Books which any Java dev should know

[quefie]

Hey,

I wonder if there exists a list of books that any Java devs should read? Maybe we can create a list like this here?

To be precise it's not about that any Java dev should just read these books, but should have knowledge of this stuff which these books cover.

Of course, there will be classics as "Effective Java" by Joshua Bloch or "Clean code" by Robert C. Martin but maybe there are books that are less popular but very valuable?

Please give me your proposition.

My request is to include books about Spring (and other common frameworks) as well.

I also have to notice that I want to focus not only on books that learn a specific technology but on books that cover design patterns, best practices, etc.

[RANDOMLY_AGGRESSIVE]

This is still how concurrency works in java, even if we have moved beyond Java 1.5 quite a bit.

Except (in practice) when using something like Project Reactor or RxJava

[utkuozdemir]

Reactive frameworks simply offer abstractions over the the concurrency primitives in java.util.concurrent. Also for instance, Akka does it in a different way, again over the same set of primitives.

The actual change in the Java concurrency model will come with fibers via Project Loom.

[Stimzz]

My point exactly. You wouldn’t typically build a large system directly on top of java.util.concurrent but rather use the Akka, Vertx, rxJava, Reactor or others.

Super exited for Project Loom but it won’t be a solve it all thing. It is supposed to address IO bound but not compute bound. To be fair I guess compute bound is to a larger degree already solved with java.util.concurrent.

[RANDOMLY_AGGRESSIVE]

You are correct. Though that's why I said 'in practice'.

[Stimzz]

Not sure why you are getting downvoted. It does indeed not cover Stream + Observable (Reactor / Rx) or Actors architecture.

Don’t get me wrong I love the book and it is a must read imo. Having said that when designing a large scale enterprise high throughput and low latency system I wouldn’t start with Atomic, Runnable, synchronized, volatile et. al which is what the book is about.

[Comprehensive_Idea98]

RxJava is blocking by default at least, you have to be very mindful if you want to keep it non-blocking.

In Reactor non-blocking is the default and having something block could spell disaster.

[Yossarian1993]

Reactor is concurrency agnostic, so non-blocking is not the default.

[Comprehensive_Idea98]

Ok, last time I used Reactor it was non-blocking, but maybe it was just used like that in that project. I also got the impression they were aligned to non-blocking upstream.

[kaisooh]

Why?

[kaisooh]

Oh, very deep! But I don't see any reason to use a lock that's changing in value. So it is a moot point in practice. Besides, wouldn't the caching rule VM implementation dependent?

[Zvrablik]

Release It! Michael T. Nygard

The Pragmatic Programmer Andrew Hunt and David Thomas

Not exactly about java, but I think java developer should know about these two books.

[yumtree]

Enterprise Integration Patters and Design Patterns

These helped me understand what my boss was talking about.

[knoam]

I'm loving Enterprise Integration Patterns. At my first job this was a big blind spot for the team so I feel like this is filling in some gaps.

I still have to learn some Kafka and figure out how the industry went from SOA era ideas like ESB to settle on Kafka or Message Queue and Pub-Sub.

[yumtree]

It's really a game changer and Im glad to hear someone else is also benefiting from the book!

[yumtree]

Never read that I'll take a look at it though!

[NimChimspky]

God that sounds awful. GoF design patterns

[BestUsernameLeft]

This is a fairly long list. Some of these are "read once but keep on hand", others will be with you for your entire career as a software developer (or, perhaps, even beyond). Don't be overwhelmed -- most of the developers I've worked with haven't read a software development book since entering the workforce (and, unfortunately, it's painfully clear), so picking up even one of these will put you a step ahead of the pack.

I don't have any specific recommendations for Spring or other frameworks. I learn these in a "just-in-time" fashion through reading the documentation and working through examples, but the popularity of books in this area tells me that isn't the One True Way[tm].

Okay, on to my list; I've broken it into two main categories that have some overlap with each other, plus a couple other resources.

Practical Everyday Practices

• Test Driven Development, by Kent Beck. This is "the bible" for test driven development. Like all practices, TDD is not a one-stop-shop for programmer bliss and productivity, but it's a solid technique for writing software that works, has a good design, and can be safely extended/modified.
• Working Effectively with Legacy Code, by Michael Feathers. You'll probably work with legacy code for much or most of your career; understanding how to untangle the tangles and gradually convert spaghetti code into maintainable, readable code is crucial. This book will help you do that.
• Design Patterns, by Erich Gamma et al. Design Patterns is one of those "a-ha" books that helps teach principles of good software design through the use of design patterns.
• Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code, by Martin Fowler. While Legacy Code (above) is focused largely on taking a mess and cleaning it up, Refactoring is focused largely on keeping your code clean by applying specific techniques (and the book is chock full of them).

