Book Recommendations

On this page, I list a collection of the books that influenced me the most while becoming a professional software engineer. I like to read a lot and this mostly happens offline, i.e. I read regular books 😉

Kotlin

Kotlin in Action by Dmitry Jemerov and Svetlana Isakova

I need to recommend this book first because you're reading a Kotlin blog and I have to assume that you're willing to improve your Kotlin skills. Don't wait any longer, go ahead and order this fantastic book, which informs the reader in very great detail about the specifics, magnificence and also pitfalls of the Kotlin programming language. I really, really loved to read it and it helped me become an expert for Kotlin more quickly.

Java

Effective Java by Joshua Bloch

When you use to work on the JVM, even if you don't like Java as a language, you should definitely read this book. It could be considered as the bible for Java as it provides tons of useful tips and patterns that help you mastering Java. One of the most significant books I've read.

Java Concurrency in Practice by Brian Goetz

If I had to name two topics that most Java developers don't really understand it would be 1. Generics and 2. Concurrency. That's because both topics are rather difficult. Especially concurrency is seldom done right and one could argue that Java is a bad choice for writing asynchronous code. I wouldn't disagree. Nevertheless, we often need to fix and write new concurrency code with Java and therefore need a good resource to learn about it. Java Concurrency in Practice is a great book with everything you need to know to become a concurrency expert in Java. A must-read.

Misc

Clean Code by Robert C. Martin aka Uncle Bob

All of us know the importance of clean source code - this book is the foundation for many style checks and coding guides and thus needs to be studied when you want to write good code.

The Clean Coder by Robert C. Martin aka Uncle Bob

This code is a collection of techniques and mindsets that a professional software developer needs to adopt. To be honest, I don't agree entirely with the presented ideas but enjoyed reading the book anyway. It includes many interesting stories and ideas that accompanied Uncle Bob in his outstanding career. It's fun to read and you'll definitely learn something new.