Y Hacker News Books

Books that changed my career as a software engineer ↗

The books people recommended

2021-11-28 · 626 points · 279 comments · 63 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. 13

    The Mythical Man-Month

    Frederick Brooks Jr.

    13 here · 137 all-time · #13 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.5 out of 5, 1,811 ratings on Amazon
  2. 12

    Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs

    Harold Abelson

    12 here · 316 all-time · #2 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.7 out of 5, 742 ratings on Amazon
  3. 10

    Designing Data-Intensive Applications

    Martin Kleppmann

    10 here · 104 all-time · #24 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.8 out of 5, 5,595 ratings on Amazon
  4. 6

    The Pragmatic Programmer

    Andrew Hunt and David Thomas

    6 here · 102 all-time · #26 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.8 out of 5, 3,644 ratings on Amazon
  5. 4

    Design Patterns

    Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, John Vlissides

    4 here · 80 all-time · #42 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.3 out of 5, 27 ratings on Amazon
  6. 4A Philosophy of Software Design

    A Philosophy of Software Design

    John Ousterhout

    4 here · 42 all-time · #116 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.5 out of 5, 2,832 ratings on Amazon
  7. 4Remote

    Remote

    Jason Fried

    4 here · 18 all-time · #360 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.2 out of 5, 3,635 ratings on Amazon
  8. 4Unwritten Laws of Engineering

    Unwritten Laws of Engineering

    W.J. King

    4 here · 9 all-time · #743 overall

  9. 3

    Code

    Charles Petzold

    3 here · 147 all-time · #12 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 2,787 ratings on Amazon
  10. 3

    Outliers

    Malcolm Gladwell

    3 here · 44 all-time · #103 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 39,353 ratings on Amazon
  11. 3

    Nineteen Eighty-Four

    George Orwell

    3 here · 43 all-time · #108 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 15,224 ratings on Amazon
  12. 2

    Introduction to Algorithms

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

    2 here · 71 all-time · #47 overall

    Buy on Amazon
  13. 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
  14. 2

    Clean Code

    Robert C. Martin

    2 here · 47 all-time · #91 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.7 out of 5, 6,810 ratings on Amazon
  15. 2

    The War of Art

    Steven Pressfield

    2 here · 33 all-time · #163 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.5 out of 5, 31,336 ratings on Amazon
  16. 2Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective

    Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective

    Randal E. Bryant; David R. O'Hallaron

    2 here · 26 all-time · #220 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.2 out of 5, 682 ratings on Amazon
  17. 2Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces

    Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces

    Tanenbaum

    2 here · 22 all-time · #279 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.5 out of 5, 721 ratings on Amazon
  18. 2Rapid Development

    Rapid Development

    Steve McConnell

    2 here · 7 all-time · #958 overall

  19. 2The Little Typer

    The Little Typer

    David Reegory, Daniel P. Friedman

    2 here · 6 all-time · #1144 overall

  20. 2Ruby Under a Microscope

    Ruby Under a Microscope

    Pat Shaughnessy

    2 here · 4 all-time · #1736 overall

  21. 2The Design of the Unix Operating System

    The Design of the Unix Operating System

    2 here · 3 all-time · #2605 overall

  22. 1

    How to Win Friends and Influence People

    Dale Carnegie

    1 here · 175 all-time · #8 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.7 out of 5, 106,505 ratings on Amazon
  23. 1

    The Art of Computer Programming

    Donald Knuth

    1 here · 127 all-time · #14 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.5 out of 5, 203 ratings on Amazon
  24. 1

    The C Programming Language

    Brian Kernighan, Dennis Ritchie

    1 here · 124 all-time · #15 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.7 out of 5, 182 ratings on Amazon
  25. 1

    Black Swan

    Nassim Nicholas Taleb

    1 here · 110 all-time · #19 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.4 out of 5, 8,277 ratings on Amazon
  26. 1

    Code Complete

    Steve McConnell

    1 here · 108 all-time · #22 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 1,353 ratings on Amazon
  27. 1

    Zero to One

    Peter Thiel, Blake Masters

    1 here · 89 all-time · #37 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.5 out of 5, 40,093 ratings on Amazon
  28. 1

    The Phoenix Project

    Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, George Spafford

    1 here · 67 all-time · #56 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 14,975 ratings on Amazon
  29. 1The Elements of Computing Systems

    The Elements of Computing Systems

    Nisan and Schocken

    1 here · 58 all-time · #65 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.7 out of 5, 416 ratings on Amazon
  30. 1

    Algorithms

    Robert Sedgewick

    1 here · 49 all-time · #89 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 876 ratings on Amazon
  31. 1

