Thursday, February 21, 2008
Book Sale! Get 'Em While They're Hot!

Computer books

I don't know about you, but around my house, computer books have a habit of multiplying like rabbits. Sometimes it seems as if you can't put up your feet without resting them on a pile of old programming books. There are several reasons why these books proliferate so:

  • I like my shelves to reflect an intelligence that I don't actually possess.
  • I feel the need to own reference books that I never need to reference.
  • I purchase books on the latest and greatest technology before I realize that I'm not actually interested in said technology.
  • When I become interested in a topic, I tend to purchase every book ever written about it—even if a new book duplicates information I already have.
  • I buy classics that I have the best intentions of reading... but never do.
  • I acquire books for a specific project at work, and the project ends.

Because my shelves are bursting at the seams (and the Wife Acceptance Factor for them has become quite low), it's time for an early Spring cleaning. If you're interested in some reasonably-priced programming tomes, previously owned by a lesser-known blogger, feel free to browse my Amazon storefront.

(Quiz: How many of the books in above picture do you own?)

(Clarification: The books pictured above are not for sale. Those are keepers!)

It's all about me | Learning
posted on Thursday, February 21, 2008 12:44:48 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Comments [17]

kick it on DotNetKicks.com
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Thursday, February 21, 2008 12:55:49 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
I own 3.

GOF Design Patterns
Code Complete
Framework design guidelines
Justin Kohnen
Thursday, February 21, 2008 1:28:04 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
7. But I don't remember where I put my dragon book, so maybe 6. Oh, and my copy of "Visual Display of Quantitative Information" is signed - is yours?
Travis Illig
Thursday, February 21, 2008 1:30:30 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
Oh... it's Mr. Justin "X-Mas Hater" Kohnen. Did I mention that these books are actually required for your future employment? I'm afraid that you fall far short only owning three. Clearly you need to pull out that shiny credit card and grow your shelf a bit.

OK, I'm kidding. Seriously though, some of the books pictured are pretty huge. For example, Fowler's Refactoring, Knuth's Art of Computer Programming, and The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs rank pretty high for many programmers. There's some hardcore classics in that picture. Obviously, there are many items on my shelf that few would ever own (e.g. the Journal of Functional Programming volumes to the right of the F# titles, or Pierce's Types and Programming Languages), but several are dead useful.
Dustin Campbell
Thursday, February 21, 2008 1:32:28 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
Travis: Ooooo.... a Tufte autograph. I'm quite jealous.
Dustin Campbell
Thursday, February 21, 2008 1:33:56 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
Travis: Wait -- signed by whom?
Dustin Campbell
Thursday, February 21, 2008 2:08:59 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
What?! No International shipping :P
Rory Becker
Thursday, February 21, 2008 2:26:48 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
Every great programmer has an unread copy of "Design Patterns" on his shelf.
Matt Blodgett
Thursday, February 21, 2008 2:47:58 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
I think the only one of those that I have is the "UML Distilled" book on the far left of the bottom shelf. Just kidding. Not kidding about having the UML Distilled book, I do have it. Kidding about only having that one - I have a lot of the others, too.

So you wait a couple of weeks after I announce my "book sale" and then you announce your own. Nice. How original. You couldn't even give me a link with an "I got this idea from Dan" or "Following Dan's book sale I decided to have my own". How rude!

I do admit that I originally got the idea from you. But at least I gave you some props in my blog post about my book sale!

Dustin Campbell is a big, rude copycat everyone! Don't buy any of his books. Buy mine instead!

Then again, I don't have Modern Compiler Design or Inside OLE available in my Amazon storefront. Who the heck wants to read books on that stuff anyway. No wonder you are selling them!
Dan Hounshell
Thursday, February 21, 2008 3:05:57 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
I think I have 12. And I'm willing to bet I'm one of the few with the Tomes of Delphi book. And the Wife Acceptance Factor is not too high at my house either, and she's a librarian...
Joe Wirtley
Thursday, February 21, 2008 3:06:15 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
Rory: International shipping should be added. Sorry 'bout that!
Dustin Campbell
Thursday, February 21, 2008 3:19:06 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
Dan: You are in clear violation of my restraining order. I'm sure you remember just how specific the judge was when he listed the ways that you can break the law by stepping outside of the boundaries he set. Please keep yourself under control.

Seriously, I missed your book sale. In fact, I totally missed your blog post about it. I truly apologize. Please don't come after me again with that fish.

I should also mention that the books pictured are not for sale. Those are definitely keepers! Inside OLE is an out-of-print classic.
Dustin Campbell
Thursday, February 21, 2008 6:00:37 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
Yea, that is flagrant false advertising, haha. I saw the F# books in the picture and got excited :) There are some good books you're selling there BUT I'm on F# and dynamic languages at the moment.
Ryan Lanciaux
Thursday, February 21, 2008 7:25:54 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
First, where are the Petzold books? For shame...

I thought I was the only one to have Framework Design Guidelines... I mention that book all the time and no one else seems to have heard of it. I guess others don't know the joys of variable name conventions!

I have iWoz... did you read this one? OMG I wanted to gouge me eye balls out. Seriously, the guy may be one of the best hackers of our time, but he obviously didn't get past second grade "what I did for summer" papers! "My dad was an engineer. He would show me stuff. We had fun." - not kidding, it's that bad.
Michael C. Neel
Thursday, February 21, 2008 7:31:08 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
Michael:

The Petzold books went in the last sale. Seriously.

As far as iWoz goes, it actually snuck into the shot. I received it for Christmas but haven't read it yet. If it weren't on the shelf, you would be able to see a true classic sitting next to Founders At Work -- Programmers At Work.
Dustin Campbell
Friday, February 22, 2008 8:07:34 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
Yes, signed by Tufte. Met him at one of his seminars.
Travis Illig
Monday, March 03, 2008 3:41:09 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
Wow! 11 of the same books. I really have read all of them cover-to-cover, too. Crazy. I guess that's why these are your keepers. (because they are good, not because I've ready them cover-to-cover)


CLR With C# 2
Refactoring
Design Patterns
Extreme Programming Explained
UML Distilled
Framework Design Guidelines (yeah, I bought it, as well)
Shared Source CLI Essentials
.Net 2.0 IL Assembler
Test-Driven Development
Essential .Net
Joel On Software
Corey Haines
Saturday, March 08, 2008 8:31:54 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
(Quiz: How many of the books in above picture do you own?)

CLR via C# and Modern Compilers
...i guess i have some reading to do!
Nathan
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