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Ask HN: Programming books that are desk worthy? (reference material)

13 points by TbobbyZ ↗ HN
I'm looking to buy some new programming books and I'm not sure to go just digital or hardcopy.

General programming or ones specific for what stack you work with.

15 comments

[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 48.1 ms ] thread
vinchuco
What exactly is meant by desk-worthy?
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
btilly
Ones worth keeping by your desk either for your own reference or for handing out to anyone who is interested.

Alternately if your company has a library, ones you'd recommend for inclusion there.

TbobbyZ
Couldn't have said it better.
colund
Java Concurrency in Practice is an example of a nice go-to book if you're into that
fredrb
Clean code by Robert Martin if you're an application developer.
TbobbyZ
This was in my Amazon cart before my original post!
yunyeng
Code Complete 2
TbobbyZ
This was in my Amazon cart before my original post too!
LarryMade2
Desk Worthy to me is a good reference guide. Other good books that I don't need at arm's reach then are "shelf-worthy."

Heres a couple Deskworthy ones: tyling with CSS by Charles Wyke-Smith - very quick reference to grab to get some CSS point clarified. The Visual Quickstart HTML guide is good too also for quick reference.

applecrazy
No desk would be complete without the C programmer's K&R C.
sigjuice
Also, C: A Reference Manual by Samuel P. Harbison and Guy L. Steele Jr.
Lordarminius
Programming in Ruby;1.9 & 2.0. Dave Fowler et al aka Pickaxe book
mlitchard
Foundations of Multidimensional and Metric Data Structures

Hanan Samet

randelramirez
1.) The Pragmatic Programmer 2.) The Passionate Programmer 3.) 97 Things Every Programmer Should Know