Y Hacker News Books

What is the single most influential book every programmer should read? ↗

The books people recommended

2011-12-06 · 193 points · 95 comments · 46 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. 14

    Design Patterns

    Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, John Vlissides

    14 here · 80 all-time · #42 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.3 out of 5, 27 ratings on Amazon
  2. 10

    Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs

    Harold Abelson

    10 here · 316 all-time · #2 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.7 out of 5, 742 ratings on Amazon
  3. 8

    Code Complete

    Steve McConnell

    8 here · 108 all-time · #22 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 1,353 ratings on Amazon
  4. 5

    The Mythical Man-Month

    Frederick Brooks Jr.

    5 here · 137 all-time · #13 overall

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

    The Pragmatic Programmer

    Andrew Hunt and David Thomas

    5 here · 102 all-time · #26 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.8 out of 5, 3,644 ratings on Amazon
  6. 5

    Refactoring

    Martin Fowler

    5 here · 37 all-time · #132 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.7 out of 5, 1,228 ratings on Amazon
  7. 5

    Euclid's Elements

    Euclid

    5 here · 23 all-time · #266 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.8 out of 5, 1,006 ratings on Amazon
  8. 5Death March

    Death March

    Edward Yourdon

    5 here · 7 all-time · #1043 overall

  9. 4

    The C Programming Language

    Brian Kernighan, Dennis Ritchie

    4 here · 124 all-time · #15 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.7 out of 5, 182 ratings on Amazon
  10. 3

    Code

    Charles Petzold

    3 here · 147 all-time · #12 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 2,787 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

    How to Win Friends and Influence People

    Dale Carnegie

    2 here · 175 all-time · #8 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.7 out of 5, 106,505 ratings on Amazon
  13. 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
  14. 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
  15. 2Working Effectively with Legacy Code

    Working Effectively with Legacy Code

    Michael Feathers

    2 here · 41 all-time · #122 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.5 out of 5, 739 ratings on Amazon
  16. 2

    Programming Pearls

    Jon Bentley

    2 here · 35 all-time · #145 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.4 out of 5, 402 ratings on Amazon
  17. 2

    The Prince

    Niccolò Machiavelli

    2 here · 34 all-time · #152 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.4 out of 5, 8,164 ratings on Amazon
  18. 2Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture

    Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture

    Martin Fowler

    2 here · 15 all-time · #417 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.5 out of 5, 890 ratings on Amazon
  19. 2Capitalism and Freedom

    Capitalism and Freedom

    Milton Friedman

    2 here · 14 all-time · #470 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 2,994 ratings on Amazon
  20. 2Programming Language Pragmatics

    Programming Language Pragmatics

    Michael L. Scott

    2 here · 5 all-time · #1358 overall

  21. 2The Dragon Book

    The Dragon Book

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

    2 here · 4 all-time · #1742 overall

  22. 2On War

    On War

    Carl von Clausewitz

    2 here · 4 all-time · #1784 overall

  23. 1

    Gödel, Escher, Bach

    Douglas Hofstadter

    1 here · 347 all-time · #1 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.7 out of 5, 2,713 ratings on Amazon
  24. 1Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality

    Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality

    Eliezer Yudkowsky

    1 here · 101 all-time · #27 overall

    Buy on Amazon
  25. 1

    1984

    George Orwell

    1 here · 94 all-time · #34 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 126,118 ratings on Amazon
  26. 1

    Brave New World

    Aldous Huxley

    1 here · 67 all-time · #55 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.4 out of 5, 48,055 ratings on Amazon
  27. 1

    Peopleware

    Tom DeMarco

    1 here · 62 all-time · #59 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.5 out of 5, 1,189 ratings on Amazon
  28. 1

    Clean Code

    Robert C. Martin

    1 here · 47 all-time · #91 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.7 out of 5, 6,810 ratings on Amazon
  29. 1

    The Elements of Style

    William Strunk Jr.

    1 here · 38 all-time · #129 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.7 out of 5, 7,297 ratings on Amazon
  30. 1

    Hackers and Painters

    Paul Graham

    1 here · 36 all-time · #139 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.5 out of 5, 765 ratings on Amazon
  31. 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
  32. 1

    The Visual Display of Quantitative Information

    Edward Tufte

    1 here · 24 all-time · #253 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 996 ratings on Amazon
  33. 1

    The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

    William L. Shirer

    1 here · 19 all-time · #328 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.7 out of 5, 11,382 ratings on Amazon
  34. 1A Pattern Language

    A Pattern Language

    Christopher Alexander

    1 here · 19 all-time · #331 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.7 out of 5, 1,073 ratings on Amazon
  35. 1Effective C++

    Effective C++

    Scott Meyers

    1 here · 15 all-time · #437 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 1,177 ratings on Amazon
  36. 1Essays

    Essays

    Michel de Montaigne

    1 here · 12 all-time · #546 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 750 ratings on Amazon
  37. 1The Unix Programming Environment

    The Unix Programming Environment

    Kernighan and Pike

    1 here · 10 all-time · #634 overall

  38. 1The Elements of Programming Style

    The Elements of Programming Style

    Brian Kernighan and P. J. Plauger

    1 here · 9 all-time · #697 overall

  39. 1A Discipline of Programming

    A Discipline of Programming

    Edsger Dijkstra

    1 here · 8 all-time · #805 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.7 out of 5, 27 ratings on Amazon
  40. 1A Mathematician's Apology

    A Mathematician's Apology

    G.H. Hardy

    1 here · 8 all-time · #888 overall

  41. 1Theory of Computation

    Theory of Computation

    Michael Sipser

    1 here · 7 all-time · #924 overall

  42. 1The Road Ahead

    The Road Ahead

    Bill Gates

    1 here · 6 all-time · #1137 overall

  43. 1Higher Order Perl

    Higher Order Perl

    Mark Jason Dominus

    1 here · 5 all-time · #1283 overall

  44. 1Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns

    Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns

    Kent Beck

    1 here · 5 all-time · #1406 overall

  45. 1Birth of Tragedy

    Birth of Tragedy

    Friedrich Nietzsche

    1 here · 4 all-time · #1832 overall

  46. 1Fictions

    Fictions

    Jorge Luis Borges

    1 here · 3 all-time · #2015 overall