A good reading list

Today, I found an interesting blog post that kind of represents a reading guide to becoming a better developer. I found it on The Inquisitive Coder blog, which I highly recommend. You can look at the original post here. The author separates reading list in three sections: Introduction, Design & Architecture, Team Environment. The author also thinks that it’s best to read the books exactly in given order. Anyway, here is the list:

Introduction

1. Test-Driven Development (Kent Beck)
2. Refactoring (Martin Fowler)
3. Implementation Patterns (Kent Beck)
4. Code Complete: 2nd Edition (Steve McConnell)
5. Working Effectively With Legacy Code (Michael Feathers)
6. Clean Code (Robert C. Martin)

Design & Architecture

1. Design Patterns (Gang Of Four)
2. Patterns Of Enterprise Application Architecture (Martin Fowler)
3. Domain-Driven Design (Eric Evans)
4. Enterprise Integration Patterns (Gregor Hohpe, Bobby Woolf)
5. Release It! Design and deploy production-ready software (Michael T. Nygard)
6. 97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know (edited by Richard Monson-Haefel)

Team Environment

1. Extreme Programming Explained, Second Edition (Kent Beck)
2. The Art Of Agile Development (James Shore & Shane Warden)
3. The Mythical Man-Month, 20th Anniversary Edition (Frederick P. Brooks)

I already own following books from this list:

• Code Complete: 2nd Edition (Steve McConnell)
• Domain-Driven Design (Eric Evans)
• Enterprise Integration Patterns (Gregor Hohpe, Bobby Woolf) – Still reading this one, now at chapter 5

Even though I’m not absolutely sure that this is the best order to read these books, I have decided to start reading Test-Driven Development (Kent Beck) first. It shouldn’t take long since it has around 240 pages. Currently, I’m at chapter 3, and I have to say I like the style of the book. It’s easy to follow and the author, Kent Beck, knows how to make a point. I also plan to introduce a new practice of reading one book each month. Two if time permits. This way, it will take me a year to read the all the books from the list. I’m pretty sure it will be worth the effort.