It is that time of the year again, just like in previous years. This is the list of the books I enjoyed most in 2010! You know that I like reading at least 6 books per year, and learning a new programming language every year. Last year’s programming language was LISP, and the books, well, here they go.
eBooks
By all means, it is clear that 2010 was the year of the eBook. Maybe it’s because of the iPad, but I’ve been consuming more and more eBooks, even if I still enjoy buying some classics in paper form. Kindle, iPad, iBooks, Nook, GoodReader, PDF, ePub, all of those names have shaped my way of reading last year.
But one of the most visible changes of switching to eBooks was the speed of reading; consuming eBooks is fast, much faster than reading normal books. I can’t say that I prefer one or the other; it’s simply different. But reading eBooks is faster than reading paper books. Probably there’s a warmth factor in paper books, which makes me enjoy them longer, I don’t know, but the fact is, in 2010 my book reading consumption has gone up in an alarming rate.
Reading as a Reviewer
Another big change in 2010 was that, for the first time, I’ve been asked to review a book before it’s published, as a technical reviewer; and boy, what a book: it was iPad Programming by Daniel Steinberg and Eric Freeman. I’ve started reviewing it when the iPad’s iPhone 3.2 SDK was still in beta, and I remember it was the first book I’ve read in iBooks on my iPad. It’s an awesome reference for iPhone developers who want to start developing apps for this (at the time) new device, providing both design and programming techniques.
Actually, I got the great chance to meet Daniel in person later during the DevDay for iPhone in London and Geneva later, and he’s not only a great author but now too a good friend of mine.
Physical Books
But not everything was eBooks in 2010; I’ve been buying paper books as well, which I love and enjoy a lot; my preferred, by all standards, is this gem called Cocoa Design Patterns by Erik Buck and Donald Yacktman, which I think is a mandatory read for any iOS or Mac OS X developer; it is probably one of the most important books ever written about Objective-C.
Buck and Yacktman are also the authors of the 2002 Cocoa Programming absolute reference I’ve talked about in 2005, so I’m not surprised that this new collaboration yields such an impressive volume.
Other gems I’ve read this year:
- REWORK by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson;
- Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds;
- HTML5 For Web Designers by Jeremy Keith (A Book Apart).
More eBooks
Finally, the list of great eBooks I’ve read, in either ePub, PDF, Kindle or just plain websites, in no particular order:
- 17 Rules Successful Companies Use to Attract and Keep Top Talent by David Russo;
- Don’t Make Me Think! by Steve Krug;
- The iPhone Developer’s Cookbook by Erica Sadun, 2nd edition;
- iPhone and iPad Apps Marketing by Jeffrey Hughes;
- Practical Common Lisp by Peter Seibel, which I adapted to ePub format;
- _why’s poignant guide to Ruby by _why the lucky stiff, also available as ePub and PDF versions;
- 20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web by the Google Chrome team.