While forum answers, online courses, and GitHub code search have mostly replaced books in software development, there are advantages in a well-thought-out, cohesive, ordered presentation in book form by a good author.

In my part 1 post, I highlighted a couple of books that, while great and nearly indispensable at the time, have become “yesterday’s jam” with regards to technology. In this post, I’m going to cover 3 older books that are still very relevant today, that I’m glad to have kept in my library:

Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman: A classic from 1988. Although not specifically about software, the book has so much about design and discoverability that it primes your brain to think about design elements in software. I found it very down-to-earth too, and relevant to lived human experience rather than design for design’s sake. And I guarantee you’ll never look at a door the same way after reading it!

Mythical Man Month by Frederick P. Brooks Jr.: This book’s the oldest on this list (first published 1975), and although the technology and workplace context has changed, the core ideas of this book are applicable and relevant to being a developer/managing developers today. The book is full of great quotes and sage observations. Fun fact: I reached out to the author in the mid-2000s asking for help with something, and he took the time to respond (!) with great advice too.

Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug: I’ve got the 2006 second edition, at the time this book was a goldmine of best practices around web and application design with concepts I still apply today. It’s not overly technical - more focused on design - and the author’s style is relatable and easy to read. The third edition looks to cover even more usability patterns in mobile apps as well as websites. The book is short, has great illustrations and examples, and does a fantastic job of abstracting ideas about functionality and design (think alerts, search, empty states, shopping carts etc.). The author’s web site is at http://sensible.com/

A couple other older books that didn’t make the list above, but are in my collection and I would still highly recommend: The Pragmatic Programmer (1999), Code Complete (2004), and Peopleware (1987).