Context

Dan tweeted this:

Because I like reading a lot but I haven't read many technical books, I browsed through the discussion and curated a list of books I'd like to read, and tweeted about this. Then Dan retweeted it and that post rocketed.

I then feel it would work better if this becomes a collective thing. After all, reading is a personal thing and my personal list may not make sense for others. But having a list that our community collectively recommend may be a good idea. You can then fork it to become your own, star or watch it, or PR to add more.

"Point me to a book" starts here

Technical & Knowledge

• Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold
  amazon | goodreads

  • "hows how to build a programmable computer starting with a basic electrical circuit with one light and reads like a thriller. It's fundamentally a book about the nature of abstraction in computer science." - Michal Czaplinski
  • "Ok so far this is really, really good. I aspire to write like Charles." - Dan

• Game Programming Patterns by Bob Nystrom
  amazon | goodreads
  Bob has written another very interesting book Crafting Interpreters. He also has a blog that I really love. I've actually recently retweeted one of his articles What Color is Your Function? 💜 fan girl mode

• Elements of the Theory of Computation by Harry Lewis and Christos H. Papadimitriou
  amazon | goodreads
  Papadimitriou wrote one of the best math texts in Combinatorial Optimization.

• Building Git by James Coglan
  goodreads
  There was a talk on Git from JSConfBP this year that brought up some interests looking into Git internals.

• Masterminds of Programming: Conversations with the Creators of Major Programming Languages by Federico Biancuzzi and Chromatic
  amazon | goodreads

• The Best Software Writing I: Selected and Introduced by Joel Spolsky
  amazon | goodreads

• Learn You A Haskell For Great Good by Miran Lipovača
  read online
  "That book was hilarious for me." (tweet)

• Haskell School of Music by Paul Hudak and Donya Quick
  amazon | goodreads

• Learn Type-Driven Development by Yawar Amin and Kamon Ayeva
  amazon | goodreads
  One of the authors once helped me on one of my problems around Flow. Later on I learned that the gradually typed system is more interesting than just semicolon number string object so I wanted to read more about this.

• Working Effectively with Legacy Code by Michael Feathers
  amazon | goodreads
  I like how this book has a practical perspective on how to gracefully work with legacy code.

• Mostly Adequate Guide to Functional Programming by Professor Frisby
  Very sensible intro to functional programming. The author also has an egghead.io course that's even more sensible and fun.

• You Don't Know JS by Kyle Simpson

• Types and Programming Languages by Benjamin C. Pierce
  amazon | goodreads
  I'm not sure about the CS part but there should be more approcheable work on the set theory part.

• A Programmer's Introduction to Mathematics by Jeremy Kun
  amazon | goodreads

• Category Theory for Programmers by Barsotosz
  goodreads

• A Type Primer
  http://www.atypeprimer.com/
  A book on the historical context and technicalities of typography, very nice read.

Industry

• Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple's Greatest Products
  goodreads
  A very fluent read on Jony Ive, the designer behind many of Apple's critical products. Also an interesting anecdote about Jony's personal start and growth as a "prodigy" designer.

• Where Wizards Stay Up Late by Katie Hafner
  amazon | goodreads
  Talks about the birth of Internet.

Non-technical

• If Hemingway Wrote JavaScript by Angus Croll
  amazon | goodreads

• The Phoenix Project by Gene Kim
  amazon | goodreads
  also multiple mentions
  "Its not about one programming language, but does cover concepts relevant to all programmers." (tweet)

• Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder
  amazon | goodreads
  Love this book. I've read most books by this author. This one is his Pulitzer winning work. The stories happened relatively in the early boom of our industry but a lot of phenomena persist today.

• The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle
  amazon | goodreads
  Fast and interesting read on how effective groups collaborate.

• Godel, Escher, Bach (a.k.a. "GED") by Douglas Hofstadter
  amazon | goodreads
  Brilliant work on three geniuses. Bach in particular is my lifetime idol (in terms of creativity, not in terms of how many kids he have). And I find this conversation very amusing:

• The Victorian Internet by Tom Standage
  amazon | goodreads
  Interesting trip to the telegraph era and observe how similar it is from our Internet era.

• Gödel's Proof by Ernest Nagel, et al.
  amazon | goodreads
  Very interesting read in math on the topics of formal logic, even has an answer to the question of artificial v.s. human intelligence. TIL GED's author is an editor & collaborator for this book.

• Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky
  official site | goodreads

  This book is not about the programming itself, but about science and methods of rationality. It may be extremely interesting for people with a technical mindset (doubly interesting if you are a fan of the Harry Potter Saga).

• Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard P. Feynman
  amazon | goodreads

  An interesting life story of one of the greatest physicist of the last century.

• Words Without Music by Philip Glass
  goodreads

  Contemporary musician and composer Philip Glass' memoir, his lifetime pursuit of the question where does music come from, anecdotes and guides to interpretation of his music.

Contributing

Feel free to PR to add more books or append your recommendations. Personally I find attaching a one-liner recommendation very helpful - it's an intro in your minds to people who've never read it before.

Style guide

- **Title** by _author name_ and _another author name_  
  [link to amazon](#) [link to goodreads](#)  
  - why I recommend this book [name (optional)](#optional-link-to-tweet)  

• book has official website - put link on that book
• separate links to amazon / goodreads on second line
• this trick in markdown: two spaces at the end of the line + new line will break line.