I keep ~10 books at my desk. 9 of them are related to Javascript / Python / Probability etc [1]., There is one book though, that I really love to see everyday. Arabian Nights. That was the first book that was gifted to me when I was 11. I always had it with me. It reminds me of my childhood when things get too stressed and I read excerpts out of this book.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-Definitive-Guide-Activate-Guides/dp/0596805527" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-Definitive-Guide-Activate-...</a>
[2] <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/0374533555" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp...</a>
[3]<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Probability-Models-Tenth-Sheldon/dp/0123756863" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Probability-Models-Tenth...</a>
[4] <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Black-Book-Important-Informations/dp/3935494025" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Black-Book-Important-Informat...</a>
Programming Python from O'Reilly. It helps lift my monitor nicely.<p>Honestly, I've yet to find a physical book that has proven to be a useful reference in the long run. Programming languages just change too quickly; it's the web or the code.<p>As for more meta-programming/business/interpersonal books, the few that I've read are not ones I've ever had any real desire to go back to.
A few immediately come to mind:<p>- Garner's <i>Modern American Usage</i><p>- <i>The Hardware Hacker</i> (I am a <i>huge</i> fan of bunnie)<p>- <i>The Art of Electronics</i> (Horowitz and Hill)<p>I don't really have "reference" books on my desk. Most rotate out quite frequently depending on what I'm researching and writing about. These can range from Raizman's <i>History of Modern Design</i> to Lewis Carroll's <i>Symbolic Logic</i>.<p>In addition I make plenty use of thesauruses. I have a few old ratty copies but mostly do a quick flit over my keyboard to pull up synonyms. When a word is on the tip of your tongue, looking up another that you know is related to it in a thesaurus is the best way to efficiently jog your memory.
Clean Code - Robert C. Martin: I got this book in college for a class and enjoy referring to it when I feel that my code quality is starting to decay.<p>Computer Principles of Modeling and Simulation - T.G. Lewis/B.J. Smith: I received this book as a gift from one of my favorite professors in college. It was published in 1979, but I find the material still relevant when it comes to introductory concepts of computer simulation.<p>Big Java Late Objects - Cay Horstmann: Another text from my time at college, specifically from my data structures course. I keep it because I like the way it explains fundamental data structures with well-written Java.<p>Head First Design Patterns - Eric Freeman/Elizabeth Robson: Another college textbook, and one of my least favorite reads of all time, but I'll be damned if it doesn't explain design patterns well enough for me to keep it around. I refer to it now and then but only when I feel like punishing myself.<p>Learning PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, & CSS - Robin Nixon: A dangerously outdated introductory web development text that I bought when I was in high school. It was the first programming book I ever purchased and I keep it around because I enjoy remembering what it felt like to explore web development for the first time. I've not referred to it in years, for obvious reasons, but it explained full-stack web development very well and gave me a foundation that I've been able to build on to this day. I remember standing in the tiny Computer Science section at Barnes & Noble where I found it, taking it home and cracking it open, and working through it until I had to make myself go to sleep. It's the first programming book that really hooked me.
A few Stroustrup books.<p>A few Chinese language books (to help communicate with co-workers)<p>A few Algorithmic Trading related books as well as a few math books.<p>And, laugh if you wish, a few Buddhism books to help remind myself patience, no negative energy, etc. If I am feeling frustrated I can read a few quick thoughts.
These are the ones right next to me now:<p>1. Design Patterns (GoF) - This book is all about design, someday I aim to really understand all the patterns.<p>2. High Performance Parallelism Pearls Volume 2 (Reinders/Jeffers) - There are couple of other books similar to this one. But, if you want to know how myriad HPC applications make use of parallel programming models such as MPI and OpenMP, this provides a good introduction.<p>3. The Annotated C++ Reference Manual April 1995 hardbound edition (Ellis/Stroustrup) -- What a fantastic little book, also got it for $4.95 at Powell's bookstore in Portland :) IMO this books provides a gentle introduction to C++, you can flip to any page and just start reading.<p>4. Numerical Recipes in C (Press, Teukolsky, et al.) - If I need to quickly prototype some scientific computation kernel, this is my go-to book.<p>5. Effective C++ 3rd edition (Meyers) - I like to approach this book from the back (i.e., indices), pick up a topic, and then read the contents one by one. Repeat.<p>6. Discovering Modern C++: An Intensive Course for Scientists, Engineers, and Programmers (Gottschling) - I like and dislike certain portions of the book. It definitely contains a lot of code explanations of C++ idioms, which helps a beginner like me.
