Books
![](Images/bookshelf_2021_thumb.jpg)
after moving house. I have several
more boxes to unpack.
![](Images/bookshelf_2006_thumb.jpg)
I've been asked for textbook recommendations from time to time, which I've been sharing on this page. I'll keep this list up to date as I finish reading more books that I'd recommend. Note that this is not a list of all the books I own, but rather, only those I'd recommend. I've worked in programming, system administration, computer security, and for a while I've now focused on computer performance. My bookshelf reflects my career.
In 2014 I was interviewed by BookFlocks about books: here's my interview.
Systems Performance
- Systems Performance 2nd edition - Brendan Gregg (Addison-Wesley, 2021)
- BPF Performance Tools - Brendan Gregg (Addison-Wesley, 2019)
- DTrace - Brendan Gregg, Jim Mauro (Prentice Hall, 2011)
- Solaris Performance and Tools - Richard McDougall, Jim Mauro, Brendan Gregg (Prentice Hall, 2006)
- System Performance Tuning, 2nd Ed. - Gian-Paolo D. Musumeci, Mike Loukides (O'Reilly, 2002)
- Sun Performance and Tuning 2nd Ed. - Adrian Cockcroft, Richard Pettit (Prentice Hall, 1998)
- System Performance Tuning, 1st Ed. - Mike Loukides (O'Reilly, 1990)
Language Performance
- Java Performance: The Definitive Guide - Scott Oaks (O'Reilly, 2014)
- Java Performance - Charlie Hunt, Binu John (Addison-Wesley, 2011)
Database Performance
- High Performance MySQL, 3rd Ed. - Baron Schwartz, Peter Zaitsev, Vadim Tkachenko (O'Reilly, 2012)
- High Performance MySQL, 2nd Ed. - Baron Schwartz, Peter Zaitsev, Vadim Tkachenko, ... (O'Reilly, 2008)
- Optimizing Oracle Performance - Cary Millsap, Jeff Holt (O'Reilly, 2003)
- Configuring & Tuning Databases on the Solaris Platform - Allan N. Packer (Prentice Hall, 2001)
Capacity Planning
- The Art of Capacity Planning - John Allspaw (O'Reilly, 2008)
- Scalable Internet Architectures - Theo Schlossnagle (Sams Publishing, 2006)
- Configuration and Capacity Planning for Solaris Servers - Brian L. Wong (Prentice Hall, 1997)
Performance Modeling
- The Practical Performance Analyst - Neil Gunther (McGraw Hill, 1997)
- The Art of Computer Systems Performance Analysis - Raj Jain (Wiley, 1991)
OS Internals
- Windows Internals, Part 1 - Pavel Yosifovich, Mark Russinovich, David Solomon, Alex Ionescu (Microsoft Press, 2017)
- The Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating System 2nd Ed - Marshall Kirk McKusick, George V. Neville-Neil, Robert N.M. Watson (Addison-Wesley, 2014)
- Linux Kernel Development, 3rd Ed. - Robert Love (Addison-Wesley, 2010)
- Operating Systems In Depth - Thomas W. Doeppner (Wiley, 2010)
- Solaris Internals 2nd Ed. - Richard McDougall, Jim Mauro (Prentice Hall, 2006)
- Mac OS X Internals - Amit Singh (Addison-Wesley, 2006)
- Understanding the Linux Kernel, 3rd Ed. - Daniel P. Bovet, Marco Cesati Ph.D. (O'Reilly, 2005)
- Linux Device Drivers, 3rd Ed. - Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro Rubini, Greg Kroah-Hartman (O'Reilly, 2005)
- The Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating System - Marshall Kirk McKusick, George V. Neville-Neil (Addison-Wesley, 2004)
- Solaris Internals 1st Ed. - Richard McDougall, Jim Mauro (Prentice Hall, 2000)
- Unix Internals - Uresh Vahalia (Prentice Hall, 1995)
- The Magic Garden Explained - Berny Goodheart, James Cox (Prentice Hall, 1995)
- The Design of the Unix Operating System - Maurice J. Bach (Prentice Hall, 1986)
- Lions' Commentary on UNIX 6th Edition - John Lions (Annabooks, 1977)
Unix Administration
- Unix and Linux System Administration Handbook - Evi Nemeth, Garth Snyder, ... (Prentice Hall, 2010)
- Unix in a Nutshell - Arnold Robbins (O'Reilly, 2005)
- Think Unix - Jon Lasser (Que, 2000)
- Unix Hints & Hacks - Kirk Waingrow (Que, 1999)
Computer Security
- Hacking Exposed - McClure, Scambray, Kurtz (McGraw-Hill Osborne, 2009)
- The Cuckoo's Egg - Cliff Stoll (Gallery, 2005)
- Secrets and Lies - Bruce Schneier (Wiley, 2004)
- The Tao of Network Security Monitoring - Richard Bejtlich (Addison-Wesley, 2004)
- The Art of Deception - Kevin Mitnick (Wiley, 2003)
- Tangled Web - Richard Power (Que, 2000)
- Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson (fiction, Avon, 2002)
- Applied Cryptography - Bruce Schneier (Wiley, 1996)
Programming
- The Art of Unix Programming - Eric S. Raymond (Addison-Wesley, 2003)
- The Practice of Programming - Brian Kernighan, Rob Pike (Addison-Wesley, 1999)
- The Unix Programming Environment - Brian Kernighan, Rob Pike (Prentice Hall, 1984)
- The Mythical Man-Month - Frederick P. Brooks (Addison-Wesley, 1995/1975)
C Programming
- Expert C Programming - Peter van der Linden (Prentice Hall, 1994)
- The C Programming Language 2nd Ed. - Brian W. Kernighan, Dennis M. Ritchie (Prentice Hall, 1988)
Perl Programming
- Anything by Randal Schwartz
Shell Scripting
- The AWK Programming Language - Alfred V. Aho, Brian W. Kernighan, Peter J. Weinberger (Addison Wesley, 1988)
IT History
- UNIX: A History and a Memoir - Brian W Kernighan (independent, 2019)
- Just For Fun - Linus Torvalds (Harper, 2002)
- Dealers of Lightning - Michael A. Hiltzik (Harper, 2000)
- In the Beginning was the Command Line - Neal Stephenson (William Morrow, 1999)
- Nerds 2.0.1 A Brief History of the Internet - Stephen Segaller (TV Books, 1999)
- Where Wizards Stay Up Late - Katie Hafner, Matthew Lyon (Simon & Schuster, 1998)
- Accidental Empires - Robert X. Cringely (Harper, 1996)
- Life With Unix - Don Libes, Sandy Ressler (Prentice Hall, 1989)
IT Other
- Retrospectives Antipatterns - Aino Vonge Corry (Addison-Wesley, 2020)
Misc Favourites
- Skunk Works - Ben R. Rich & Leo Janos (Black Bay Books, 1996)
- The Worst Journey in the World - Apsley Cherry-Garrard (Penguin, 2006/1922)
Management
- The Dilbert Principle - Scott Adams (Harper, 1997)
- The No Asshole Rule - Robert I. Sutton (Business Plus, 2010)
- Snakes in Suits - Paul Babiak, Robert D. Hare (Harper Business, 2007)