Most Popular Reddit Programming Books

It is believed that programmers do not read books. Learn by examples or instructions. Others buy but don’t read. But on Reddit blogs, books are quoted in their comments, so you can trust them a little. Definitely more than reviews on Amazone or Ozone. When choosing a book to read, it is important to know the most popular professional development aids. It is important for someone to find the most famous books, someone wants to weed out "pop music". Reddit discusses everything from pets to the latest weapons. The Reddit Favorites project analyzed 3.5 billion comments and highlighted the 24 most-mentioned programming books.

The most mentioned Reddit tutorial is Clean Code by Robert C. Martin. Unlike many other books, this publication has been steadily increasing the popularity of readers since 2010.

The first ten lines of the ranking are occupied by the following books:

1. “Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship,” by Robert Cecil Martin .
   In Russian, the title of the book is “Clean Code. Creation, analysis and refactoring ", also there is a criticism on Habré . The code takes up almost a third of the book.
2. Code Complete by Steven McConnell .
   In Russian, the name of the book is "Perfect Code."
   Mention and partial discussion on Habré.
3. “C Programming Language” (2nd Editio), authored by Brian Wilson Kernighan and
   Dennis Macalaird Ritchie .
   In Russian, the title of the book is “C. Programming Language »The
   version of the 2nd edition that is current for the Reddit list has been translated.
4. Effective Java by Joshua Bloch .
   In Russian, the title of the book is “Java. Effective programming ”
   In Russian there is a previous edition of the publication. There is a mention on Habré, there is no review.
5. “C ++ Primer”, authors Stanley B. Lippman, Josée Lajoie, Barbara E. Moo
   In Russian there is a very similar edition of the same authors “Programming language C ++. Basic course"
6. “Head First Java”, (2nd Edition), authors Kathy Sierra, Bert Bates
   In Russian, the title of the book is “Learning Java”. The current version of the 2nd edition of the Reddit list has been translated.
7. “Introduction to Algorithms” (3rd Edition), authors Thomas H. Cormen, Charles E. Leiserson, Ronald L. Rivest, Clifford Stein
   In Russian, the title of the book is “Algorithms: Construction and Analysis”.
   Great for reference.
8. The Pragmatic Programmer, by Andrew Hunt, David Thomas
   In Russian, the title of the book is Pragmatic Programmer . The journey from apprentice to master ”
9. “Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs” (second edition), by Harold Abelson, Gerald Jay Sussman.
   In Russian, the title of the book is “The structure and interpretation of computer programs”.
   The book considers the creation of code at the level of general principles and explains the interaction of the software environment and the machine.
10. “The Art of Computer Programming” (Volumes 1-4A Boxed Set), author Donald E. Knuth
    In Russian, the title of the book is “The Art of Programming”.
    

The most cited book on the list collected 3106 comments on Reddit, the trailing list was mentioned in 274 comments. Most books are in Russian and buying them is not a problem (at least in electronic format).

There is one AI applied book on the list - Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach. There are no other specialized books on programming fashion trends: neural networks, blockchains, or robotics. All applied examples in cases inside books.

In the comments on books, programmers, in addition to compliments to authors, quickly move from discussing books to discussing the merits of programming languages. This is probably normal, but shows that it all depends on who is at what level and at what code.

All lists of recommended books are subjective and even based on statistics from Reddit mentions, too. If you have doubts about what to read, compare, for example, with this list and select books that are present both there and here. In the Reddit list, 24 books are mentioned, and by reference 139. There is something to choose from.

A big proponent of reading books is Joel Spolsky , author of the popular online magazine JoelOnSoftware and the even more popular Q&A Stack Overflow programming questionnaire , which is visited by 118 million programmers every month. So there are no books written by Joel Spolsky in the Reddit ranking. You can evaluate the magazine or the Russian version of its Q&A questionnaire, although it is much inferior to the original.

And by the way, he also has his own list of the best books. Intersections are full. Although places are changing.