say something

Essential Books

To follow up on my post concerning your Knowledge Portfolio I thought it would be nice to gather what you find to be the essential books that any programmer or designer should have. Here is what I have come up with so far.

How about you?

Published by Scrivs on May 19, 2005 in Designer Resources • Did you like it? Subscribe! Or Submit it to Blogosphere News!

13 people says things!

  1. Lets hope these links work… otherwise I look like a total n00b…

    For general grammar, I would suggest Eats, Shoots & Leaves.

    For non-fiction writing, I would suggest On Writing Well.

    For Flash, I would suggest Actionscript: The Definitive Guide (MX Edition)

    These are books that changed the way I write, and the way I program Flash. I know, not one in the same, but they are quite possibly the best books I own.

    By Josh Dura on May 19, 2005 12:00 pm

  2. Even though they are geared more towards the print design world, I would recommend any of Steven Hellers books. Design Literacy and Design Literacy Continued are good.

    Designing Web Usability and Homepage Usability by Jakob Nielsen

    Building Accessible Websites by Joe Clark

    Many of the principles put forth in Jeffrey Veen’s The Art and Science of Web Design are still relevant as well.

    By Jeremy Flint on May 19, 2005 12:31 pm

  3. Web ReDesign: Workflow That Works by Emily Cotler and Kelly Goto.

    By Andy Mac on May 19, 2005 2:04 pm

  4. I’d add: a subscription to the New Yorker

    By Peter Flaschner on May 19, 2005 7:56 pm

  5. G’day Paul. These two Australian books might help you on your quest for simplification. Even though I haven’t noticed management gobbledygook in your writing or anything like that, I just know that I found after I read these books I was much nmore clearer in my own thinking, writing and don’t over complicate things as much because the books illustrate how through langauge, writing and thoughts stuff can be overly convoluted.

    The Decay of Public Language

    Watson’s Dictionary of Weasel Words

    Also it looks like both books have been merged and just published in the USA as:

    Death Sentences : How Cliches, Weasel Words and Management-Speak Are Strangling Public Language

    By Anthony on May 19, 2005 9:17 pm

  6. Dan Cederholm’s (www.simplebits.com) Web Standards Solutions.

    GAG’s Pricing & Ethical Guidelines.

    And of course STAR magazine.

    By taughnee on May 19, 2005 10:48 pm

  7. The Inmates are Running the Asylum

    The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web

    For freelancers I would recommend Business and Legal Forms for Graphic Desigenrs

    One from your favorite author Building Accessible Websites

    I also enjoy subscriptions to both Communication Arts and HOW magazines.

    By Keith on May 19, 2005 11:47 pm

  8. The Art of Looking Sideways

    By Greg on May 20, 2005 1:35 am

  9. I’ve read each of these from cover to cover. I’m not going to bother linking them ’cause I’m sure everyone here can search them.
    - DOM: The complete reference.
    - Javascript for the WWW
    - Sitepoint:
    - - HTML Utopia
    - - CSS Tips Tricks Hacks
    - - PHP Anthology I,II
    - - BYODDW
    - SAMS Publishing
    - - PHP4 and MySQL
    - - PHP5
    - - XML in 10 minutes
    - Oreilly
    - - MySQL Pocket Book
    - Designing Usable Websites
    - Usability for the web
    - Designing with Web Standards
    - Don’t make me think
    - The Zen of CSS Design
    - Web Standards Solutions

    By Dustin Diaz on May 20, 2005 11:43 am

  10. I was surprised to find that I have most of the books on Joel Spolsky’s list - http://www.joelonsoftware.com/navLinks/fog0000000262.html
    Its fairly complete.

    By Lea, What's my IP Address? on May 21, 2005 12:37 am

  11. I’m currently hooked on Professional Javascript for Webdevelopers by Nicholas C. Zakas from Wrox. I also keep the O’Reilly pocket references close at hand, for Javascript and CSS. A book I’m missing here is Defensive Design for the web from 37signals.
    Also Hack Notes Websecurity Portable Reference should be a must-read, to get a grasp on web-app security.

    By halans on May 22, 2005 4:34 am

  12. This seems more like a list of books for a usability person than for a programmer: I think I’ve read 90% of these books as part of UTS‘ Interactive Multimedia Masters programme. With Dustin, I’d definitely include Designing with Web Standards in the list, to help learn a post-tables approach to page construction.

    By cafedave on May 22, 2005 10:14 pm

  13. A couple more suggestions:

    Design Patterns The famous catalog of basic OO patterns.
    Nonviolent Communication Not a programming book per se, but of tremendous use to programmers, especially when tensions are running high.

    By Jonathan Aquino on May 23, 2005 2:01 am

  14. Subscribe to comments via RSS!