This year I want to become a measurably better developer. One way I hope to improve in that regard is by reading the best books that have been written on the topic of programming and development.
Now, I would consider myself a web developer – I’ve been building websites for the better part of 17 years – but I don’t consider myself a very good one. You see, in all this time I haven’t read more than maybe a single book on the topic. Everything I’ve learned has been from the web, and has been learned quite haphazardly at that.
Please help me fix this.
Leave a comment below with your best recommendation for required reading for a competent developer. Book, blog or otherwise.
The book doesn’t need to be specific to web development. In fact, I would love to read any book that leads me down the path of being a better thinker, doer, and problem solver. I’d love to learn about design patterns and how to efficiently solve problems in ways that have been demonstrated to work. The languages I work with most regularly are PHP and JavaScript, and I predominantly build websites using WordPress, but if your recommendation will teach me principles that extol the pillars of better development practices, regardless of language, I’m for it!
Here are some suggestions I’ve already received:
- Clean Code
- The Clean Coder
- Designing With Web Standards (3rd Edition)
- Thinking Fast and Slow
- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- The Pragmatic Programmer
- Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software
- Guide to Building Testable Applications in PHP
- Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code
- Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software
- Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture (and others in this series)
- The Cathedral & the Bazaar
- Producing Open Source Software
- http://sourcemaking.com/
So, tell me, what book (or blog) are you shocked I haven’t already read at some point in the last 17 years?
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