Books on your shelf?

[ August 01, 2003: Message edited by: Max Habibi ]

[ August 01, 2003: Message edited by: Max Habibi ]

hmmmm . . .
Java Developers Guide - Bill Brogden
Java Developer Exam - Habibi, Patterson, Camerlengo
Enterprise JavaBeans - Richard Monson-Haefel
Microsoft.Net - Grimes
An Intro to Programming and OO Design - Nino & Horsch
SQL and Relational Baseics - Pascal
Office97 Visual Basic Programmers Guide
UML Distilled - Fowler, Scott
Java and Corba - Orfall, Harkey
Java Cookbook - Darwin
Effective Java - Joshua Bloch (TWO copies

)
Java and XML - McLaughlin
Java Web Services - Chappell, Jewell
Instant Corba - Orfali, Harkey, Edwards
JDK1.4 Tutorial - Travis
.NET Development for Java Programmers - Gibbons
Unix for Dummies - Levine and Young
Refactoring - Fowler
Just Java 2 - Peter van der Linden
Java Swing - Eckstein, Loy, Wood
my book
Thinking in Java - Eckel
Design Patterns - GoF
Design Patterns Explained - Shalloway, Trott
Java in a Nutshell - Flanagan
The Complete Java 2 Certification Study Guide - RHE
The RHE book in Japanese

(complements of Michael Ernest)
Applying UML and Patterns - Larman
Bluetooth for Java - Hopkins, Antony
Java Collections - Zukowski
C Programming - Aitken, Jones
Then an assortment of IBM manuals and IBI FOCUS manuals etc.

Design Patterns - GoF
Design Patterns CD
Pattern Hatching - Vlissides
1001 Java Programming Tips - Chan, Griffith, Iasi
Thinking in Java - Eckel
Java in a Nutshell - Flanagan
Programming with JFC - Weiner, Asbury
Up to Speed with Swing - Gutz
Java Swing - Eckstein, Loy, Wood
The JFC Swing Tutorial - Walraith, Campione
Inside Servlets (2nd) - Callaway
JSP: JavaServer Pages - Burd
JavaScript (the definitive guide) - Flanagan
Mastering JavaBeans - Vanhelsuwe (corrected -- mfe)
The Awesome Power of JavaBeans - Rodrigues
Professional XML (many)
XML Step by Step - Young
XML Processing with Python - McGrath
Red Hat Linux 9 Unleashed
Microsoft Windows 2000 API Super Bible
a couple of IIS books
a couple of Dreamweaver books
IBM's programming with Visual Age for Java
a ton of IBM AS/400 manuals
my books, including one German edition

My Kurzweil K2500 programming manual
The entire score to The Wall
Beginning Jazz Piano
Joe
P.S. The 1001 Java Programmer's Tips which is old, dogeared, and long in the tooth, is still one of the coolest books I've ever gotten. Page after page of snippets to code and try. It was a Java newbie's delight.
I just notice that my old K&R C manual is missing. That was a classic.
[ July 23, 2003: Message edited by: Michael Ernest ]

Elements of Style, Strunk & White
Burley One Dark Sucker Fired, Major Ragain (poetry)
Geography III, Elizabeth Bishop (also)
Is 5, ee cummings (also)
Effective Java, Bloch
Expert C Programming, PvdL
Getting Even, Woody Allen
some Dr. Phil book my sister wants me to read
Art of Computer Programming, Knuth
House of Sand and Fog, Dubus (who wants it?)
Options as a Trading Strategy, Macmillan
Evidence: 1944-1994, Richard Avedon (photography)

Here's my "minimalist" work bookshelf. I've got several times as many at home, but I just don't have the shelf space, so I had to pick only the best:

In the last couple days I've used:
Struts in Action
JSTL in Action
Applescript in a nutshell
Translucent Databases

I have a theory. I think that book addicts start writing books to support their habit

.
Michael Ernest:

Getting Even, Woody Allen
some Dr. Phil book my sister wants me to read

The advantages of owning your own business

.
Well I DO have one hidden copy of Dibert "Fugitives from the Cubicle Police", but I keep it under a tall stack of printouts in self defense.

Originally posted by Joe Pluta:

P.S. The 1001 Java Programmer's Tips which is old, dogeared, and long in the tooth, is still one of the coolest books I've ever gotten. Page after page of snippets to code and try. It was a Java newbie's delight.

