presents algorithms with straightforward English, diagrams, and code examples. It also manages to pack many more algorithms, including more advanced topics, into fewer, smaller pages than Intro to Algorithms. My edition has examples in Pascal, a language I never use; but it's still clearer than Intro to Algorithms. There are newer editions for C, C++, and Java.

I don't believe there is a single proof in Algorithms, which I think is good. When looking up an algorithm, I don't want to prove why it works; I just want to know how it works, and how to implement it.

By the way, do not confuse Algorithms with An Introduction to the Analysis of Algorithms by Sedgewick and Flajolet. Another of my college textbooks, this one has more proofs, not less!

C/C++ Programmer's Reference is a handy little book.

The C++ Programming Language, 3rd Edition is pretty excellent.

Ugh. He may have invented the language, but that book is as long as it is awful. There are *much* better (and more accessible) texts on C++.

Debugging by David Agans

http://www.amazon.com/Debugging-David-J-Agans/dp/0814474578

And it really deserves the title: General Topology, by John L. Kelley.

Its notation is out of date in certain respects, but other than that, it's aged well.

For computer architecture, can anyone beat Hennessy and Patterson? I mean other than Patterson and Hennessy?

For computer architecture, can anyone beat Hennessy and Patterson? I mean other than Patterson and Hennessy?

I am surprised no one has mentioned yet, Book by Cormen Rivest and Leiserson.
This is one of the best algorithms book I ever used.

I wouldn't call that computer science per se, but then I don't know anyone who designs computers who doesn't also have Howard Johnson:

http://www.amazon.com/High-Speed-Digital-Design-Semiconductor/dp/0133957241/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230059485&sr=1-1

His Writing Efficient Programs is out of print, but in my opinion it's at least as good as Programming Pearls. Here's an edited version of Bentley's rules from the appendix of the book.

• Computer Networks by Tanenbaum "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes barreling down the highway"
• A Concise Introduction to Logic by Hurley - not a typical CS book, but its section on binary logic will help ANY computer scientist
• The Art of Computer Programming by Knuth - This is your Bible.
• Hackers and Painters by Paul Graham - usability
• Mythical Man Month by Brooks - developer management
• The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric S. Raymond - philosophy of open source and a history of hacking, as well as project management
• Operating Systems Design and Implementation by Tanenbaum and Woodhall - the MINIX book
• Learning UML 2.0 by Miles and Hamilton - excellent O'Reilly book on proper UML diagramming techniques
• The LaTeX Companion by Mittlebach et al. - excellent guide to the typesetting system in which all white papers should be written

• Computer Networks by Tanenbaum "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes barreling down the highway"
• A Concise Introduction to Logic by Hurley - not a typical CS book, but its section on binary logic will help ANY computer scientist
• The Art of Computer Programming by Knuth - This is your Bible.
• Hackers and Painters by Paul Graham - usability
• Mythical Man Month by Brooks - developer management
• The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric S. Raymond - philosophy of open source and a history of hacking, as well as project management
• Operating Systems Design and Implementation by Tanenbaum and Woodhall - the MINIX book
• Learning UML 2.0 by Miles and Hamilton - excellent O'Reilly book on proper UML diagramming techniques
• The LaTeX Companion by Mittlebach et al. - excellent guide to the typesetting system in which all white papers should be written

• Computer Networks by Tanenbaum "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes barreling down the highway"
• A Concise Introduction to Logic by Hurley - not a typical CS book, but its section on binary logic will help ANY computer scientist
• The Art of Computer Programming by Knuth - This is your Bible.
• Hackers and Painters by Paul Graham - usability
• Mythical Man Month by Brooks - developer management
• The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric S. Raymond - philosophy of open source and a history of hacking, as well as project management
• Operating Systems Design and Implementation by Tanenbaum and Woodhall - the MINIX book
• Learning UML 2.0 by Miles and Hamilton - excellent O'Reilly book on proper UML diagramming techniques
• The LaTeX Companion by Mittlebach et al. - excellent guide to the typesetting system in which all white papers should be written

• Computer Networks by Tanenbaum "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes barreling down the highway"
• A Concise Introduction to Logic by Hurley - not a typical CS book, but its section on binary logic will help ANY computer scientist
• The Art of Computer Programming by Knuth - This is your Bible.
• Hackers and Painters by Paul Graham - usability
• Mythical Man Month by Brooks - developer management
• The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric S. Raymond - philosophy of open source and a history of hacking, as well as project management
• Operating Systems Design and Implementation by Tanenbaum and Woodhall - the MINIX book
• Learning UML 2.0 by Miles and Hamilton - excellent O'Reilly book on proper UML diagramming techniques
• The LaTeX Companion by Mittlebach et al. - excellent guide to the typesetting system in which all white papers should be written

