Hello Guys, it‘s time to take an hypothetical question in Javarevisited. Which programming book, would you love to buy, if you are given 100$ to spend? I know, when it comes to buying, people want to worth of there money, and that‘s why I am posting this question to you guys. Suppose you are looking some books in a bookstore and suddenly salesman comes and say, at this particular minute, we are giving you 100$ FREE to buy any programming book. Now you just have 10 minute to complete your purchase and take away those awesome Java books absolutely for FREE, what are the books you are going to buy?
Remember you can only buy books, whose total price must not exceed 100$, you can buy one book or combination of multiple books. For sake of price you can consider prices given at amazon for Java books paperback edition, remember you need to consider price of paperback edition and not eBook. Also you are free to buy any programming or software engineering book, not just limited to Java or related technology.
Talking about myself, I would love to spend my 100$ for buying following books, Though I wanted to buy more, but I ran out of time while choosing last book, so that I can include the first two.
1) Clean Code By Robert C. Martin $37.58
5) Java Performance by Binu John $42.01
3) Just Spring Integration $17.99
Total $97.58
You can post your choice of book as comment, and I will choose best combination of books out of them, which fits on 100$ and post it here.
P.S. If you really want to play this like game, only take 10 minutes to finalize your books and try to use every cents.
Update
Thanks for your comments guys. From all the comments, we can see a pattern while buying a programming book for reading, most of the suggestions are for books which are timeless, classic and can be read even down the years. Obviously, in this category, Algorithm and data structures tops, followed by books on Object oriented programming, best practices, and software engineering. Following is the list of some of the classic programming books, suggested by our readers in comments section. You can use this list to buy your next programming books, when you have $100 to spare
1. Algorithm Unlocked by Thomas Corman, suggested by Atif is good compilation of complex algorithm in a easy to read format. It‘s written by Thomas corman, which has already authored or co-authored lot of books on data structure and algorithm space. On top of that, it‘s real cheap, just $22.50
2. Data Structures and Algorithm Analysis in Java, suggested by Suresh, is bit expensive costing around $123, but worth of money, if you would like to learn data structure and algorithms in Java programming language.
3. Algorithm Design Manual by Steven Skiena is suggested by Gaurav Dubey, which cost around $82, but again given importance of subject in programming, I think it‘s worth every penny.
4. Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software is suggested by one of Anonymous reader. This books is already 18 years old, first released in mid 1990s, but still relevant and will remain effective, given popularity of object oriented language in enterprise world. It cost around $47.99.
5. Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code By Martin Fowler is another timeless classic suggested by @Pratap, This book is also in my wish list and next in my reading queue. Cost is around $44.70
I found this books, which deserves a place in Java programmers bookshelf. I am big fan of paperback edition of books, because that‘s give me a real feeling of reading books, but given iPad and Amazon kindle advantage of carrying large number of eBooks in your bag, I have started building my eBook shelf as well. By the way, It‘s hard to get time to read programming books, but if you have desire to learn and continuously improve yourself, you will definitely find at least half an hour daily or couple of hours in week to read programming books.
Read more: http://javarevisited.blogspot.com/2013/05/which-programming-book-would-you-buy-if.html#ixzz3OcxMm7t4