The idea that having a pile of thick, important-looking programming books sitting on your shelf, largely unread, will somehow make you a better programmer. As David Poole once related to me in email, “I’d never get to do that in real life” seems to be the theme of the programming book porn pile. This is why I considered, and rejected, buying Knuth’s Art of Computer Programming. Try to purchase practical books you’ll actually read, and more importantly, put into action.