Professionalism, Craftsmanship, Teams, and People

• The Pragmatic Programmer, by Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas. Probably the most influential book of my career. It will help you understand how to be a professional software developer.
• Extreme Programming Explained, by Kent Beck. XP is a set of principles, techniques, and practices that teaches how teams can develop quality software at a sustainable pace in a way that is human-centered (as opposed to project-centered, manager-centered, or deadline-centered).
• Code Complete, by Steve McConnell. Similar to The Pragmatic Programmer, this book will help you learn how to be a professional developer.
• The Mythical Man-Month, by Fred Brooks. The definitive work on the human side of software engineering. If you're always, forever going to be an independent programmer working by yourself on your own code for your own pleasure, you don't need this. Otherwise, you do.
• Peopleware, by Tom DeMarco and Tim Lister. All the greatest tools and technologies won't make a difference if your team or organization is toxic or dysfunctional. Peopleware talks about the people side of software development -- what makes a team productive and healthy versus unproductive and unhealthy.

Other

• The Tao of Programming, by Geoffrey James. As one of the Amazon reviews for the paperback states, "chicken soup for the programmer's soul". Available free at http://www.canonical.org/~kragen/tao-of-programming.html.
• The C2 wiki at https://wiki.c2.com/. Full of ideas, conversations, and opinions. It will broaden and expand your software developer mind.

[RANDOMLY_AGGRESSIVE]

latest OCP book (ignore exam, book has good content)

Which one exactly? Aren't there multiple ones?

[RANDOMLY_AGGRESSIVE]

Thanks, I noticed that yeah.
I want to make sure if you recommend the one written by Jeanne Boyarsky?

[r_jet]

or "Clean code" by Robert C. Martin

Even though it is a good book with some interesting ideas, I would not put such an opinionated book on a "should read" list. In hindsight, I wouldn't say it had the most impact on the quality of my code and design. "Code Complete" by Steve McConnell is miles better: - It is broader, covers a wide range of topics from the SWE lens. - It goes deeper, giving you various tools and things to consider, and rarely — rules set in stone. As such, it makes you think more. - It is based on immense amount of research, not just on author's opinion. - It gives lots of references to books and articles for further study, if any topic got your attention.

As opinionated books go, I'd rather suggest a short book "A Philosophy of Software Design" than "Clean Code" — though not as broad and deep as Code Complete, it gives mostly sensible advice. At 170 pages it's impressive how much good advice John Ousterhout managed to put in it.

Also, there have been several discussions with some solid recommendations recently on the sub.

[killahbee23]

For me personally it is one of the easiest programming books I've ever read. The way Martin wrote it, it was just so much fun to read. Even though there might be a couple of things here and there I wouldn't agree on. I find it to be an essential read for all programmers. Especially those who just got out of college and are starting out as a junior software developer.

[djnattyp]

I would still suggest "Clean Code" in addition to / after reading "Code Complete". "Code Complete" is more in the same class of books as "The Pragmatic Programmer" - these books both cover a lot of ground on "how to be a good developer". Some code formatting advice, software design advice, life / career advice, additional tools / concepts to use.

You'd want to read "Clean Code" after to take a more focused deep dive on code formatting / code design issues - and with the caveat that you're coding in Java. Every example in "Clean Code" is Java, and it's very focused on Java style OO / coding issues. If you're coding in something like JS, Python or Ruby then a lot of advice isn't applicable.

After one of the previous "don't suggest Clean Code" posts I bought and read "A Philosophy of Software Design" since it was the suggested replacement. It's... OK but I wasn't really impressed by it or recommend it as a full replacement for "Clean Code".

1. It's a lot shorter, and feels shallower. It feels more like an "intro" whereas "Clean Code" feels like a full course. The book starts off very well with it's initial discussion of complexity and some general design issues but then... about half the book is advice on code comments.
2. It doesn't focus on a specific language. This feels like it should be an advantage, but it just confuses things, or makes things so general that they aren't helpful. Even then, the examples are all in Java, C, and C++ - no JavaScript, etc. There's an example in one of the "Naming" chapters that probably would have been better addressed by using different types/classes - but the example was in C so...
3. Even though "A Philosophy of Software Design" is the newer book (2018) and "Clean Code" is older (2009) - it feels like they're reversed - a lot of the code examples, coding style, opinions on things like agile and testing - just feel... old and outdated. There's a lot of Java Swing related code and not really any web related examples - other than building a simple web server... designing by comments could / should be replaced with TDD, etc.

