Share:
Jeff Atwood Recommended Books
Jeff Atwood has recommended 19 books. Browse the complete reading list with quotes and sources below.
Jeff Atwood is an American software developer, author, blogger, and entrepreneur.
(Read more on Wikipedia)19 Books Recommended
As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases (at no extra cost to you).
Top 10 Games You Can Play In Your Head, By Yourself
by J. Theophrastus Bartholomew
"This book is *profoundly* weird... next level galaxy brain weird. I mean that as a compliment!" - Jeff Atwood (Source)
Programming Pearls
by Jon Bentley
"The collective wisdom of many journeyman coders distilled into succinct, digestible columns." - Jeff Atwood (Source)
The Mythical Man-Month
Essays on Software Engineering
by Frederick P. Brooks Jr.
"Arguably the only classic book in our field. If you haven't read it, shame on you." - Jeff Atwood (Source)
Also recommended by
4 people
Jeff Bezos recommended this bookJeff Bezos
Part of "Jeff's Reading List."
Jeff Bezos's recommendation of this book 
Larry Ellison recommended this bookLarry Ellison
"Larry [Ellison] had given this book to every software executive whom he met within the company." - Marc Benioff
Larry Ellison's recommendation of this book 
Marc Benioff recommended this bookMarc Benioff
"Had a huge impact on me." - Marc Benioff
Marc Benioff's recommendation of this book 
Alan Kay recommended this bookAlan Kay
"An early look and experience with timeless truths (and gotchas) from systems building with teams" - Alan Kay
Alan Kay's recommendation of this book
Peopleware
Productive Projects and Teams
by Tom DeMarco
"If you've ever seen the performance of an all-star sports team suffer due to poor coaching, you'll appreciate this book." - Jeff Atwood (Source)
Also recommended by
1 person
Kevin Kelly recommended this bookKevin Kelly
"A hugely underappreciated book. I remember all kinds of things from it." - Kevin Kelly
Kevin Kelly's recommendation of this book
About Face
The Essentials of Interaction Design
by Alan Cooper
"A fantastically useful book; I've used whole chapters as guides for projects I worked on." - Jeff Atwood (Source)
Beautiful Evidence
by Edward R. Tufte
Jeff Atwood recommended this book on his blog. (Source)
The Inmates Are Running the Asylum
Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity
by Alan Cooper
"This is the book that introduced the world to the concept of personas." - Jeff Atwood (Source)
Also recommended by
2 people
Brian Armstrong recommended this bookBrian Armstrong
"Products fail by trying to be all things to all people." - Brian Armstrong
Brian Armstrong's recommendation of this book 
Marty Cagan recommended this bookMarty Cagan
"This is from one of my favorite books." - Marty Cagan
Marty Cagan's recommendation of this book
Envisioning Information
by Edward R. Tufte
Jeff Atwood recommended this book on his blog. (Source)
Also recommended by
1 person
Kevin Rose recommended this bookKevin Rose
"You'll learn a lot from [this author]." - Kevin Rose
Kevin Rose's recommendation of this book
59 Seconds
Change Your Life in Under a Minute
by Richard Wiseman
"Highly recommend." - Jeff Atwood (Source)
Also recommended by
2 people
Charles Poliquin recommended this bookCharles Poliquin
Charles Poliquin recommended this book in the "Tools of Titans" book.
Charles Poliquin's recommendation of this book 
Mr. Money Mustache recommended this bookMr. Money Mustache
Mr. Money Mustache recommended this book on his blog.
Mr. Money Mustache's recommendation of this book
Code Complete
A Practical Handbook of Software Construction
by Steve McConnell
"The very act of reading this book already sets you apart from probably ninety percent of your fellow developers. In a good way." - Jeff Atwood (Source)
Don't Make Me Think
A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
by Steve Krug
"The single best book on usability I've ever read." - Jeff Atwood (Source)
Also recommended by
4 people
Ev Williams recommended this bookEv Williams
On the "books read" section of Ev Williams' GoodReads profile.
