Since you started your job, how many programming books have you read to get ahead in your job?

Examples:
- You're a Java programmer, so you read the OCP for Java 11 and then you get your OCP cert
- You're a .NET consultant, so you read another .NET book

Not in a long time - and the ones I have looked at are almost never certification based.

I have a couple of Java generics books from the mid 2000s ish, when I was struggling to get to grips with that fully. Probably a couple of .NET books too. But in reality, the last decade or so has seen such a surge in the availability of descent online resources that I've not felt the need to use a book to keep up to date in a long time.

0. I learn everything by reading docs, sometimes blogs and mostly practicing it. I think books are not necessary in our industry. I am not saying they are useless but they are not they only way to learn things. Actually, I want to read some high level books independent from programming language but I'm not really into books.

None, the most up to date info is already available on the internet for free.

Sometimes I read research papers on what's new but mostly I just code things, think of a thing I want to do or optimize and then google other peoples solutions

Things move too fast these days. Books would have to release new editions yearly just to keep up.

I mostly read documentation and blogs, although more often than not I just learn by doing.

Occasionally YouTube tutorials as well, if I'm learning something completely from scratch, like the time I delved into machine learning for the first time.

@hack Ah, I learn best through books.

@Hazarth Free information doesn't mean quality information.

@CaptainRant paid information also doesn't mean quality information.

So books still exist?
If i don't find all i need online, i just don't use that language or software.
These business models where you make money by selling documentation and support really don't work on me.

I have read a lot over the course of my carrier.

But the last 5 its been more strategies and similar, not so much coding as I get that from blogs and documentation.

By the time any good books arrive we mostly have the news in production already :P

Only extreme programming, enterprise integration patterns, clean code & refactoring by Martin Fowler

I read random programming stuff on the internet fairly often, I haven't read a book since Uni

Not sure, I would say that clean code and the pragmatic developer made a huge difference for me, but over a certain point infos tend to be redundant imho...

Specifically I feel like language specific books seems to be very reductive...

0. Everything has either been through slides, YT videos, articles, blogs, docs and my own experiments/PoCs/projects.

1/3 for my previous job. Also it was not a programming book. It was Embedded linux primer. And before i could go past 1/3rd , i quit my job.

@lotd Excellent books. : )

Oh, I forgot project unicorn / project Phoenix ! A very nice duo of books about devOps and how it can improve your work life

Hey! I don’t do programming myself, but my friend does. When he got his first job, he never stopped reading various programming books and blogs. I read a lot of fiction books and I find all of them at https://freebooksummary.com/categor... but I would like to read some programming books too. Therefore, as soon as I finish reading the Chronicle of a Death Foretold, I would to ask you for some advice!