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June 21, 2008|Donn Felker

Recommended Reading

Every now and then I have people who want to know what books I recommend in regards to IT and Software. My list tends to change over time, so I plan on keeping this up to date. I’ll be posting this link on the home page, so feel free to check back any time. 

PatternsOfEntAppArchi

Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture  – Martin Fowler

Great book with great patterns for enterprise architecture. 

head-first-design-patterns-book-cover

Head First Design Patterns

Good intro to design patterns.

PragmaticProgrammer The Pragmatic Programmer

Great book for those who like to program but what some more direction on the ways of great software development.

RefactoringToPatterns Refactoring to Patterns

Learn how to refactor your code into patterns.

WorkingEffectivelyWithLegacyCode Working Effectively With Legacy Code

New to unit testing? Having problems with how to understand and test old code? READ THIS BOOK. This book helps any developer understand "hand-me-down" code. 🙂

 AgilePatternsAndPRacticesinCS Agile Principles, Patterns and Practices in C#

Can’t be a book written by Robert C. Martin like this one. All around goodness.

xUnitTestPatterns xUnit Test Patterns

You know how to unit test? But what about all of these edge cases? How about testing sending emails? How to test file handling?

FrameworkDesignGuidelines Framework Design Guidelines

A great resource for someone who is attempting to write a framework for a team. This is not the end-all-be-all, but it is a good resource.
CodeComplete2_thumb Code Complete 2

A must read for any developer.

AgileSoftwareDevelopmentWithScrum Agile Software Development with Scrum

Get a grip on the development process with Scrum.
SoftwareEstimation Software Estimation

Another classic from McConnell. If you need to learn how to estimate better, pick up this bad-boy. If you’re agile or waterfall, this can help.

releaseit Release It!

Having trouble getting things out the door? This book will help guide you. Completely mind altering book.
PracticesOfAnAgileProgrammer Practices of an Agile Developer

Excellent book on agile development.

LearningWCF
Learning WCF

If you’re interested in SOA, then you need to learn WCF. This book helps you ramp up and get dirty quick.

rAgileWebDevelopmentWithrails Agile Web Development With Rails

Again, in my quest to learn new languages, I decided to whip up some web apps with Rails. Very slick, very nice. If you want to learn how to build web apps with Ruby check out this book.

EverydayScriptingWithruby Everyday Scripting with Ruby

In my quest to learn a new language every year, I picked up a copy of this book. It has been outstanding in helping a .NET architect become a dynamic language convert.