Ev Williams's recommendation of this book - Brian Armstrong recommended this book
Brian Armstrong
"A framework to simulate how customers experience your product, especially the moments of confusion." - Brian Armstrong
Brian Armstrong's recommendation of this book 
Nick Ganju recommended this bookNick Ganju
"About usability and making software and user interfaces that are friendly to people." - Nick Ganju
Nick Ganju's recommendation of this book 
Garry Tan recommended this bookGarry Tan
"The simplest book I recommend everyone to read when they want to do design." - Garry Tan
Garry Tan's recommendation of this book
Rapid Development
Taming Wild Software Schedules
by Steve McConnell
"The epiphany offered in this book is that making mistakes is good– so long as they are all new, all singing, all dancing mistakes." - Jeff Atwood (Source)
The Design of Everyday Things
by Don Norman
"Will give you a new appreciation of the 'devil in the details.'" - Jeff Atwood (Source)
Also recommended by
3 people
Scott Adams recommended this bookScott Adams
One of the books on Scott Adams' "Persuasion Reading List."
Scott Adams's recommendation of this book 
Tobi Lütke recommended this bookTobi Lütke
Tobi Lütke mentioned this book on the "Invest Like the Best" podcast.
Tobi Lütke's recommendation of this book 
Marissa Mayer recommended this bookMarissa Mayer
"Makes you think about design in new ways." - Marissa Mayer
Marissa Mayer's recommendation of this book
The Pragmatic Programmer
From Journeyman to Master
by Andrew Hunt
"Instead of worrying about code, the authors boiled down all the practical approaches that they've found to work in the real world into this one book." - Jeff Atwood (Source)
Also recommended by
1 person- Ev Williams recommended this book
Ev Williams
On the "books read" section of Ev Williams' GoodReads profile.
Ev Williams's recommendation of this book
Designing Web Usability
by Jakob Nielsen
"A full-on web usability primer." - Jeff Atwood (Source)
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
by Edward R. Tufte
"Essential." - Jeff Atwood (Source)
Also recommended by
1 person
Brianne Kimmel recommended this bookBrianne Kimmel
"For inspiration on ways to present information — charts, diagrams, dashboards." - Brianne Kimmel
Brianne Kimmel's recommendation of this book
Visual Explanations
Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative
by Edward R. Tufte
"Essential." - Jeff Atwood (Source)
Also recommended by
1 person
Kevin Systrom recommended this bookKevin Systrom
Kevin Systrom recommended this book on Facebook.
Kevin Systrom's recommendation of this book
Regular Expressions Cookbook
by Jan Goyvaerts
"I may be a card carrying member of the 'Keep It Simple Stupid' club, but I'm making a meteor sized exception for regular expressions." - Jeff Atwood (Source)
Masters of Doom
How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture
by David Kushner
"Please read [this book]. It's such a great book." - Jeff Atwood (Source)
Also recommended by
6 people
Patrick Collison recommended this bookPatrick Collison
"One of my favorite books about building software." - Patrick Collison
Patrick Collison's recommendation of this book 
Alexis Ohanian recommended this bookAlexis Ohanian
"[This book] convinced me to start a company. Thanks for helping create Reddit." - Alexis Ohanian
Alexis Ohanian's recommendation of this book - Tobi Lütke recommended this book
Tobi Lütke
"Wonderful." - Tobi Lütke
Tobi Lütke's recommendation of this book 
Austen Allred recommended this bookAusten Allred
"Amazing book." - Austen Allred
Austen Allred's recommendation of this book 
Elon Musk recommended this bookElon Musk
"A great book." - Elon Musk
Elon Musk's recommendation of this book 
Trung Phan recommended this bookTrung Phan
"About the PC Gaming industry." - Trung Phan
Trung Phan's recommendation of this book
Edited by
Richard Reis
Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.
Follow@richardreeze
Anurag Ramdasan
Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.
Follow@anuragwho
Comments
Did we miss something? Have feedback?
Help us improve this page by sharing your thoughts