Gerry Heidenreich

Not that, you freaks... your book pile!

We spent some time talking books & must-reads at the Milwaukee Geek dinner last night.  I heard about this one & now it's at the top of my list.  I'm currently reading Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.

My must-read books include (but certainly aren't limited to):

For all computer geeks:

• CODE: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software
• The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master
• Code Complete

.Net coders

• Coder to Developer: Tools and Strategies for Delivering Your Software

ASP.Net

• Essential ASP.Net With Examples in C# (C# and VB.Net versions available) - Fritz is my hero, this book is a MUST-OWN.
• ASP.Net Developer's Cookbook - a C# version would have been cool, but it is riddled with code for just about every facet of ASP.Net, including ADSI, screen scraping, image manipulation, and CodeDOM.

SQL Server

• Professional SQL Server 2000 Programming - 1440 pages of SQL goodness from the confident genius that is Robert Vieira (I could stare at the cover for hours).

I'm trying to find the best book(s) on the original GoF patterns (even with my best intentions, I doubt I'd read through the original), and Refactoring with C#.  There are so many options out there, and the one I did buy seemed like it was thrown together by someone who was trying to learn C# while writing... which made it difficult for me to follow.

Anyway... Those of us that read blogs, probably read books too... Those are my recommendations to anyone moving into Programming, .Net, C#, and ASP.Net.  I'd love to hear what everyone else has in the piles next to their bed!

[Feb 27, 2005, Update - forgot an important one: The Humane Interface, RIP Jef Raskin]