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The Most Recommended Programming Books of All Time

Blogger Pierre DeWulf scraped the web to find the 25 most recommended programming books of all time, and a majority are Pearson publications. See the full list and read about Pierre's process.

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The Pragmatic Programmer

The Pragmatic Programmer
By David Thomas, Andrew Hunt

*$39.99 $49.99
Book

*$31.99 $39.99
eBook

  Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship

Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship
By Robert C. Martin

*$39.99 $49.99
Book

*$31.99 $39.99
eBook

90+ Amazon Ratings with 4.8-Star Average
"[F]illed with practical advice, both technical and professional, that will serve you and your projects well for years to come."
Andrea Goulet, CEO, Corgibytes, Founder, LegacyCode.Rocks

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1,240+ Amazon Ratings with 4.5-Star Average
"Profoundly changed how I approach coding...Overall this is a great book that I recommend to programmers at all levels."
Amazon Customer Review

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Code Complete

Code Complete
By Steve McConnell

*$43.99 $54.99
Book

*$35.19 $43.99
eBook

  Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code

Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code
By Martin Fowler

*$47.99 $59.99
Book

*$38.39 $47.99
eBook

500+ Amazon Ratings with 4.8-Star Average
"[A] comprehensive analysis of software construction, it is objective and scientific, it is well-written and well-organized and it carries a lot of weight in the software industry (yes, this is important)."
Amazon Customer Review

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80+ Amazon Ratings with 4.4-Star Average
"Whenever you read [Refactoring], it's time to read it again. And if you haven't read it yet, please do before writing another line of code."
David Heinemeier Hansson, Creator of Ruby on Rails, Founder & CTO at Basecamp

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The Mythical Man-Month

The Mythical Man-Month
By Frederick P. Brooks

*$34.39 $42.99
Book

*$27.99 $34.99
eBook

  The Clean Coder

The Clean Coder
By Robert C. Martin

*$35.99 $44.99
Book

*$28.79 $35.99
eBook

390+ Amazon Ratings with 4.5-Star Average
"A must read for any serious software developer and those that lead them. There is no magic, just solid engineering discipline, hard work, and a desire to create something of value."
Amazon Customer Review

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350+ Amazon Ratings with 4.5-Star Average
"Some technical books inspire and teach; some delight and amuse. Rarely does a technical book do all four of these things. Robert Martin's always have for me and The Clean Coder is no exception. Read, learn, and live the lessons in this book and you can accurately call yourself a software professional."
George Bullock, Senior Program Manager, Microsoft Corp.

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Working Effectively with Legacy Code

Working Effectively with Legacy Code
By Michael Feathers

*$51.99 $64.99
Book

*$41.59 $51.99
eBook

  Design Patterns

Design Patterns
By Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, John Vlissides

*$47.99 $59.99
Book

*$38.39 $47.99
eBook

200+ Amazon Ratings with 4.5-Star Average
"I can't say enough great things about this book. It's dearer to me than any other book in my programming collection including books about object oriented code."
Amazon Customer Review

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740+ Amazon Ratings with 4.6-Star Average
"This is one of the best written and wonderfully insightful books that I have read in a great long while...this book establishes the legitimacy of patterns in the best way: not by argument, but by example."
C++ Report

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Don't Make Me Think, Revisited

Don't Make Me Think, Revisited
By Steve Krug

*$36.00 $45.00
Book

*$28.80 $36.00
eBook

  Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software

Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software
By Charles Petzold

*$23.99 $29.99
Book

*$19.19 $23.99
eBook

750+ Amazon Ratings with 4.6-Star Average
"Usability 101—not only does Steve cover the 'what' and 'why' of usability, the generous reading recommendations on related topics is super helpful. And his sense of humor makes you smile as you read, a nice bonus!"
Amazon Customer Review

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690+ Amazon Ratings with 4.7-Star Average
"One of the best books out there to understand the underlying components of computers and programming. I buy this for all of my nieces/nephews/friends that are into coding and they all love it."
Amazon Customer Review

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Peopleware

Peopleware
By Tom DeMarco, Tim Lister

*$34.99 $44.99
Book

*$27.99 $34.99
eBook

  Programming Pearls, 2nd Edition

Programming Pearls, 2nd Edition
By Jon Bentley

*$34.99 $44.99
Book

*$28.79 $35.99
eBook

140+ Amazon Ratings with 4.6-Star Average
"Peopleware is the one book that everyone who runs a software team needs to read and reread once a year."
Joel Spolsky, Co-founder, Stack Overflow

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140+ Amazon Ratings with 4.1-Star Average
"Programming Pearls was one of the most influential books I read early in my career, and many of the insights I first encountered in that book stayed with me long after I read it."
Steve McConnell

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Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture

Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture
By Martin Fowler

*$55.99 $69.99
Book

*$44.99 $55.99
eBook

  The Art of Computer Programming Box Set

The Art of Computer Programming Box Set
By Donald E. Knuth

*$207.99 $259.99
Book

230+ Amazon Ratings with 4.3-Star Average
"This is a book that has stood the test of time incredibly well. If you want to understand the patterns and architectural principals *behind* the frameworks people use to make complex business or web software, this is fantastic."
Amazon Customer Review

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200+ Amazon Ratings with 4.8-Star Average
"At first, I assumed this collection of books would be dry and a basic re-hash of intermediate-level concepts—however, the reader is taken down a carefully notched path leading to an understanding of the basics of the lower levels of how various computing concepts came to be and were then put together."
Amazon Customer Review

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Domain-Driven Design

Domain-Driven Design
By Eric Evans

*$59.99 $74.99
Book

*$47.99 $59.99
eBook

  Rapid Development

Rapid Development
By Steve McConnell

*$31.99 $39.99
Book

*$25.59 $31.99
eBook

220+ Amazon Ratings with 4.3-Star Average
"This book belongs on the shelf of every thoughtful software developer."
Kent Beck

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100+ Amazon Ratings with 4.5-Star Average
"I've been in the computer field for almost 40 years. I've held development, analyst and management positions. I've read well over one hundred computer-related books over that period. I first read this book in 1998, still refer to it frequently, and it is still the most important book I've ever read."
Amazon Customer Review

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Algorithms, 4th Edition

Algorithms, 4th Edition
By Robert Sedgewick, Kevin Wayne

*$76.49 $89.99
Book

*$61.19 $71.99
eBook

  Continuous Delivery

Continuous Delivery
By Jez Humble

*$47.99 $59.99
Book

*$38.39 $47.99
eBook

280+ Amazon Ratings with 4.5-Star Average
"This is a great book that teaches foundational computer science algorithms and their underlying data structures. Used this 1st edition when I was in college. Just bought the 4th edition as a guide to brushing up on some of the terminology that I haven't used in a while."
Amazon Customer Review

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160+ Amazon Ratings with 4.5-Star Average
"If you need to deploy software more frequently, this book is for you. Applying it will help you reduce risk, eliminate tedious work, and increase confidence. I'll be using the principles and practices here on all my current projects."
Kent Beck

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