I can't believe you said that. That is my all-time favorite Java book!!! My copy is sitting under my bed right now, and there's virtually nothing I use it for today, but I can't bear the thought of getting rid of it.
I bought that book, got a copy of Visual Cafe for Java on the Mac, and wrote the Rule Round-up Game. The publisher (guess they're long gone now) told me repeatedly that they would update the book and continue... but that obviously didn't happen.
I love the Java Cookbook, but nothing compares to the style of the "1001..." book. The "1001.." book is like a much more fine-grained Java Cookbook, which means it has a lot.
I've often wondered why someone didn't do another one like it... hmmmmmm....

cheers,
Kathy

Norman! You have too many Orielly books! I wonder what Manning would think when they see that!

From Cindy Glass:
I have a theory. I think that book addicts start writing books to support their habit.

This is indeed true for me. I work at home, so I have only one office. One entire wall is lined with books; about 30% are computer books, and there are virtually none that I never look at. A rough count gives something like 140 computer books. I've got Java books, C++ books, XP/methodology books, a whole shelf dedicated to things like Code Complete/Patterns/Antipatters/Practice of Programming/Programming Pearls/Programming on Purpose etc, all the Graphics Gems and many other CGI books, math books, a whole shelf of assorted scripting languages...

Originally posted by Michael Yuan:
Norman! You have too many Orielly books! I wonder what Manning would think when they see that!

Maybe they will start sending me more free books to fill out my shelf...
What's really funny is I took a lot of my old O'Reilly java books off the shelf. I've got 8 of them sitting on my desk waiting for me to take them down to the public library to see if they might like them.

Originally posted by Kathy Sierra:

I love the Java Cookbook, but nothing compares to the style of the "1001..." book. The "1001.." book is like a much more fine-grained Java Cookbook, which means it has a lot.
I've often wondered why someone didn't do another one like it... hmmmmmm....

Now that's an intriguing thought. There have to be at least a couple of topics that would lend themselves to a 1001 approach. HTML, for example, or JavaScript.
By the way, I was perusing the my copy, and I found a bookmark, on exceptions. This was back when I was first learning Java and I had NO clue what a try/catch block was. It wasn't until I saw the simple straightforward examples in this section that it clicked.
By the way, do you remember the rather unique way the book was laid out? No page numbers at all, jst the "tip numbers". Even the index pointed to the tip number. Very non-traditional, and very smart.
Joe

Apart from variations on the above themes:
Jump Start Your Brain
Windows 98 Annoyances
A Dictionary
Java Web Services Architecture
The Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations
The Java Developer's Almanac
Information Anxiety 2
DK's Visual Encyclopedia
Tesuji (a Go book)
Unix in a Nutshell (1989)
Learning the vi Editor (1988)
Touching the Void (best climbing story ever)

Oops!
Working copies of our books, complete, of course, with color coded 'errata' tags :roll:

You DON'T want to know. About 70 linear feet in my office, another 70 feet in the other office, and about 200 feet upstairs. I'm afraid that when I show up at the pearly gates, St. Peter's going to say: "You've killed way too many trees to get in here." Next, he trips the lever that sends me straight down to you-know-where. My only consolation is that it won't be that different from Texas in the grip of summer...
--Ed--

Great topic! As I noted here I tend to buy books based on recommendations of people I respect. That usually means comparing reading lists. I've actually recently mentioned to Ilja that I want to see his list some time.
Is there any reason to keep this in the Author's Corral? While it might be interesting to see what other authors read, I think many more people can benefit from seeing these lists and so I would recommend moving it to the Bunkhouse Porch.
--Mark

Below is my reading list. It's ordered by category, with more important/useful categories coming first. Within the category I order them roughly by usage.
Note: this does not include books from college which I still use (e.g. crypto and algorithm books), or domain specific books (e.g. Market Structure which I'm currently reading).
(Additional comments below)
Process and Project Management
Peopleware (Doreset House)
Death March (Prentice Hall)
The Mythical Man-Month (Addison Wesley)
Agile Software Development (Addison Wesley)
Product Design And Development (McGraw-Hill)
Project Retrospectives (Doreset House)
Software Leadership (Addison Wesley)
Rapid Development (Microsoft)
Softwar Project Survival guide (Microsoft)
Creating a Software Engineering Culture (Doreset House)
Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations (Dorset House)
Quality Is Free (Mentor)
extreme Programming explained (Addison Wesley)
Rise & Ressurection of the American Programmer (Prentice Hall)

