The ultimate developer’s reading list
Our team’s pick of the best books for software designers and engineers
We asked our team to recommend one or two of their favourite books on software design and engineering (several titles were recommended by more than one team member)and Mark gave us seven. Everything from founding principles to how-to guides, but something for every kind of dev.
Craig [Technical lead]
Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software, by Charles Petzold. [link] NB: Craig liked it so much he got the cover illustration of ‘code’ in binary as a tattoo. He also gave it a comprehensive review here on GoodReads.
“I almost always recommend some form of gang of four style design patterns book. Great for longevity (generally ideas/concepts that outlive frameworks or languages) and great for making you think a bit deeper about what you do.”
Head First Design Patterns, by Eric Freeman [link]
Adam [UI Designer]
Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, by Steve Krug. [link]
Neil [Software Engineer]
Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-it-yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems, by Steve Krug. [link]
JavaScript: The Good Parts, by Douglas Crockford. [link]
Adam [Software Engineer]
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, by Edward R Tufte. [link]
Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship, by Robert C. Martin. [link]
Charlie [Production Director]
The Lean Startup, by Eric Ries [link]
Paul [Software Engineer]
Code Complete, by Steve McConnell [link]
Joel on Software, by Joel Spolsky [link]
Mark [Software Engineer]
Code Craft: The Practice of Writing Excellent Code, by Pete Goodliffe [link]
The Pragmatic Programmer, by Andrew Hunt [link]
Seven Databases in Seven Weeks: A Guide to Modern Databases and the NoSQL Movement, by Luc Perkins. [link]
Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age, by Paul Graham [link]
Design patterns : elements of reusable object-oriented software, by Erich Gamma. [link]
The Cathedral and the Bazaar, and The Art of Unix Programming, both by Eric Steven Raymond [link] & [link]
