For hobby programmers and professional software developers, information sources are essential. A small, manageable private library with timeless books about programming is therefore always a good thing. Unfortunately, the offer for IT literature is very extensive and the books often outdo it again quickly. In addition, for various reasons, some titles do not necessarily have the predicate worth reading. Some texts are very understandable. Others contain hardly any relevant information that can already be easily obtained from public sources. That’s why I took the trouble and put together my top 10 books on the topic of software development.

All titles have been published in English. Most of them were also translated into German. If you don’t have any difficulties reading English books, you should get the original, since the translations are sometimes a bit bumpy.

An important criterion for a selection is that the books are very general and are not limited to a specific version. In addition, I actually have the works proposed here on my bookshelf and therefore also read.

1. Effective Java 3rd Edition, J. Bloch, 2017, ISBN: 0-134-68599-7 |
   For all Java developers, the standard work with many background information about the functioning of the language and optimizations of your own source code.
2. The Linux Command Line 2nd Edition, W. Shotts, 2019, ISBN: 1-59327-952-3 |
   Linux is very important in software development, since not only cloud applications in Linux are deployed. It is all the more important to be able to move safely on the command line. This book is only devoted to dealing with the Bash and is suitable for all Linux distributions.
3. Angry Tests, Y. Bugayenko, 2025, ISBN: 978-1982063740 |
   Test driven software development is an important ability to ensure high quality. This book is not geared towards a specific programming language, but only deals with how to write meaningful test cases.
4. Clean Architecture, R. C. Martin, 2018, ISBN: 0-13-449416-4 |
   In addition to a demolition of the history of how the various programming paradigms are related to each other, the book describes fundamental architectural design styles. Not only for software architects, but also very worth reading for developers.
5. Mastering Regular Expressions 3rd Edition, J. E. F. Friedl, 2006, ISBN: 0-596-52812-4 |
   The absolute standard work on regular expressions. A must for anyone who really has to understand the topic.
6. Head First Design Pattern, Eric & Elisabeth Freeman, 2004, ISBN: 0-596-00712-4 |
   Design patterns are among the basic skills of every programmer. In this book, the individual concepts of the GOF patterns are discussed comprehensively. It is suitable for both entry and as a reference.
7. Advanced API Security 2nd Edition, P. Siriwardena, 2020, ISBN: 978-1-4842-2049-8 |
   API draft for Restful Services is now part of the standard repertoire of a developer. But the topic of security must not be neglected either. This book discusses new concepts that have been raised to the industrial standard. A good start for programmers who have not yet come into contact with Saml, Oauth and Open ConnectID.
8. SQL Antipatterns, B. Karwin, 2010, ISBN: 987-1-934356-55-5 |
   Even for seasoned programmers, databases are often a book with seven seals. Even if SQL statements are quickly written down and they also produce the desired result, significant problems can lead to significant problems in productive operation. This book describes why statements are carried out very slowly and how they can be formulated correctly.
9. Domain Driven Design, E. Evans, 2003, ISBN: 0-32-112521-5 |
   The connection between object -oriented programming (OOP) and database draft is made with the paradigm domain driven design.
10. The Art of Computer Programming I-IV, D.E. Knuth, 2021, ISBN: 0-137-93510-2 |
    Four individual books in the Schuber describe in a very mathematical way how algorithms work.