    The 48 Laws of Power

    Robert Greene

    1 here · 36 all-time · #136 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.7 out of 5, 90,218 ratings on Amazon
  32. 1

    Programming Pearls

    Jon Bentley

    1 here · 35 all-time · #145 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.4 out of 5, 402 ratings on Amazon
  33. 1

    The Innovator's Dilemma

    Clayton Christensen

    1 here · 30 all-time · #185 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.5 out of 5, 4,076 ratings on Amazon
  34. 1

    High Performance Browser Networking

    Ilya Grigorik

    1 here · 22 all-time · #281 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.7 out of 5, 213 ratings on Amazon
  35. 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
  36. 1Effective Java

    Effective Java

    Joshua Bloch

    1 here · 21 all-time · #293 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.7 out of 5, 1,623 ratings on Amazon
  37. 1The Effective Engineer

    The Effective Engineer

    Edmond Lau

    1 here · 17 all-time · #381 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 164 ratings on Amazon
  38. 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
  39. 1The Psychology of Computer Programming

    The Psychology of Computer Programming

    Gerald M. Weinberg

    1 here · 16 all-time · #410 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.0 out of 5, 140 ratings on Amazon
  40. 1Hacking

    Hacking

    Jon Erickson

    1 here · 14 all-time · #461 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 1,602 ratings on Amazon
  41. 1C Programming: A Modern Approach

    C Programming: A Modern Approach

    K. N. King

    1 here · 13 all-time · #500 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.4 out of 5, 384 ratings on Amazon
  42. 1Computer Networks

    Computer Networks

    Andrew S. Tanenbaum

    1 here · 11 all-time · #570 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.4 out of 5, 503 ratings on Amazon
  43. 1The Elements of Programming Style

    The Elements of Programming Style

    Brian Kernighan and P. J. Plauger

    1 here · 9 all-time · #697 overall

  44. 1The Passionate Programmer

    The Passionate Programmer

    Chad Fowler

    1 here · 9 all-time · #717 overall

  45. 1Lisp in Small Pieces

    Lisp in Small Pieces

    Christian Queinnec

    1 here · 9 all-time · #741 overall

  46. 1The Design of Design

    The Design of Design

    Frederick P. Brooks

    1 here · 9 all-time · #754 overall

  47. 1How Will You Measure Your Life

    How Will You Measure Your Life

    Clayton Christensen

    1 here · 8 all-time · #786 overall

  48. 1The Art of Prolog

    The Art of Prolog

    Leon S. Sterling, Ehud Y. Shapiro

    1 here · 7 all-time · #923 overall

  49. 1Modern C++ Design

    Modern C++ Design

    Andrei Alexandrescu

    1 here · 7 all-time · #937 overall

  50. 1The New Turing Omnibus

    The New Turing Omnibus

    A. K. Dewdney

    1 here · 7 all-time · #942 overall

  51. 1Computation

    Computation

    Marvin Minsky

    1 here · 7 all-time · #1038 overall

  52. 1How to Take Smart Notes

    How to Take Smart Notes

    Sönke Ahrens

    1 here · 6 all-time · #1103 overall

  53. 1Test-Driven Development by Example

    Test-Driven Development by Example

    Kent Beck

    1 here · 6 all-time · #1180 overall

  54. 1Effective Python

    Effective Python

    Brett Slatkin

    1 here · 6 all-time · #1196 overall

  55. 1Developer Hegemony

    Developer Hegemony

    1 here · 6 all-time · #1197 overall

  56. 1The Little LISPer

    The Little LISPer

    Daniel Friedman

    1 here · 5 all-time · #1310 overall

  57. 1Conceptual Mathematics

    Conceptual Mathematics

    Lawvere and Schanuel

    1 here · 5 all-time · #1338 overall

  58. 1Commodore 64 Programmers Reference Guide

    Commodore 64 Programmers Reference Guide

    1 here · 5 all-time · #1476 overall

  59. 1The Little Book of Semaphores

    The Little Book of Semaphores

    1 here · 4 all-time · #1551 overall

  60. 1Systems Performance

    Systems Performance

    Brendan Gregg

    1 here · 4 all-time · #1863 overall

  61. 1C++ Primer

    C++ Primer

    Stanley B. Lippman

    1 here · 4 all-time · #1890 overall

  62. 1Google SRE Book

    Google SRE Book

    1 here · 3 all-time · #2087 overall

  63. 1Extreme Programming Explained

    Extreme Programming Explained

    Kent Beck

    1 here · 3 all-time · #2190 overall