Experienced PHP and C programmer based in Norway, with a history of game and web development. CTO at Blue Scarab Entertainment, previously at Servebolt.com, IMVU, Smarterphone, and Funcom.
I have had the same experience: learning on the job or from pet projects, I felt more comfortable with language documentation (and even the C++ spec) than books that re-hash the documentation and are often written with beginners in mind.
The first titles to break that pattern for me were the "Effective C++" books by Scott Meyers, which are aimed at advanced practitioners. I'll always want more of those, for other languages. "JavaScript: The Good Parts" by Douglas Crockford is another example that comes to mind.
There are a few other exceptions, and what characterizes them is that they're not trying to teach a language or framework. An oft-cited example of that would be "The Pragmatic Programmer", but the one book I recommend most often is "Working Effectively with Legacy Code" by Michael C. Feathers, which is about testing. For C++ programmers, "C++ Coding Standards" by Herb Sutter and Andrei Alexandrescu is useful for working in a homogenous team.
I have finished Working Effectively with Legacy Code" this year. It's a great book, especially for those who work with C++ or Java. It's less hands-on for a ruby developer (like me) but is still an interesting and useful read.
Experienced PHP and C programmer based in Norway, with a history of game and web development. CTO at Blue Scarab Entertainment, previously at Servebolt.com, IMVU, Smarterphone, and Funcom.
I have had the same experience: learning on the job or from pet projects, I felt more comfortable with language documentation (and even the C++ spec) than books that re-hash the documentation and are often written with beginners in mind.
The first titles to break that pattern for me were the "Effective C++" books by Scott Meyers, which are aimed at advanced practitioners. I'll always want more of those, for other languages. "JavaScript: The Good Parts" by Douglas Crockford is another example that comes to mind.
There are a few other exceptions, and what characterizes them is that they're not trying to teach a language or framework. An oft-cited example of that would be "The Pragmatic Programmer", but the one book I recommend most often is "Working Effectively with Legacy Code" by Michael C. Feathers, which is about testing. For C++ programmers, "C++ Coding Standards" by Herb Sutter and Andrei Alexandrescu is useful for working in a homogenous team.
I have finished Working Effectively with Legacy Code" this year. It's a great book, especially for those who work with C++ or Java. It's less hands-on for a ruby developer (like me) but is still an interesting and useful read.
It doesn't really address any particular language, though? I'm a PHP developer, and it's fundamentally changed how I work.