- You Should Probably Read These
- Read These If You Develop Information Systems
- Kent Beck, Extreme Programming Explained, 2nd Edition.
- James Shore et al., The Art of Agile Software Development, 2nd Edition.
- Robert C. Martin, Clean Architecture.
- Eric Evans, Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software.
- Vaughn Vernon, Domain-Driven Design Distilled.
- Vaughn Vernon, Implementing Domain-Driven Design.
- Jeff Patton, User Story Mapping.
- Gojko Adzic, Impact Mapping.
- Kent Beck, Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns
- Kent Beck, Tidy First?.
- These Might Be For You
- Gene Kim and Steve Yegge, Vibe Coding: Building Production-Grade Software With GenAI, Chat, Agents, and Beyond
- Tanya Reilly, The Staff Engineer's Path.
- Tamar Rosier, Your Brain's Not Broken.
- Antonio Cangiano, Technical Blogging, 2nd Edition
- Dan S. Kennedy, The Ultimate Sales Letter, 4th Edition
- Mortimer Adler and Charles van Doren, How to Read a Book
- Alan Weiss, The Consulting Bible, 2nd Edition
- Joshua Kerievsky, Joy of Agility: How to Solve Problems and Succeed Sooner
- Walker Deibel, Buy Then Build: How Acquisition Entrepreneurs Outsmart the Startup Game
- Ash Maurya, Running Lean, 2nd Edition
- Leticia Portella, A Friendly Guide to Software Development: What You Should Know Without Being a Developer
- I Don't Recommend These Books
- Tien Tzuo, Subscribed: Why the Subscription Model Will Be Your Company's Future–and What to Do About It
- Zack Burt, The Software Engineer's Guide to Freelance Consulting
- Yegor Bugayenko, Elegant Objects
- Tom Taulli, AI-Assisted Programming
- Frederick P. Brooks, Jr., The Mythical Man-Month, Anniversary Edition
- Charles Wheelan, Write for Your Life
- Michael Lopp, The Software Developer's Career Handbook
- Stephanie Moulton Sarkis, Ph. D., Adult ADD: A Guide for the Newly Diagnosed
- Not All Reading is Cover-to-Cover
- Works In Progress
- Robert C. Martin, The Clean Coder
- Alexander Tarlinder, Developer Testing.
- John Viescas, SQL Queries for Mere Mortals, Fourth Edition
- Jeff Sutherland et al., A Scrum Book: The Spirit of the Game
- Kent Beck, Test-Driven Development By Example
- Edward Hallowell, M.D. and John Ratey, M.D., Delivered from Distraction
- Diana Montalion, Learning Systems Thinking
- Harry J. Friedman, No Thanks, I'm Just Looking: Sales Techniques for Turning Shoppers into Buyers
- Lindsay C. Gibson, Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents
- Mel Robbins, The Let Them Theory
- Finishing Is Hard
- Eric Reis, The Lean Startup
- Meilir Page-Jones, What Every Programmer Should Know About Object-Oriented Design
- John Vorhaus, The Comic Toolbox: How To Be Funny Even If You're Not
- David West, Object Thinking
- Grady Booch et al., Object-Oriented Analysis & Design With Applications, 3rd Edition
- Noel Rappin, Programming Ruby 3.3 ("The PickAxe", Fifth Edition)
- Ian Griffiths, Programming C# 12
- Secrets of the JavaScript Ninja, Third Edition
- Shh… It's a Secret
- What About 2026?
You Should Probably Read These
I universally recommend these books.
Cal Newport, So Good They Can’t Ignore You.
This book convinced me to stop widening my skillset by beginning again, and start doubling down on my strengths. I loved it so much I recommended it to my wife, and she, too, changed
Gene Kim et al., The Phoenix Project.
This book reinvigorated my love for management, which I lost in 2021–2022. I’m still an IC, but I decided to stop refusing management roles. According to some, this is an IT-oriented retelling of the core ideas behind Eliyahu Goldratt’s The Goal. I haven’t read The Goal, but it was mentioned in The Phoenix Project. And like The Goal, The Phoenix Project is fiction. It’s a novel with a protagonist, antagonist, central theme of conflict, satisfying character development, and gripping plot.
Austin Kleon’s trilogy: Steal Like An Artist, Show Your Work, Keep Going.
These books were cute, full of incredibly quotable passages, and fun to read. I didn’t spend enough time on them, though. A lot of the lessons left my brain like water through a sieve. Since they are so short and enjoyable, I’ll probably re-read them every year or two.
W. Daniel Hillis, The Pattern on the Stone: The Simple Ideas that Make Computers Work
This book is the ideal of edutainment. I have no formal background in computer science, but the author’s writing was so accessible and well-structured that I had no problem following along. It wasn’t a rigorous textbook designed to teach computer science. It was, however, informative and enjoyable.
Read These If You Develop Information Systems
I recommend these, but only if you’re an IT developer.
