This will sound such a cliche but I love reading books. I really do. I read around 30 books in 2017. All of them are of different categories. So I thought I would share the best books I have read with my summaries and notes in case someone was looking for recommendations.
How to Win Friends & Influence People
I can't stress enough how important this book is. I re-read this book at the beginning of every year so that I don't forget the principles outlined here. This is a life-changing book. Want to get good with people? Read this book. Want to have meaningful and fulfilling relationships? Read this book. Want to achieve your maximum potential? Read this book. And thank me later.
The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure
This book is also one of those I re-read all the time. It makes one simple concept very clear: Want to live an extraordinary life? Then don't live a normal life! How do you do that? Multiply your goals by 10 and then multiply your efforts to achieve those dreams by 10. As a result, even if you fall short you will have achieved more than you would with 1X goals and efforts anyway. Also, if you lack energy in your life, you will definitely like Grant Cardone, the author.
The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement
This is the first of the books I read in order to understand the DevOps Culture. It is about a plant manager who has 90 days to improve the performance of his plant or else it will be closed and a lot of people will lose their jobs. As a result, he has to break out of conventional ways of thinking and employ many new concepts such as Theory of Constrains (TOC) to save his plant. In short, it is a fun read about serious things which can also be used in Software Development.
The Phoenix Project: A Novel about IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win
The second of the books about DevOps. It is very similar to The Goal only applied for an IT company and software development. You will learn about three core ways of the DevOps movement and learn how to apply them to your own IT organization to organize work flow, streamline internal communication and effectively serve the other business parts. I am telling you, you will never view IT the same way again after this book.
The DevOps Handbook: How to Create World-Class Agility, Reliability, and Security in Technology Organizations
If the previous two books talk about the theory of DevOps, this one is practical instructions to create world-class agility, reliability and security in IT organizations. Read this book and join the high performers using DevOps principles such as Google, Amazon, Etsy and Facebook who are routinely and reliably deploying code into production thousands of times in one single day.
The 5 Second Rule: Transform your Life, Work, and Confidence with Everyday Courage
I already talked about this book here. In short, it will help you to take control of your life on your hands.
Soft Skills: The software developer's life manual
John Sonmez has been a great influence in my career. He is the reason why I started this blog and did many other things that I did to improve my career. When he published this book, I instantly grabbed it to read. Never regretted that decision. Because of this book I have become a senior software developer, has spoken in multiple conferences and meetups (although not international ones), and basically greatly improved in my career of a software developer. Go get it now.
Grokking Algorithms: An illustrated guide for programmers and other curious people
Are you also like me and have hard time understanding and remembering algorithms? Say no more and get this book. It makes algorithms easy and fun with illustrations and stuff like that. Must read for every self-taught software developers.
256 Bloghacks
Do you have a blog or want to have one? Read this book. It is a must. Otherwise, don't. That simple.
Origin: A Novel
Let me end this list with a fiction. This one is from the author of the Da Vinci Code and once again follows the steps of Robert Langdon. If you like Dan Brown and Robert Langdon series you will like this one too. The same style and as intriguing as the other novels.
Conclusion
Read books and make yourself stand out from others.
P.S. I use GoodReads to track my books.
Fight on!