In this post I prepared for you 7 programming books, that helped me to become a better developer and will also help you.

And as a disclaimer I must say that there are some problems with books.

• First of all, it is not that easy to follow along, like videos for example
• Secondly, the code inside is not always compiling also books can be out of date really fast, and it is super difficult to update books. Typically they just have a new version of the book and you have already the old one, and you won’t buy a new one.

But nevertheless a lot of people like to learn programming through books or improve their knowledge. Because if you are using public transportation to get to work or maybe a university, you have time to read a book. And it can be a programming book, that will improve your skills.

And actually in this list we have only books, that are never out of date. Which actually means these are books about architecture, basic principles and patterns that will always stay the same.

The pragmatic programmer

The first book in the list is “The pragmatic programmer” your journey to mastering. And this book is about basics of becoming a better programmer.

• What to do with bad software?
• How to learn continuously
• How to avoid duplicating knowledge
• How to improve your code
• What tools you must learn to become a better programmer
• What requirements you need?

I highly recommend this book as a general book to get some better understanding how to improve your programming skills. And the main point is, that this book was written 22 years ago and it is still completely valid for nowadays programmer.

Clean code

The next book in my list is kind of standard for every single programmer. It is a "Clean code" by Robert Martin. And I highly recommend this book to anybody, who is learning any programming language. It’s all about writing good code, building code correctly with correct patterns to get maximum scalability and readaability. There are also lots of examples regarding correct era handling and writing tests.

Javascript: The good parts

The third book in my list is "Javascript: the good parts". This is the most popular book about Javascript. If you don't know anything about Javascript and you simply want to learn it in an easy way, I can highly recommend you this book. It’s all about basics of Javascript.

• Syntax
• Objects
• Functions
• Inheritance
• Arrays
• Regular expressions
• Methods
• Style

Javascript: Design patterns

Book number 4 is a must for you if you are a Javascript developer. It is learning Javascript design patterns. And I can highly recommend you this book, because this knowledge you will need forever inside Javascript world. Actually here you will learn more than 20 different patterns, that are typically used inside Javascript, like Singletone, Module, Fathate, Factory and much, much more.

Refactoring

Book number 5 is also one of the classics. And this is Robert Fowler "Refactoring and improving your code". And yes this book is fully regarding refactoring, how to make it, how to split it in different steps and how to make refactoring an easy process. Also it's all about how to understand if you must refactor your code, or not. And what process you must apply to it.

Soft Skills

My next book is "Soft skills", and actually, this book is not related directly to coding, but a lot of people are lacking soft skills in programming. And this is exactly what you need in every single company, to get a promotion, have good relationships inside your team and get more money. It’s all about understanding your skills, building your personal brand, improving you as a developer and finding more success in the company.

SMACSS

And last, but not least is the book about SMACSS. If you are interested how to build a nice architecture inside CSS without any libraries just with structuring your code correctly, this is exactly the book for you. And this is completely free book, which leverages the methodology, which is called SMACSS for special naming of all your classes inside your project to build scalable CSS. And even if you won’t use SMACSS in your real project, it gives you an understanding, how to make your CSS reusable and scalable.
I hope, that you will find these books helpful and now you have something to read during your ride to the job. And actually, if you are interested, how to ask about bigger salary inside your company, make sure to check this post also.