Computer Books

What Makes a Good Computer Book?

It's definitely not bulk. The vast majority (exceeding even what one would suspect from Sturgeon's Law) of computer books sold today are junk. In a futile attempt to avoid intimidating computer novices they are padded with so many pages of "friendly" jabber^[1] that they often end up over a thousand pages long. A cursory examination reveals that they contain very little useful text, and could be replaced easily and completely by a book one tenth their size!

Favorites

Some computer books that I've found especially enjoyable and interesting are, in no particular order:

Unix and C

The C Programming Language, Kernighan and Ritchie.
The UNIX Programming Environment, Kernighan and Pike.
Software Tools, Kernighan and Plauger.
Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment, Stevens.

Lisp and Functional Programming

The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, by Abelson, Sussman, and Sussman.
The Little Lisper, Felleisen and Friedman.
Lisp in Small Pieces, Queinnec, Callaway (translator).
Essentials of Programming Languages, Friedman, Wand, and Haynes.
ANSI Common Lisp and On Lisp, Graham.^[2]
Object-Oriented Programming in Common Lisp: A Programmer's Guide to CLOS, Keene.
Dylan Programming: An Object-Oriented and Dynamic Language, Feinberg (Editor), Keene, Mathews, Withington.

^[1] Not only is this jabber completely unnecessary, it usually is harmful, since it hides the useful information in excess verbage.

^[2]On Lisp is out of print but available for download from Paul Graham's web site.

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