A thick catalogue (ELFA Distrelec 'Elektronik och Automatisering' 2013-2014) on which I placed a stationary laptop hooked up to a 24" monitor. On that monitor I have access to more or less all the books in the world in one way or another so I don't bother with paper versions anymore.<p>I actually just made an engine [1] for the Searx [2] meta-search engine to allow it to search through a local library using the Recoll [3] search engine, making life even easier as search over my personal library is now integrated into the same search engine I use for other purposes. With full text search using a query language [4] which resembled the defunct Xesam [5] language it is above and beyond what the likes of Google Scholar offer.<p>While I'm in many ways something of a traditionalist - living on a 17th century farm in Sweden, cooking on a wood-burning stove, riding sidecar Soviet motorbikes etc - I made the move to a more or less paperless office quite a while ago. The one thing I do not do is rely on third-party services to accomplish this as those have proven to be both unreliable as well as unreasonably inquisitive with regard to any personal details they can filch from their users. I keep my own 'cloud', have my own (meta-)search engine, my own mail/web/etc server, etc.<p>[1] <a href="https://github.com/asciimoo/searx" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/asciimoo/searx</a><p>[2] <a href="https://github.com/asciimoo/searx/pull/1257" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/asciimoo/searx/pull/1257</a> and <a href="https://github.com/koniu/recoll-webui/pull/61" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/koniu/recoll-webui/pull/61</a><p>[3] <a href="http://www.lesbonscomptes.com/recoll/" rel="nofollow">http://www.lesbonscomptes.com/recoll/</a><p>[4] <a href="http://www.lesbonscomptes.com/recoll/usermanual/webhelp/docs/RCL.SEARCH.LANG.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.lesbonscomptes.com/recoll/usermanual/webhelp/docs...</a><p>[5] <a href="http://www.xesam.org/main/XesamUserSearchLanguage95/" rel="nofollow">http://www.xesam.org/main/XesamUserSearchLanguage95/</a>
Gödel Escher Bach, or GEB.<p>It's one of the most informative books I've ever read with a really valuable perspective to view information through. I find myself applying it more frequently the more recently I've re-read it.
I keep a wide variety of references around this desk. Some of my favorites:<p>Manuel Lima's "Visual Complexity", "The Book of Circles", and "The Book of Trees". These are useful as references and as visualization inspiration.<p>Jacques Bertin's "Semiology of Graphics". Gorgeous and immensely useful.<p>Desmond and Nicholas Higham's "MATLAB Guide, 3rd Edition", and Yair Altman's "Accelerating MATLAB Performance". Both are invaluable for serious MATLAB work.<p>Titus A. Beu's book on Numerical Programming is very good as a reference.<p>For anyone needing to work on military simulations, "Engineering Principles of Combat Modeling and Distributed Simulation" by Tolk is the best reference I have found on the subject.<p>And TAOCP and CLRS are here for reference purposes as well.
- <i>Structure and interpretation of computer programs</i><p>More by nostalgia than by need<p>- <i>The art of computer programmming</i><p>- <i>Hacker's delight</i><p>These two are of great help when doing programming challenges. Hacker's delight is about bitwise tricks.<p>- <i>Open Data Structures</i><p>Useful for a quick refresh on data structures.
How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/How-Read-Book-Classic-Intelligent/dp/0671212095" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/How-Read-Book-Classic-Intelligent/dp/...</a>
Machinists handbook from the 60's era. I value it for the pre computer ways of thinking. Lots of gold in that one.<p>MOS 6502 series data book.<p>Moto 6809 Programmers Reference.<p>I actually had someone take me to the local Motorola office to get the 6809 book. Docs were free for the asking, and a kid asking was quite the event. Aspects of that conversation were important to my life.<p>I still have occasion to do paid work, and enjoy fun projects with both chips, and or variants seen today. These are few and far between, but very enjoyable. Mostly perspective and nostalgia in these. It's my roots.<p>The One Minute Manager parable has served me well mentoring and leading.<p>On Writing by Stephen King. Being able to tell a story with clarity has far more utility than one would expect. Besides, I want to write a novel one day.<p>The Art of Electronics, second edition. Probably need to update that one.<p>A Tektronix "How to use an Oscilloscope" book, well matched to my old, analog 400Mhz, 4 channel scope.<p>ANSI / ASME geometric dimensioning, tolerancing, standards books. 2D technical communication remains significant in my life.<p>Recent addition: Mold making Handbook.<p>I need a good primer and a good polymer tech reference. Any suggestions?<p>"Pirates of the Asteroids", childhood sci-fi. Again, perspective. Was the first one I really read through and got as a kid. Kept it, because asshole reminder. 'Nuff said. It's just a personal totem.
