I took a look at the area that I am familiar with (database). If you'd like to gain more understanding about the area, it's probably better to look at required reading list from Berkeley and Stanford. (Note that the Berkeley list is longer.)

http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/GradAffairs/CS/Prelims/db.html

http://infolab.stanford.edu/db_pages/infoquallist.html