In the 90s, when I was in the process of learning Unix as well as learning to be a better programmer, you couldn’t go wrong with any title published by O’Reilly. There were a smaller organization than they are now and almost everything I read by them was a great source of knowledge. If a book by them was on a topic I was interested in, I would just buy it without reading any reviews or thumbing through it. As they’ve gotten bigger I’ve found that not every title is up to the quality I associated with the name O’Reilly. Not to say they still don’t have some excellent books I still turn too. (I’d still turn to the perl books if I haven’t given up perl for health and sanity reasons.)
Lately, I’ve been reading books from another publishing house that reminds me of O’Reilly of old: The Pragmatic Programmers. In fact, they are now the new wearers of the "instant buy" crown.
I read their first book, The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master, in late 2000 and it was an eye opener for me, especially for such a small book. It validated many practices and "rules" I already followed without being explicitly introduced to them, and gave me a few more I should have been following. It instantly become one of my favorite books on programming and one that I often loan out or recommend.