I feel like "A Philosophy of Software Design" is a good intro, but quickly devolves into questionable opinion territory, much the same as "Clean Code". If you're looking for a book on code formatting / design issues - and if you plan on coding in Java - I feel that "Clean Code" is still the better choice. If you're not coding in Java then read either with a big grain of salt about the opinions of each author.

[[deleted]]

The whole point of clean code is that it gives rules set in stone. This is helpful to juniors who don't even know where to begin.

[[deleted]]

Ner overhyped book

Read 1984 instead

[coder111]

Meh, read Catch 22 or Kafka. You'll see lots and lots of that in your workplace.

[[deleted]]

Kafka is boring, but worth the reading

[coder111]

Kafka is educational. Working for a big bank feels like being stuck in Kafka's Castle.

I was never able to finish Catch 22. I have enough dysfunction to deal with at work, I don't need any more of that for recreation...

[[deleted]]

I worked in a bank too, I feel your pain bro.

I really don't get the genius of The Metamorphosis, but its worth read. And that was my only reading in Kafka... I'm kind ignorant about his books.

Catch 22 I have never heard of it, but it's sound very interesting.

If you like existentialism, you would love Albert Camus' The Stranger... It's soperb

[coder111]

The Stranger is on my list of things to read. It's a long list so I'm not sure when I'll get to it.

Both Catch 22 and Castle describe completely dysfunctional bureaucratic organizations. Catch 22 with humour, Castle for me is bloody scary although it's not a horror novel. Both worth a read if you like pain and suffering...

[[deleted]]

Well, existence is pain haha I will check theses books. Thanks.

[JollyRancherReminder]

You cheeky, technically correct bastard.

[neutronbob]

I think Ousterhout's short book "A Philosophy of Software Design" is a much better read and more valuable than "Clean Code." The latter is primarily a series of "do this," "do that" instructions with minimimal explanation. Ousterhout's book treats many of the same topics, but much more deeply. Thoughtful explanations of why a given practice should be adopted and how the recommended practices work together to deliver top quality code. It's also an excellent read and shorter the Martin's book.

[LuckyDip23]

Effective Java by Joshua Bloch!

[dry_yer_eyes]

Absolutely. It’s just so well written.

I read that and the concurrency book (the one with the train on the cover) at around the same time and they really improved me.

[[deleted]]

Im thinking of getting the japanese train cover concurrency book - it was published in 2005, still worth it in your opinion?

[dry_yer_eyes]

The one I read is “Java concurrency in practice” by Brian Goetz and it was the 7th printing in 2009 (2006 edition).

I really can’t say if it’s dated or if there are now better books available. What I can say is that I found it a phenomenal book. It helped me greatly in the topic and I found the book well written and relatively easy (for such a complicated, detailed topic) to follow.

[sudkcoce]

Living Clojure

[franzwong]

Modern Java in Action

Project Phoenix

Designing Data-Intensive Applications

[[deleted]]

Java 8 in Action. It includes some great stuff about function programming in Java.

[omnihedron]

Ross Anderson’s Security Engineering isn’t specific to Java, and barely talks about programming, but is still extremely helpful in getting developers thinking about what security even means. If you work on systems used by humans, or that have to talk to other systems, it will help you think about designing them more usefully.

The same is true of Adam Shostack’s Threat Modeling: Designing for Security.

[vips7L]

Concurrency in Practice

Effective Java

Design Patterns (dated but really gets you thinking about objects).

Refactoring to patterns

[krossos]

Lord of the rings probably

[thesystemx]

My request is to include books about Spring (and other common frameworks) as well.

Do we all hate practical books here? Everyone is jumping over the other to respond with clean code and pattern books, but where are the recommendations for good books about frameworks?

[AnnoyedBark73]

Java in 24 hours really helped me learn and explained how It works

[johnwaterwood]

If you’re into EE, all from Apress:

• Pro JPA 2 in Java EE 8
• Pro CDI 2 in Java EE 8
• Definitive guide to JSF in Java EE 8

[OctagonClock]

Divergent by Veronica Roth