The books on my desk are a combination of reference books and books that are good conversation-starters (I've read them already and don't need them as reference, but they're good for lending out to people, especially junior devs).<p>Reference:<p><pre><code> - Effective Java (good for learning the mindset of developing backward-compatible APIs in any language)
- Enterprise Integration Patterns (I work on an enterprise APIs team)
- Designing Data-Intensive Applications
- Camel in Action
</code></pre>
Good for lending out:<p><pre><code> - The Phoenix Project
- Making Work Visible
- Effective DevOps
- The Pragmatic Programmer
- REST in Practice</code></pre>
It's dusty, but I can't throw it away.<p>Effective Perl Programming.*<p>A long time ago, when I was a college kid with tons of free time, I'd sit for hours at Borders* or Barnes & Noble and just read computer books. God bless those employees for never kicking a 20-something poor kid out who lived on free coffee refills, yet never bought books.<p>At the time, Perl was more significant. Something about its syntax made sense, even though nowadays I cringe at it. Though Python is worse, in a different way...<p>A decade later, and I still sometimes need to spit out the results of a bunch of commands, iterate through them with some regex, format it, etc. Perl became the internet's 'duct-tape' for a reason.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Effective-Perl-Programming-Idiomatic-Development/dp/0321496949" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Effective-Perl-Programming-Idiomatic-...</a><p>[2] <a href="https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/02/16/borders-files-for-bankruptcy/" rel="nofollow">https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/02/16/borders-files-for-ba...</a>
It has been a really long time (years) since I had to use any printed book as reference material. For any question I have concerning a random factual matter, I am always able to find an adequate answer online in less time than it would take to reach for a book, look up the topic in the index, and then turn to the appropriate page.<p>Where I still find books useful is in learning a new subject from scratch. Reading an entire book from cover to cover gives me a broad mental overview of the whole subject, and that is extremely helpful when trying to put the random bits of knowledge I find online into context.
Desk Ref[1]. It's a ref for your desk.<p>It answers almost any question you might have pertaining to workshop activities. Speeds, feeds, that kind of thing. I keep it in our break room in case one of us needs to look something up. A lot of the younger technicians are fresh out of school, and we also have apprentices on our shift. Having a resource like this is invaluable for when they have a question, and none of us old-timers are available to answer it because something major has broken and we're scrambling to make it not-broken.<p>Our company prints its own training materials and we have a veritable library of Standard Maintenance Procedures, as well as manufacturer's manuals for all the different machines in our shop. We keep them indexed in a large filing cabinet.<p>[1]<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Desk-Ref-Thomas-J-Glover/dp/1885071604" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Desk-Ref-Thomas-J-Glover/dp/188507160...</a>
Silence, John Cage<p>Man Against Myth, Barrows Dunham<p>The Elements Of Style, Strunk & White (4th ed.)<p>Telling Writing, Macrorie<p>The Zen Teaching Of Huang Po<p>The Pocket Pema Chödrön<p>Why I Write, George Orwell<p>Others come and go from time to time, but those stay.
Princeton Companion to Mathematics: this guide is phenomenal in introducing a wide array of pure math topics. Just going through a few pages is hugely inspiring and simultaneously ego-deflating
I rely mostly on hypertext for referencing, mostly through Dash for macOS and man pages. Books that I still occasionally reference:<p>- Speech and Language Processing, Jurafsky & Martin<p>- K&R<p>- Sedgewick & Wayne, but more for teaching than anything else.<p>In a previous life:<p>- The C++ Standard Library, Nicolai Josuttis,<p>- C++ GUI Programming with Qt 4, Jasmin Blanchette and Mark Summerfield<p>- The C++ Programming Language, Bjarne Stroustrup<p>- Effective Java, Joshua Bloch<p>- Scott Meyers' Effective C++ books.
I stumbled upon a dictionary of quotations of sorts (the quotes are organized alphabetically by topic/theme) and oddly enough I’ve begun keeping that nearby for the motivation, thought provocation and genuine entertainment those snippets of texts provide. I’ve enjoyed it so much I’ll likely replace it with a thick poetry book once I’ve exhausted it.
