Feature Driven Development

Object Models: Strategies, Patterns, and Applications (2nd Edition) author: Peter Coad David North Mark Mayfield asin: 0138401179 binding: Paperback list price: $85.00 USD amazon price: $77.08 USD

Peter Coad was way ahead of the pack (including the GoF and the amigos) and was by far the best modeler I'd ever seen (he's now retired). This is an old book but still a gem. As well as learning modeling by example, in this book you can also see the roots of the four class categories that later became the four color archetypes.

The Logic of Failure author: Dietrich Dorner asin: 0201479486 binding: Paperback list price: $19.00 USD amazon price: $12.92 USD

Subtitle: Recognizing and avoiding error in complex situations.

I haven't read many great books for a while and so it was a real joy when I bought this one. An excellent book with many lessons in it and again, not based on speculation but on research, measurement, experimentation and analysis. From one of the studies: "the good participants made more decisions than the bad ones," "both the good and bad participants did not differ in the frequency with which they developed hypotheses," "the good participants differed from the bad ones however, in how often they tested their hypotheses."

Are Your Lights On?: How to Figure Out What the Problem Really Is author: Donald C. Gause; Gerald M. Weinberg asin: 0932633161 binding: Paperback list price: $13.95 USD amazon price: $12.55 USD

A great book on problem solving. People that have seen me speak about how visually expressive and visually explicit models are compared to how ambiguous and vague the written word can be, will recognize the "Mary had a little lamb" example from this book. Anything written by Weinberg is worth reading.

Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability author: Steve Krug asin: 0789723107 binding: Paperback list price: $35.00 USD amazon price: $35.00

Read it the first time in one sitting. A wonderful little book, very easy to read, full of good advice delivered with clarity.

Eric Meyer on CSS: Mastering the Language of Web Design author: Eric Meyer asin: 073571245X binding: Paperback list price: $55.00 USD amazon price: $34.65 USD

You should read his blog and read his books.

Principles of Transaction Processing (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems) author: Philip A. Bernstein Eric Newcomer asin: 1558604154 binding: Paperback list price: $75.95 USD amazon price: $55.23 USD

This book is sort-of the readers digest version of the Jim Gray TP book and it borrows heavily from that book, but of course it covers only a sliver of Gray's work. That said, this is much more accessible and contains a very good description of idempotence and reliable messaging.

Transaction Processing, First Edition : Concepts and Techniques (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data author: Jim Gray Andreas Reuter asin: 1558601902 binding: Hardcover list price: $137.00 USD amazon price: $104.00 USD

The book on the topic from the masterful Jim Gray. One of my pet rants is the complete lack of understanding and hence implementation of ACID. From Banks (big ones too) that have mainframe code with no concurrency control whatsover to silver-bullet persistence frameworks that were first published without any concurrency control whatsoever to collaborative or shared editing solutions that were shipped without any concurrency control whatsoever and... well you get the point. This stuff is well understood and well experimented and measured. Don't go try and figure out locking yourself. Don't just do ovine optimistic locking. Go read how this stuff is actually done. Start with failfast, learn the two-phase locking theorem, get on board with idempotence, be the first on your block to get this stuff right. Ok, ok, end of rant.

The Psychology of Computer Programming: Silver Anniversary Edition author: Gerald M. Weinberg asin: 0932633420 binding: Paperback list price: $44.95 USD amazon price: $40.45 USD

One of the most famous books on programming. Anything written by Weinberg is worth reading. I once told Jerry that much of his stuff (and others) I read and then go "I wish I wrote that.". He replied something like "yes I used to think that way too then I learned to just be glad that I read it." 'nuff said?

Secrets of Consulting: A Guide to Giving and Getting Advice Successfully author: Gerald M. Weinberg asin: 0932633013 binding: Paperback list price: $29.95 USD amazon price: $29.95

I consider this book a competitive weapon - a significant competitive advantage. Anything written by Weinberg is worth reading. I once told Jerry that much of his stuff (and others) I read and then go "I wish I wrote that.". He replied something like "yes I used to think that way too then I learned to just be glad that I read it." 'nuff said?