Y Hacker News Books

Must Read CS Books For Self Self-Taught Programmers ↗

The books people recommended

2011-04-06 · 251 points · 61 comments · 45 books named by at least one person here and at least 3 people overall. The number on the left is how many people named it in this thread.

  1. 7

    Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs

    Harold Abelson

    7 here · 316 all-time · #2 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.7 out of 5, 742 ratings on Amazon
  2. 4

    Introduction to Algorithms

    Thomas H. Cormen, Charles E. Leiserson, Ronald L. Rivest, Clifford Stein

    4 here · 71 all-time · #47 overall

    Buy on Amazon
  3. 3

    Gödel, Escher, Bach

    Douglas Hofstadter

    3 here · 347 all-time · #1 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.7 out of 5, 2,713 ratings on Amazon
  4. 3

    Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools

    Alfred V. Aho, Monica S. Lam, Ravi Sethi, Jeffrey D. Ullman

    3 here · 25 all-time · #240 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.4 out of 5, 156 ratings on Amazon
  5. 3Learn You a Haskell for Great Good!

    Learn You a Haskell for Great Good!

    Miran Lipovaca

    3 here · 8 all-time · #835 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 358 ratings on Amazon
  6. 3Operating System Concepts

    Operating System Concepts

    Abraham Silberschatz, Peter B. Galvin, Greg Gagne

    3 here · 4 all-time · #1883 overall

  7. 2

    The Art of Computer Programming

    Donald Knuth

    2 here · 127 all-time · #14 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.5 out of 5, 203 ratings on Amazon
  8. 2

    The C Programming Language

    Brian Kernighan, Dennis Ritchie

    2 here · 124 all-time · #15 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.7 out of 5, 182 ratings on Amazon
  9. 2

    The Little Schemer

    Daniel P. Friedman, Matthias Felleisen

    2 here · 51 all-time · #81 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 185 ratings on Amazon
  10. 2Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning

    Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning

    Christopher Bishop

    2 here · 15 all-time · #428 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.5 out of 5, 801 ratings on Amazon
  11. 2Real World Haskell

    Real World Haskell

    Paul Chiusano, Jonathan Lam

    2 here · 10 all-time · #640 overall

  12. 2Modern Operating Systems

    Modern Operating Systems

    Andrew S. Tanenbaum

    2 here · 10 all-time · #680 overall

  13. 2Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages and Computation

    Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages and Computation

    John E. Hopcroft and Jeffrey D. Ullman

    2 here · 6 all-time · #1212 overall

  14. 2How to Think Like a Computer Scientist

    How to Think Like a Computer Scientist

    2 here · 3 all-time · #2453 overall

  15. 1

    The Mythical Man-Month

    Frederick Brooks Jr.

    1 here · 137 all-time · #13 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.5 out of 5, 1,811 ratings on Amazon
  16. 1

    Peopleware

    Tom DeMarco

    1 here · 62 all-time · #59 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.5 out of 5, 1,189 ratings on Amazon
  17. 1

    I Am a Strange Loop

    Douglas Hofstadter

    1 here · 33 all-time · #159 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.4 out of 5, 1,069 ratings on Amazon
  18. 1Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach

    Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach

    Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig

    1 here · 29 all-time · #195 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.3 out of 5, 664 ratings on Amazon
  19. 1Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective

    Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective

    Randal E. Bryant; David R. O'Hallaron

    1 here · 26 all-time · #220 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.2 out of 5, 682 ratings on Amazon
  20. 1

    Ruby Best Practices

    Gregory Brown

    1 here · 26 all-time · #228 overall

    Buy on Amazon3.9 out of 5, 17 ratings on Amazon
  21. 1The Annotated Turing

    The Annotated Turing

    Charles Petzold

    1 here · 25 all-time · #235 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 399 ratings on Amazon
  22. 1

    Domain Driven Design

    Eric Evans

    1 here · 21 all-time · #289 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 1,578 ratings on Amazon
  23. 1Introduction to the Theory of Computation

    Introduction to the Theory of Computation

    Michael Sipser

    1 here · 18 all-time · #363 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.4 out of 5, 600 ratings on Amazon
  24. 1The Art of Unix Programming

    The Art of Unix Programming

    Eric S. Raymond

    1 here · 17 all-time · #379 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.5 out of 5, 106 ratings on Amazon
  25. 1Computer Architecture

    Computer Architecture

    John L. Hennessy, David A. Patterson

    1 here · 16 all-time · #391 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.0 out of 5, 442 ratings on Amazon
  26. 1Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture

    Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture

    Martin Fowler

    1 here · 15 all-time · #417 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.5 out of 5, 890 ratings on Amazon
  27. 1Thinking Forth

    Thinking Forth

    Leo Brodie

    1 here · 15 all-time · #430 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.8 out of 5, 35 ratings on Amazon
  28. 1Machine Learning

    Machine Learning

    Tom Mitchell

    1 here · 11 all-time · #580 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.3 out of 5, 551 ratings on Amazon
  29. 1Purely Functional Data Structures

    Purely Functional Data Structures

    Chris Okasaki

    1 here · 10 all-time · #625 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.5 out of 5, 101 ratings on Amazon
  30. 1Land of Lisp

    Land of Lisp

    Conrad Barski

    1 here · 10 all-time · #627 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.5 out of 5, 160 ratings on Amazon
  31. 1Elements of Programming

    Elements of Programming

    Alexander Stepanov, Paul McJones

    1 here · 9 all-time · #742 overall

  32. 1The Art of Prolog

    The Art of Prolog

    Leon S. Sterling, Ehud Y. Shapiro

    1 here · 7 all-time · #923 overall

  33. 1The New Turing Omnibus

    The New Turing Omnibus

    A. K. Dewdney

    1 here · 7 all-time · #942 overall

  34. 1The Reasoned Schemer

    The Reasoned Schemer

    Daniel P. Friedman, William E. Byrd, Oleg Kiselyov

    1 here · 6 all-time · #1117 overall

  35. 1Higher Order Perl

    Higher Order Perl

    Mark Jason Dominus

    1 here · 5 all-time · #1283 overall

  36. 1Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs

    Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs

    Niklaus Wirth

    1 here · 5 all-time · #1356 overall

  37. 1Programming Language Pragmatics

    Programming Language Pragmatics

    Michael L. Scott

    1 here · 5 all-time · #1358 overall

  38. 1Starting Forth

    Starting Forth

    Leo Brodie

    1 here · 5 all-time · #1364 overall

  39. 1Structured Computer Organization

    Structured Computer Organization

    Andrew S. Tanenbaum

    1 here · 5 all-time · #1382 overall

  40. 1The Seasoned Schemer

    The Seasoned Schemer

    William F. Clocksin

    1 here · 4 all-time · #1609 overall

  41. 1Discrete Mathematics and Its Applications

    Discrete Mathematics and Its Applications

    Kenneth H. Rosen

    1 here · 3 all-time · #1954 overall

  42. 1Interconnections

    Interconnections

    Radia Perlman

    1 here · 3 all-time · #2097 overall

  43. 1Digital Design and Computer Architecture

    Digital Design and Computer Architecture

    David Harris, Sarah Harris

    1 here · 3 all-time · #2098 overall

  44. 1The Craft of Prolog

    The Craft of Prolog

    Richard O'Keefe

    1 here · 3 all-time · #2452 overall

  45. 1Javascript, the Good Parts

    Javascript, the Good Parts

    Douglas Crockford

    1 here · 3 all-time · #2454 overall