• Computer Networks by Tanenbaum "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes barreling down the highway"
• A Concise Introduction to Logic by Hurley - not a typical CS book, but its section on binary logic will help ANY computer scientist
• The Art of Computer Programming by Knuth - This is your Bible.
• Hackers and Painters by Paul Graham - usability
• Mythical Man Month by Brooks - developer management
• The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric S. Raymond - philosophy of open source and a history of hacking, as well as project management
• Operating Systems Design and Implementation by Tanenbaum and Woodhall - the MINIX book
• Learning UML 2.0 by Miles and Hamilton - excellent O'Reilly book on proper UML diagramming techniques
• The LaTeX Companion by Mittlebach et al. - excellent guide to the typesetting system in which all white papers should be written

• Computer Networks by Tanenbaum "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes barreling down the highway"
• A Concise Introduction to Logic by Hurley - not a typical CS book, but its section on binary logic will help ANY computer scientist
• The Art of Computer Programming by Knuth - This is your Bible.
• Hackers and Painters by Paul Graham - usability
• Mythical Man Month by Brooks - developer management
• The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric S. Raymond - philosophy of open source and a history of hacking, as well as project management
• Operating Systems Design and Implementation by Tanenbaum and Woodhall - the MINIX book
• Learning UML 2.0 by Miles and Hamilton - excellent O'Reilly book on proper UML diagramming techniques
• The LaTeX Companion by Mittlebach et al. - excellent guide to the typesetting system in which all white papers should be written

• Computer Networks by Tanenbaum "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes barreling down the highway"
• A Concise Introduction to Logic by Hurley - not a typical CS book, but its section on binary logic will help ANY computer scientist
• The Art of Computer Programming by Knuth - This is your Bible.
• Hackers and Painters by Paul Graham - usability
• Mythical Man Month by Brooks - developer management
• The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric S. Raymond - philosophy of open source and a history of hacking, as well as project management
• Operating Systems Design and Implementation by Tanenbaum and Woodhall - the MINIX book
• Learning UML 2.0 by Miles and Hamilton - excellent O'Reilly book on proper UML diagramming techniques
• The LaTeX Companion by Mittlebach et al. - excellent guide to the typesetting system in which all white papers should be written

• Computer Networks by Tanenbaum "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes barreling down the highway"
• A Concise Introduction to Logic by Hurley - not a typical CS book, but its section on binary logic will help ANY computer scientist
• The Art of Computer Programming by Knuth - This is your Bible.
• Hackers and Painters by Paul Graham - usability
• Mythical Man Month by Brooks - developer management
• The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric S. Raymond - philosophy of open source and a history of hacking, as well as project management
• Operating Systems Design and Implementation by Tanenbaum and Woodhall - the MINIX book
• Learning UML 2.0 by Miles and Hamilton - excellent O'Reilly book on proper UML diagramming techniques
• The LaTeX Companion by Mittlebach et al. - excellent guide to the typesetting system in which all white papers should be written

• Computer Networks by Tanenbaum "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes barreling down the highway"
• A Concise Introduction to Logic by Hurley - not a typical CS book, but its section on binary logic will help ANY computer scientist
• The Art of Computer Programming by Knuth - This is your Bible.
• Hackers and Painters by Paul Graham - usability
• Mythical Man Month by Brooks - developer management
• The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric S. Raymond - philosophy of open source and a history of hacking, as well as project management
• Operating Systems Design and Implementation by Tanenbaum and Woodhall - the MINIX book
• Learning UML 2.0 by Miles and Hamilton - excellent O'Reilly book on proper UML diagramming techniques
• The LaTeX Companion by Mittlebach et al. - excellent guide to the typesetting system in which all white papers should be written

I like Speech and Language Processing (2nd Edition), which is kind of the Russell/Norvig for NLP.

Oh, look at the price of that thing. I think I got it for $60 on pre-order back when the dollar was weak. Should have bought two! I guess if you look around a bit I'm sure you can find the pre-release/beta PDFs for the second edition which were made available on the book homepage prior to release.

There's pretty much everything in the C++ In Depth-series which is an absolute must for C++ practicioners. (and don't forget Lakos).

I'm sure Gamma et.al was mentioned ten times while I put this post together...

