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The Best Software Engineering Books I Read in 2020
A software engineer’s reading list
As 2020 draws to a close, I am thrilled to share with you a selection of the best software engineering books that I have read during the past 12 months.
If you are a software engineer, data scientist, or one of those people who work in the tech or software industry, you will agree with me that you have to constantly keep learning if you are to remain relevant in the game.
When you decide to become a software engineer, you essentially sign up for a journey of lifelong learning.
There are many ways of learning or acquiring knowledge, but books still remain a dominant force in that sphere.
1. Eloquent JavaScript
JavaScript is widely used in websites and its popularity continues to rise. There has never been a better time to learn JavaScript!
This book is divided into three main sections.
The first section is an introduction to JavaScript itself. It covers things like how to declare variables, arrays, looping, etc. But it also looks deeply at burning issues like the difference between null and undefined values in JavaScript.
The second section of the book takes a deep dive into how JavaScript works in the web browser. Here, you will get to learn and understand the Document Object Model (DOM).
The second section also covers topics like drawing on the canvas, which forms the basis of data visualization via charts and graphs.
The last section takes a look at Node.js and how to run JavaScript outside of the web browser. I also like that there is a whole chapter dedicated to the performance of JavaScript, how garbage collection works, and performance optimization.
“This is the book I give out when people ask me how to learn proper JavaScript.” — Chris Williams, Organizer of JSConf US
2. Linux Bible
The introduction of Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) on Windows PCs means that Linux and/or Unix are now truly everywhere.