Designs, Patterns, Tips, and Tricks
Design Patterns (Addison Wesley)
Patterns in Java Vol 1 & 2 (Wiley)
AntiPatterns (Wiley)
Refactoring (Addison Wesley)
Pattern Hatching (Addison Wesley)
Practial Java (Addison Wesley)
Effective Java (Addison Wesley)
Building Application Frameworks (Wiley)
The Pragmatic Programmer (Addison Wesley)

Requirements & Documentation
Software Requirements & Specifications (Addison Wesley)
Writing Effective use Cases (Addison Wesley)
UML Distilled (Addison Wesley)
The Elements of Java Style (Cambridge)
Problem Frames (Addison Wesley)
Java API/Application Books
Just Java (Prentice Hall)
Java Cryptography (O'Reilly)
Java Message Service (O'Reilly)
Database programming with JDBC and Java (O'Reilly)
Enterprise Java Beans in a Nutshell (O'Reilly)
Java Servlet Programming (O'Reilly)
Instant Wireless Java with J2ME (Mcgraw Hill)
Developing JavaBeans (O'Reilly)
J2EE Technology in Practice (Addison Wesley)
An Introduction to Programming and Object oriented Design (Wiley)
Java Developers Almanac 2000 (Addison Wesley)

Misc
Programming Internet Email (O'Reilly)
Essential System Administration (O'Reilly)
Applied Cryptography (Wiley)
The Cathederal & The Bazzare (O'Reilly)
Understanding the Professional Programmer (Dorset House)
Why Does Software Cost So Much? (Dorset House)
What Color is Your Parachute? (Ten Speed Press)

Marketing
Crossing the Chasm (Harper Perennial)
Inside the Tornado (Harper Perennial)
Process and Project Management:
These books have taught me so much about what software engineering is really about. By understanding the purpose and process of software, I can better understand how to produce it (even when just coding).
Designs, Patterns, Tips, and Tricks:
Many of these books need no introduction. They are, in effect, best practices.
Requirements & Documentation:
Communication is the key to software production, and these books have given me tools to do so.
Java API/Application Books:
Most of these are old and rarely used. Half of them I didn't even buy, and most I haven't actually read.
Misc:
General other stuff. Variable value per books.
Marketing:
Specifically, high tech marketing. Much like the project management books, it gives me a better understanding of forces which affect software development.
--Mark
[ July 30, 2003: Message edited by: Mark Herschberg ]

I have to agree with Mark - this topic is of general interest and not specific to authors. I will now attempt to invoke moderator powers and move it to the Bunkhouse Porch.
Bill
(mutters the incantation "Object Object Object")

OK, here is my list (* = good, ** = essential):
Process/Project Management
Agile Software Development, Alistair Cockburn **
Agile Software Development with Scrum, Schwaber/Beedle
Death March, Edward Yourdon *
Extreme Programming Explained, Kent Beck *
Planning Extreme Programming, Beck/Fowler **
Project Retrospectives, Norman L. Kerth *
Questioning Extreme Programming, Pete McBreen
Sams Teach Yourself XP in 24 Hours *
Patterns/Best Practices
Agile Software Development, Robert C. Martin **
AntiPatterns, Brown et. al.
Bug Patterns in Java, Eric Allen
Design Patterns, GoF *
Peopleware, DeMarco/Lister **
Refactoring, Martin Fowler **
SanFrancisco Design Patterns, Carey/Carlson/Graser (not yet read)
Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns, Kent Beck *
Test Driven Development by Example, Kent Beck **
The CRC Card Book, Bellin/Simone
The Pragmatic Programmer, Hunt/Thomas **
UML Distilled 2nd ed., Martin Fowler *
Unit Testing in Java: How Tests Drive the Code, Johannes Link *
Languages
ANSI Common Lisp, Paul Graham *
Java NIO, Ron Hitchens *
On To Smalltalk, Patrick Henry Winston *

I have a lot of book and a lot of printouts in binders as i said earlier.
Interestingly, i noticed recently, that on my website with my cat's picture on it, my cat, Pushkin, stands with some of my books on his background with book of Max Habibi among them (Developer exam). Max, if you want, you can check it out.