If I may veer out of CS, I must mention Kahn's Code Breakers, an absolute joy to read.

I like Speech and Language Processing (2nd Edition), which is kind of the Russell/Norvig for NLP.

Oh, look at the price of that thing. I think I got it for $60 on pre-order back when the dollar was weak. Should have bought two! I guess if you look around a bit I'm sure you can find the pre-release/beta PDFs for the second edition which were made available on the book homepage prior to release.

There's pretty much everything in the C++ In Depth-series which is an absolute must for C++ practicioners. (and don't forget Lakos).

I'm sure Gamma et.al was mentioned ten times while I put this post together...

If I may veer out of CS, I must mention Kahn's Code Breakers, an absolute joy to read.

I like Speech and Language Processing (2nd Edition), which is kind of the Russell/Norvig for NLP.

Oh, look at the price of that thing. I think I got it for $60 on pre-order back when the dollar was weak. Should have bought two! I guess if you look around a bit I'm sure you can find the pre-release/beta PDFs for the second edition which were made available on the book homepage prior to release.

There's pretty much everything in the C++ In Depth-series which is an absolute must for C++ practicioners. (and don't forget Lakos).

I'm sure Gamma et.al was mentioned ten times while I put this post together...

If I may veer out of CS, I must mention Kahn's Code Breakers, an absolute joy to read.

I like Speech and Language Processing (2nd Edition), which is kind of the Russell/Norvig for NLP.

Oh, look at the price of that thing. I think I got it for $60 on pre-order back when the dollar was weak. Should have bought two! I guess if you look around a bit I'm sure you can find the pre-release/beta PDFs for the second edition which were made available on the book homepage prior to release.

There's pretty much everything in the C++ In Depth-series which is an absolute must for C++ practicioners. (and don't forget Lakos).

I'm sure Gamma et.al was mentioned ten times while I put this post together...

If I may veer out of CS, I must mention Kahn's Code Breakers, an absolute joy to read.

I like Speech and Language Processing (2nd Edition), which is kind of the Russell/Norvig for NLP.

Oh, look at the price of that thing. I think I got it for $60 on pre-order back when the dollar was weak. Should have bought two! I guess if you look around a bit I'm sure you can find the pre-release/beta PDFs for the second edition which were made available on the book homepage prior to release.

There's pretty much everything in the C++ In Depth-series which is an absolute must for C++ practicioners. (and don't forget Lakos).

I'm sure Gamma et.al was mentioned ten times while I put this post together...

If I may veer out of CS, I must mention Kahn's Code Breakers, an absolute joy to read.

For general information the Fundamentals of Engineering Supplied-Reference Handbook is a nice cheap reference.

For information regarding engines, Internal Combustion Engine Fundamentals lives up to it's reputation, but is very dense reading.

For Mechanical Design (real hardware, nuts, bolts, gears, bearings, etc.) Shigley & Mischke are the gold standard.

Unfortunately, I haven't read many other books on these topics, so it's difficult to compare. Overall, these books stand out as being good.

For general information the Fundamentals of Engineering Supplied-Reference Handbook is a nice cheap reference.

For information regarding engines, Internal Combustion Engine Fundamentals lives up to it's reputation, but is very dense reading.

For Mechanical Design (real hardware, nuts, bolts, gears, bearings, etc.) Shigley & Mischke are the gold standard.

Unfortunately, I haven't read many other books on these topics, so it's difficult to compare. Overall, these books stand out as being good.

For general information the Fundamentals of Engineering Supplied-Reference Handbook is a nice cheap reference.

For information regarding engines, Internal Combustion Engine Fundamentals lives up to it's reputation, but is very dense reading.

For Mechanical Design (real hardware, nuts, bolts, gears, bearings, etc.) Shigley & Mischke are the gold standard.

Unfortunately, I haven't read many other books on these topics, so it's difficult to compare. Overall, these books stand out as being good.

Design patterns, by the "Big Four" has pretty much been the bible of software design thus far for me. It pretty much covers the methodology of all the popular patterns with examples. It has been the book I reference most, after language and API specific books. http://www.amazon.com/Design-Patterns-Object-Oriented-Addison-Wesley-Professional/dp/0201633612/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230057965&sr=8-1

Never have I read a more well-balanced book than the third book of Stein and Shakarchi's series "Princeton Lectures in Analysis", Real Analysis: Measure Theory, Integration, and Hilbert Spaces. The book is thorough in its style, yet not too long and boring, and it gets to the point without leaving too much to the reader.