My (unauthoritative) list of book recommendations

After my workshop on Ruby on Rails on Saturday I was asked to recommend some books on programming, Agile and similar topics. I don't feel like an authority, because I didn't read at least half of the books I assume to be import. But these are my current recommendations.

(I allowed myself to link the titles to Amazon using a personalized link; when you order one of the books by following a link within this post I will be rewarded a small amount of money; you might reward my gratuitious engagement for the SkillShare workshop this way)

Ruby on Rails books

I just advice the classics on Ruby and Rails:

• Dave Thoms: "Programming Ruby 1.9". The standard book by the "discoverer" of Ruby.
• Sam Ruby, Dave Thomas, David Heinemeier Hansson: "Agile Web Development with Rails". Just released in the fourth edition, it covers Rails 3.0. It takes you from introductory level to an in-depth knowledge of the Rails framework.
  

My personal top 3

1. Martin Fowler: "Refactoring" (also available as Ruby Edition). This book was a real eye-opener for me. Afterwards software was way "softer" to me. I became able to knead my code towards the direction I want.
   And besides, Refactoring is the basic ability in becoming agile. It enables you to evolve and extend your code and it is one of the three phases in TDD which is the next level when becoming agile.
2. Robert "Uncle Bob" Martin: Clean Code. This book literally boosted the quality of my code. It gives lots of tips on the common principles when programming like good naming, refactoring the code, unit-testing, concurrency, and so on.
3. Lasse Koskela: "Test Driven". This book was a key source for my diploma thesis in 2010. It gives a nice introduction to TDD, ATDD and an agile development process. A nice book to get you started.

This list might change with the next Amazon shipping ;-)

Books I'm about to read / I was adviced to read

• Gojko Adzic: "Specification by Example". Fresh from the printing press, this book might be the new authority in ATDD, BDD or however you wanna call it. It's the distilled knowledge from more than 50 interviews with international practitioners of agile development.
• Lisa Crispin, Janet Gregory: "Agile Testing". The definitive guide to agile testing. Simple as that.
• Andy Hunt, David Thomas: "The Pragmatic Programmer". The book many experts advice to young software developers. It answers questions like: "What should I learn to become more productive?", "What should I learn to stay competitive" or "Which tools should I use?".
• Jonathan Rasmussen: "The Agile Samurai". Supposed to be the best introduction to developers new to Agile.

When you are interested in more books, just leave a comment and I will post further tips. You might also name a specific topic.