Reading List

As a programmer, you will find that the need to further your knowledge and understanding will be an ever present factor in your life (I guess that's true if you're not a programmer, but I would say programmers are particularly good at this). As well as of course attending school, college and university (which I strongly recommend) the best way to achieve this is to read.

I love books, I love books almost as much as I love programming (and Keira Knightley for that matter, but I digress). I especially love books on programming itself, and the many areas they cover relating to the all the fields that programming can encompass.

I have a dazzling array of books on programming that range from books on artificial intelligence to xml. As I sit here typing this there are no fewer than 12 books sitting on my desk, all open at different pages, with book marks strewn throughout. They prove an invaluable aid not only in learning new things, and furthering your understanding, but as references while coding. You should approach books on programming differently depending on how they were intended to be read. Some are great to sit back with and read for a few hours without touching a keyboard, others are better used as refernece guides as you type, both are useful in their own way.

Now you might be sitting here nodding a way, all the while thinking 'That's all very well, but it sounds like you haven't heard of a little thing called 'The Internet' and 'Google''. I can assure you I am very aware of such things, and I agree they are extremely useful and convenient, but from my experience online articles often lack the detail and quality you will find in a published book. This could be just me, but I also prefer reading a book as opposed to reading large articles on my monitor (I am aware of the delicious irony that reading this would qualify as reading a large article on your monitor, but it's all I've got, so let's just move on) This is not to say online resources aren't worth using, not at all, but what I would advocate is a combination of books and online material. (Note: Check out GameDev.net, CProgramming.com, XNA.creators.com and NeHe.GameDev.net, some great sites for various areas of programming)

I thought it might be a good idea to list a few books that I have found extremely interesting and useful over the years. Here is a short list of the books I'd read if I was interested in programming:
(Note: Some of these do relate more to game development orientated programming, covering things like OpenGL etc, but they're still worth reading)

Big C++        //An awesome book on C++ covering almost everything you'll need to know about the               language, right from the beginning

OpenGL SuperBible  //An excellent reference for OpenGL covering a huge amount of information on graphics  

Effective C++     //A more advanced book on C++ for once you have a firm grasp of the language itself

Essential Mathematics for Games and Interactive Applications //Excellent reference book for an array of mathematical concepts and problems you will encounter with graphics and games programming

Code Complete     //The best book on software engineering

Learn Programming Now: XNA Game Studio  //Excellent introduction to XNA and programming concepts

Learning XNA 3.0 //Another great book on XNA

C# for Students      //Great introductory book for C#

Programming Game AI by Example //A great book on AI concepts

There are many more, but this should serve as a good start. As you can see some books focus on an implementation language while others refer to ideas and often use pseudo-code. There are definitely good and bad books, I have my share of both, but having a variety to refer to will help you no end while you work.

So there you go, why reading is awesome and a list of some books that you might find interesting

Right, I'm off to curl up with a good book and a warm cup of cocoa