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Ask HN: What books would be good for a CS101 course?

1 points by thumbtackthief ↗ HN
To clarify: I'm a self-taught programmer (Python/Django, for now) but there are clearly large gaps in my knowledge base. What books are good to read that might help teach the sort of skills that would be learned in a CS101 course? Note, I'm not necessarily looking for textbooks (although I'm not opposed) and ideally I'd like things I can read on the subway or whatnot, i.e., texts that stand alone without my having to be in front of a computer--I have more than enough resources to learn from while I'm coding. I'm also most interested in practical vs theoretical knowledge, but I'm open.

2 comments

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kencausey
Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs

http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html

and in lecture form:

http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.001/abelson-sussma...

thumbtackthief
Thanks, I'll check it out. It looks like a good read, but I'm not sure it addresses my question, which is probably because I was unclear. I've struggled with how to ask it for a while.

I work as a programmer, and I find I'm constantly lost with regards to basic things (to others) like how the Internet works, and Apache, and threads, and performance issues, and a whole host of other vocabulary words and terms that everyone takes for granted. I'm not really concerned (right now) about learning about recursion or a mergesort, for example... I just need to learn this common, everyday stuff that everyone else seems to know. I feel like I don't even know enough of the basics to explain what I don't know.