- Martin Henson - Elements of Functional Programming (old, and on purpose, I like to have a sense of the pre trend FP mindset) I suggest everyone to try to grab it (library or paid tree), the cover is so pretty <a href="https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/elements-functional-languages/author/martin-henson/" rel="nofollow">https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/elements-function...</a><p>Had a bunch of books about electricity/electronics (google for 'best book about ...')<p>Also bitcoin got me to hear about Statistics:<p>- <a href="http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~gareth/ISL" rel="nofollow">http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~gareth/ISL</a>
- <a href="https://web.stanford.edu/~hastie/Papers/ESLII.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://web.stanford.edu/~hastie/Papers/ESLII.pdf</a><p>Lastly, Queinnec LiSP is never far from reach
The Boglehead's Guide to Investing, mostly because my coworkers frequently ask for advice regarding their 401ks and IRAs, and it's a solid baseline for frugal investing.
None, I keep em on my bookshelf.<p>I refer to my design books. My favorite of all time, is "The Nature and Art of Workmanship" by David Pye, given to me by a former woodturning mentor.
For many years "SQL for Smarties" by Joe Celko was on the desk along with whatever specific technical reference i happened to need at the time.<p>There are no physical books now on the desk but the table of contents of some of the older books remind me of what to google often enough
With respect to software I refer to Programming Elixir/Phoenix (although both Programming Elixir 1.6/Phoenix 1.4 should be released soon). I'm also going through Functional Web Development with Elixir, OTP, and Phoenix by Lance Halvorsen at the moment.<p>Outside of software I have:<p>- The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham<p>- Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel<p>- Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting by Syd Field<p>- Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant<p>One book that I have been meaning to add next to Syd Field's Screenplay is Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee.
"Code Complete 2nd Ed." - McConnell
"DevOps Handbook" - Gene Kim et al
"Deep Work" - Cal Newport
"Tools of Titans" - Tim Ferris
"Bleeding Edge" - Thomas Pynchon
Sun Tzu's The Art of War, O'Reilly's SQL Pocket Guide, Numerical Recipes in C++, an old GW-Basic manual, and a reprint of the first edition of Machinery's Handbook.<p>Most of my work is boring old enterprise apps in java, c# or c++; the GW-Basic manual is a relic from my first computer that I keep around for sentimental reasons. Numerical Recipes is referred to on occasion, as is the SQL pocket guide, the other two are good for taking a 5 minute break from things.
I use a library so have about 10+ on rotation every 2 weeks covering every topic. graphic novels, reference books, programming books, science books. with membership to 3 libraries it's much better than owning them and letting the get dusty on a shelf. I admit this came as a result of moving country and having to sell all my books. I will never go back to owning books I have so much variety now. public libraries are the greatest institution to exist.
Leaves of grass by Walt Whitman is something that I feel calls to me at times, and my bibleworn copy often sits on my workbench. I even have some sections memorized.
"Semiology of Graphics", by Jacques Bertin. Originally published in 1967, it describes principles of graphic communication, similar to Tufte's work.
Taleb's incerto.
[Anti-Fragile,
Fooled by randomness,
Black Swan,
Skin in the game]<p>Scott Adams'
[How to fail at Almost every thing and still win big]<p>Meditations by marcus arelius
The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development<p>by Donald G. Reinertsen<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Product-Development-Flow-Generation/dp/1935401009" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Product-Development-Flow-G...</a>
Adams, Douglas. <i>The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy</i><p>Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham. <i>Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable</i><p>Euclid, <i>Elements of Geometry</i><p>Fuller, Buckminster. <i>Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth</i><p>Greene, Robert. <i>The 48 Laws of Power</i><p>Kernighan & Ritchie. <i>The C Programming Language</i><p><i>The King James Bible</i><p>Polya, George. <i>How to Solve It</i>
Overcoming Gravity<p>For most of my life never really had an interest in working out but learning more about calisthenics and body weight fitness in general has really changed things for me in a positive way, and this book really shows how to progress without access to weights or a gym.
<i>Thinking in Systems</i> by Donella Meadows<p><i>Getting to Yes</i> by Roger Fisher and William Ury<p><i>ARRL Handbook for Radio Communications</i><p><i>ARRL Antenna Book</i><p><i>American Heritage Dictionary, 5th Ed.</i><p>Bible/Lectionary, Breviary, and Catechism<p>If fiction counts, I will probably never delete <i>Flatland</i> or the complete Joseph Conrad from my Kindle.
None. Need to be prepared to leave at a moments notice. I used to keep a large technical library, but now it is at home. After having seen engineers with 25 years of service walked out the door with zero notice, I will be prepared to do the same.
