With all search engines and community forums by your side, have you ever considered reading books to solve your coding problems?
Or even to boost your career with extra knowledge?
Harsh as it sounds, you are not alone in this story. The majority of today’s software developers don’t find actual use in reading books or consider it as a useful tool in everyday work.
According to Stackoverflow and other blogs, we don’t have time to read books. Why?
- We don’t find it useful because we can google it
- We aren’t that much ambitious
- We find books vintage and without true value (?!)
- We consider most of the books irrelevant
For those who bump into a problem, what can be more useful than a simple Google search? Becoming a true craftsman isn’t beyond the bounds of possibility. Books can help you. If not in everyday tasks, then to learn how to love your job even more or how to learn a new programming language.
Read Books To Improve Your Software Skills
Ask yourself: Are you a developer or a Googler?
Coding may be a mechanical process, but thinking like a developer is a skill to acquire.
In Eton Digital, learning culture is much appreciated. Aside from knowledge transfer between developers, reading the tech books is what we consider a good way to improve our skills. While some of the books will not tell you how to deal with a particular problem, it will explain you the origin and give you other perspectives.
Here are five timeless titles that will help you to gain advanced programming knowledge and skills.
#1 Clean Code and Clean Coder by Robert. C. Martin
This legendary book is the most popular among developers for several reasons; it gives you a practical knowledge on how to make clean and useful code and a guideline on how to adapt some important coding values. Moreover, it challenges you to think more about your code in terms of wrong and right.
- The book challenges you to reassess your professional values and commitment to your craft
It’s the book that every software developer should consider having on the shelf.
#2 Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code by Martin Fowler
This edition of useful developer’s book you will find on every single recommendation list. It’s a practical book that deals with ways on how to improve the design of the existing code.
Why should you consider this book?
- You can learn how to rework a bad design into a good one.
#3 The Pragmatic Programmer by Andrew Hunt
Every developer tends to keep his code fresh. The best way to learn how to do so is to hear tips from experienced developers.
Pragmatic programmer covers topics ranging from personal responsibility and career development to architectural techniques to keep your code flexible and easy to adapt and reuse.
Read this book if you want to learn how to:
- Fight software rot;
- Avoid the trap of duplicating knowledge;
- Write flexible, dynamic, and adaptable code;
- Avoid programming by coincidence;
- Bullet-proof your code with contracts, assertions, and exceptions;
- Capture real requirements;
- Test ruthlessly and effectively
- Delight your users;
- Build teams of pragmatic programmers
#4 The Software Craftsman: Professionalism, Pragmatism, Pride by Sandro Mancuso
This book answers to the question why loving the job is necessary and how to do your job professionally. The author writes a simple introduction:
“Once you embrace this powerful mindset, you can achieve unprecedented levels of technical excellence and customer satisfaction.”
This is what you will learn:
- Why agile processes aren’t enough and why craftsmanship is crucial to making them work
- How craftsmanship helps you build software right and helps clients in ways that go beyond the code
- How and when to say “No” and how to provide creative alternatives
- Why bad code happens to good developers and how to stop creating and justifying it
- How to make working with legacy code less painful and more productive
- How to be pragmatic—not dogmatic—about your practices and tools
- How to lead software craftsmen and attract them to your organization
- What to avoid when advertising positions, interviewing candidates and hiring developers
- How developers and their managers can create a true culture of learning
- How to drive true technical change and overcome deep patterns of skepticism
#5 Agile Software Development, Principles, Patterns, and Practices by Robert C. Martin
Written by a software developer, the book is a unique collection of the latest software development methods. Don’t be skeptical, this book has yearly editions so you can keep up with all coding trends.
Author has used a practical, problem-solving approach, and it shows you how to develop a software from the early stages of analysis, through the low-level design and its implementation. Why should you read this book?
- The author is walking you through the process in details offering you creative insights and solutions.
Steve McConnell, the author of Code Complete, said:
“One book is more than most programmers read each year.”
Don’t have prejudice. You CAN apply all book knowledge in your day to day work, and learn how to be more efficient in all of your soft skills tighten to coding.
Is there a book you will add to the list? Tell us what books you like to read.
