If you haven’t yet read these books, you’re NOT considered a Developer

The only 4 books you need to read as a mysterious developer.

Halim Shams
4 min readNov 16, 2023
An Article by — Halim Shams

I don’t know if there’s a need for a recall from my early primary days when I was new to programming or not.

When I was new to programming, all I did was watch YouTube videos and video tutorials on Udemy. I was insanely addicted to them; I couldn’t tolerate a single day without watching some tutorials and random videos on YouTube related to programming.

As I hadn’t tried reading a book, I didn’t like reading any kind of book by any chance, but luckily one day there was this self-improvement book called “Atomic Habits” by James Clear that blew up the internet and went insanely viral on social media platforms.

For entirely one week, every day, it stole my eyes, as everyone was recommending reading that book, so I just wanted to give it a shot, and if, for any reason, it wasn’t joyful, I’d abandon it.

Long story short, I became so addicted to reading it that I couldn’t leave my room without that book. You won’t believe it; I wrapped it up in almost a week alongside my school tasks and studies, which for some of my friends was unbelievable.

After reading that book, I realized that, despite all the motivational and self-improvement videos I had watched, I couldn’t remember a single lesson. I applied it to my programming journey as well; I preferred reading more books than actually spending my time on YouTube, and it had a significant effect on transforming my development journey.

Throughout my web development journey, I’ve read countless books, including self-improvement books, programming-related books, and some fictional books. In this article, I’ve prepared a list of game-changing programming-related books that are still on my nerves.

Let’s explore the list…

“Soft Skills: The Software Developer’s Life Manual” by John Sonmez

This book is a mindset-changing book; it shattered my ordinary mindset of working a 9-to-5 job for decades and retiring.

Sonmez’s book empowered me to take control of my career, teaching me how to market myself, hack the learning process, crack the interviews, and develop a secure professional mindset.

“The One Thing” by Gary Keller

I suggest reading this book for those who value focus and goal-setting. Keller emphasizes the importance of identifying your one big goal and breaking it down into smaller and more manageable steps.

As a developer, this book helped me stay on track when I started my coding journey back then, when I was about 16.

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“The Pragmatic Programmer”

This particular gem is the product of two minds, two hands, and two brilliant programmers, Andrew Hunt and David Thomas.

They disclose the most essential coding principles that are more often neglected in today’s rapidly evolving tech landscape.

The book covers various topics, including avoiding duplication, decoupling, refactoring, testing, time estimation, and setting expectations.

“The Phoenix Project”

Sometimes it’s normal to feel bored from reading too much, and that’s when you need to switch to some fictional books, which will add a little sugar to the process.

“The Phoenix Project” is a book written by three giga-minds: Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford. They tried to showcase the leading role of DevOps in IT through a tale.

If you’re new to DevOps or want to deepen your understanding of it, this book is made for you.

If you can get it on Audible to listen to it, it’d definitely be a next-level experience.

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Halim Shams

I Write about Programming and All the Related Content 🚀 I'm a Self-Taught Full-Stack Developer 💛