Book Reviews

I'd like to take the opportunity to recommend a number of books here -- books that I have enjoyed reading a lot. The list isn't restricted to IT books. I have tried to include books that I feel are special, in the sense that they are truely convincing or exceptionally well-written.

• Jim Highsmith: "Agile Software Development Ecosystems" (2002).

  There are several books on agile methods. The special thing about this book is that it contains interviews with several proponents of agile methods. This book doesn't stop at introducing the methods, it also introduces the people behind those concepts.

• Markus Völter, Alexander Schmid, Eberhard Wolff: "Server Component Patterns" (2002).

  If you'd like to understand how components work, especially in a J2EE context, then this book is for you. There aren't many books that explain technical stuff in such an easy-to-understand fashion.

• Norm Kerth: "Project Retrospectives" (2001).

  A beautiful book from the guru of project retrospectives. The book offers a practical guide to active knowledge management.

• Simon Singh: "The Code Book" (1999).

  This book is subtitled: the science of secrecy from ancient Egypt to quantum cryptography. It includes an excellent presentation of the concepts behind PGP. Very well written, as can be expected from a book by Simon Singh.

• Stewart Brand: "The Clock of the Long Now" (1999).

  A book on the history of knowledge and the importance of long-term thinking. Quite unusual, but full of surprising insights.

• Steven Pinker: "How The Mind Works" (1997).

  Cognitive psychology isn't an easy topic. This book, however, presents a lot of insight on how humans think and act in a comprehensible way.

• Simon Singh: "Fermat's Last Theorem" (1997).

  This book tells the story of a mathematical proof. One of those books you just can't put aside until you've finished it!

• Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, John Vlissides: "Design Patterns" (1995).

  The first book on patterns in software. Still a classic.

• Gero von Randow: "Das Ziegenproblem" (German language only) (1995).

  A game show participant has to choose one of three doors. The prize is a car that is behind one door, while there are goats behind the other doors. The player makes a choice, but the door isn't opened yet. Instead the game show host opens one of the other doors -- one behind which there is a goat. Now two doors remain, one with the car, one with a goat. The host asks the player whether they'd like to revise the decision. Should the player do this? The book answers this questions and demonstrates with many other examples what tricks our intuition plays on us as far as calculating probabilities is concerned.

• Jürgen Gulbins, Christine Kahrmann: "Mut zur Typographie" (German language only) (1992).

  If you aren't quite sure that typography matters, this book can convince you that it does. The level of detail is remarkable, yet even a quick read will give you numerous insights.

• Tom DeMarco, Timothy Lister: "Peopleware" (1987, 1999).

  A classic on the role that people play in software development. The book is cited frequently, yet still too many projects don't care too much about what it says. This is a book that is worth browsing every once in a while, especially when hectic dominates a project and human values seem to be drowning.

• Douglas Hofstadter: "Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid" (1979).

  Still the classic in the literature on computer science. The book demonstrates the asthetics of logic like none other. More than 20 years old by now, but still fascinating.

Copyright Andreas Rüping, 2006. I cannot accept responsibility for materials on other web sites to which external links from my web site may point. The owners of those sites hold the sole responsibility for their content.

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