Reading List

Cogley: What’s the matter? Don’t you like books?

Kirk: Oh, I like them fine, but a computer takes less space.

Cogley: A computer, huh? I got one of these in my office. Contains all the precedents, a synthesis of all the great legal decisions written throughout time. I never use it.

Kirk: Why not?

Cogley: I’ve got my own system. Books, young man, books.

—Star Trek, Court Martial

Winners

The Mythical Man Month

Fred Brooks, 1995 (20th anniversary edition)

Don’t Make Me Think

Steve Krug, 2006

The 2014 “revisited” edition is also good, but the examples from the ancient Internet in the earlier editions are charming

The Undercover Economist

Tim Harford, 2007

Honorable Mentions

The Accidental Investment Banker Jonathan Knee, 2007
The Big Short Michael Lewis, 2011
Effective Java Joshua Bloch, 2010
Extreme Brewing Sam Calagione, 2006
Gates: How Microsoft’s Mogul Reinvented an Industry - and Made Himself the Richest Man in America Stephen Manes, Paul Andrews, 1994
Groovy In Action Dierk König, 2007
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion Robert Cialdini, 1993 (original copyright 1984)
In Search of Stupidity Merrill Chapman, 2003 (The 2003 edition is the good one. If you can’t get it, buy the 2006 edition, then rip out chapters twelve and on.)
Java Puzzlers Joshua Bloch, Neal Gafter, 2007
Liar’s Poker Michael Lewis, 1990
The Logic of Life Tim Harford, 2009
A Mathemetician Reads the Newspaper John Allen Paulos, 1995
The Non-Designer’s Design Book Robin Williams, 1994
The Peter Principle Laurence J Peter & Raymond Hull, 2009 (40th anniversary edition)
The Productive Programmer Neal Ford, 2008
The Undercover Economist Strikes Back Tim Harford, 2013
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information Edward Tufte, 2013 (original copyright 2001)

I’ve listed dates of the printing that I own.