These are all good books. One I would add myself that has had the most impact on me is "The Passionate Programmer: Creating a Remarkable Career in Software Development". It used to be called something like how to keep your job from being outsourced but I think it does a good job of showing one how to be more than just a 9-5 programmer and really dive into the profession and distinguish yourself.
In fact I really love the whole pragmatic series because they focus on the craftsmanship and techniques surrounding it more than the specifics of a technology. Kind of like most of the books you have listed there.
That was the book that put me on a path 3 years ago from C# enterprise code monkey to being where I am today, as an independent Rails consultant. I never even heard of Rails before reading this book, let alone had any idea of the current tech landscape outside of the enterprise bubble.
When I quit my job 6 mos ago I reread it in an evening - startled to find that I actually adhered to a majority of the advice in the book, which at first read was mostly alien to me. I credit that phenomenon to Chad Fowler's subversively succinct writing style, it has that get under your skin, call-to-action quality to it.
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These are all good books. One I would add myself that has had the most impact on me is "The Passionate Programmer: Creating a Remarkable Career in Software Development". It used to be called something like how to keep your job from being outsourced but I think it does a good job of showing one how to be more than just a 9-5 programmer and really dive into the profession and distinguish yourself.
In fact I really love the whole pragmatic series because they focus on the craftsmanship and techniques surrounding it more than the specifics of a technology. Kind of like most of the books you have listed there.
I would give you a +10 if I could.
That was the book that put me on a path 3 years ago from C# enterprise code monkey to being where I am today, as an independent Rails consultant. I never even heard of Rails before reading this book, let alone had any idea of the current tech landscape outside of the enterprise bubble.
When I quit my job 6 mos ago I reread it in an evening - startled to find that I actually adhered to a majority of the advice in the book, which at first read was mostly alien to me. I credit that phenomenon to Chad Fowler's subversively succinct writing style, it has that get under your skin, call-to-action quality to it.