Jeff Atwood blogged about the free online book Almost Perfect earlier this week. Author Pete Peterson was part of WordPerfect for 12 years and opens a window into development process, marketing, competition, and highs and lows of the company, from a small starter to a big corporation. I think the broader themes in this book are still applicable today - the enthusiastic team learning on its feet, finding creative ways to compete, dealing with customers and incorporating feedback, handling "feature creep" and release schedules, and the culture of an organisation (in this case, run by programmers). Pete doesn't come across as...

My mother-in-law Marijke gave me a special surprise the other day: a hand-me-down copy of the 1984 tome "Choosing and Using Your Home Computer: An Introductory Course". Marijke had bought it some time ago to learn about computers. The book is a classic, from the time when PC's were called "microcomputers". It covers the latest hardware available at the time, the BASIC language, accessories like printers, plotters and the new-fangled "mouse", sprite graphics, games and the business case for computers. What makes this book more poignant is that I was into computers in 1984. I had a Commodore 64, and one of...

The first thing I need to say about this book is: wow. T-SQL Querying is easy to read and yet really gets in depth with T-SQL. It reminds me of Itzik's presentations - complex concepts explained in a comfortable and informative style. The book covers query processing and optimisation, has some useful scripts for performance monitoring, logic puzzles, the new features of SQL Server 2005 like CTEs, ranking functions and APPLY, and plenty more. Some sections of the book could easily become my standard reference material on logical and physical query processing, while other sections are almost tutorial-like. One of the advantages...

I've recently finished the excellent Defensive Design for the Web, authored by some of the people behind 37 Signals (Getting Real, Signal vs. Noise blog). The book is subtitled "How to improve error messages, help, forms and other crisis points", and is referenced in Steve Krug's Don't Make Me Think - one of the key reasons behind me reading it (I enjoyed Steve Krug's book a lot). At only 246 pages, Defensive Design is a short book which means it's a quick read (and not very expensive!). There's lots of illustrations, and the book is neatly divided up into digestible chapters,...

Over several weeks I've been reading 37signals' (makers of web apps Basecamp and Highrise) book Getting Real. The whole book can be read online at http://gettingreal.37signals.com/toc.php. The book describes 37signals' design and operating philosophy, based on their experience working in small teams to design software. The book is easy to read: there's no code, each chapter is divided into bite-size essays, the book is well-written and a lot of the advice really makes sense, especially if you have read anything about "agile" processes previously. 37signals has well-deserved credibility, as their apps are fairly successful and can be used as prime examples of...

Steve Krug's Don't Make Me Think is a thin book that packs in a lot of good stuff. After reading only a few pages the strong points of the book stand out: easy to read, lots of practical examples, often funny, and technology-agnostic. I like good writing and Steve's style alone makes the book worth reading. However, the bottom line is that the content is fantastic and I think the brevity of the book works in its favor. The book is not the be-all and end-all of web usability but it's a good start that will appeal to designers and developers -...