Always within arm's reach at both home and work:<p>Rudin, Real and Complex Analysis<p>Halmos, Finite Dimensional Vector Spaces<p>Billingsley, Probability and Measure<p>Kelley, General Topology<p>Lang, Undergraduate Algebra<p>Simmons, Introduction to Topology and Modern Analysis<p>Parthasarathy, Probability Measures on Metric Spaces<p>Whinston, Green and Mas-Colell, Microeconomic Theory
"A Brief History of Time" and "Universe in a nutshell" are always there. I never get tired of reading a random page from those books.<p>I have nothing programming related on my desk; we have Google to thanks for that.
_Amphigorey Too_ by Edward Gorey. When I've been staring at a computer screen and thinking about logic for too long it's nice to look at some beautiful hand drawn illustrations and enjoy some surreal humor.
- Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio
- Tribe of Mentors by Tim Ferriss
- Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman<p>~10 SQL Server/DW/BI books (not just on the desk but scattered everywhere)
My Emacs manual, only book I keep on my desk at the moment. Truth is, if I'm going to read for pleasure I go to my bookshelf. I don't want to read where I work.
Hello Hacker folks. Have previously shared a few essays in this forum, since topic of the day is book recommendations coincidentally recently published a collection of books that had inspired many of these essays - available on medium if you're interested. Cheers.<p><a href="https://medium.com/@_NicT_/recommended-further-reading-ae463e611baa" rel="nofollow">https://medium.com/@_NicT_/recommended-further-reading-ae463...</a>
As a circuit designer/embedded programmer:<p>- USB Complete 4th ed (Axelson)<p>- Electromagnetic Compatibility (Ott)<p>- Small Signal Audio Design (Self)<p>- Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus<p>- Verilog by Example (a.k.a. the Little Blue Book) (Readler)<p>- Mouser Catalog
I use CLRS and the 2600 book as monitor risers.<p>More seriously, I generally don't re-read books. One exception is The Cuckoo's Egg, which I reread every ~5 years.
~ Books => I have most in digital and physical copies ~<p>- The C Programming Language (2nd edition) - Brian Kerningham / Denis Ritchie<p>- The C++ Programming Language (4th edition which discuss C++11) - Stroustrup<p>- Design Patterns Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software - GoF<p>- Effective C++, Effective Modern C++ - Scott Meyers<p>~ Specifications ~<p>- C99 draft spec, C++11 draft spec (too cheap to buy official copies!)
Clicky links for most mentions. (not all here)
<a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ekA4jSrY4xOtQW6OCL4xjNnK2DahqeZAfMyHSpYNbFg/edit?usp=sharing" rel="nofollow">https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ekA4jSrY4xOtQW6OCL4x...</a>
I've long ago recycled or burned most of my books as no library would take them. I only have a leather bound encyclopedia remaining in my house which I also want to get rid off. So much money poured down the drain... I don't find it enjoyable re-reading the same stuff.
Most recently, I've been keeping Character Strengths and Virtues on my desk. It's a catalogue of the things that we think are good about human psychology. It's a good conversation starter, and fun to flip through and read sections.
Joel Whitburn's "Top 40 Hits". "Computer Music" by Dodge and Jerse. Several others have been displaced by the web ... or obsoleted by the inexorable March of Science. (Life was more interesting before surface-mount.)
The Hardware Hacker by Bunnie Huang. It's great for casual reading and some reference to how electronics are manufactured.<p>UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook. I have an old version but it's also great material and excellent writing.
I don't have any physical books on my desk[1]. Most of the stuff I usually need is online and takes less time than thumbing through books & indexes.<p>[1] I think this is most likely situation but wasn't sure if more would answer this.
1. Digital Design and Computer Architecture: ARM Edition<p>2. The Evolution of Cooperation: Revised Edition<p>3. The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self<p>(in backpack until I finish it). The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil
- Programming Interviews Exposed
- Head First Design Patterns
- Clean Code<p>I'm a junior in my first job and I've had these books in my personal library for a while now. Incredible helpful
Deep C Secrets
50 Effective C++ tips
Design patterns Elements of ReUsable OO software
Several short sentences about writing
The official Ted guide to speaking
Stephen Hawking- A Brief History of Time<p>Makes my life feel ephemeral and therefore more precious<p><a href="https://amzn.to/2Jm01dG" rel="nofollow">https://amzn.to/2Jm01dG</a>
TAOCP always finds its way back to my desk. Volume 2 is here at the moment. I don't really keep any books as references, though. I have kept K&R on my desk before but these days I mostly use online documentation.
Right now, Learn Git in a Month of Lunches, and Learn Windows Powershell in a Month of Lunches.<p>Also Functional Programming in C#.<p>I'm a bit of a Manning junkie