r/compsci · 2021
Most-mentioned books in r/compsci during 2021
This page ranks books by exact tracked mentions in r/compsci within the published source unit for 2021. Counts come from the reconciled subreddit-by-month matrix; a source unit may be a bounded sample.
#1 Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs
Harold Abelson
MIT's 1985 Scheme textbook that 319 Reddit commenters have recommended and a noticeably smaller number have finished.
#2 The Art of Computer Programming
Donald E. Knuth
Donald Knuth's multi-volume monument to algorithms: the book programmers cite in library lists and almost nobody finishes.
#3 Designing Data-Intensive Applications
Martin Kleppmann
A backend engineer's field guide to the tradeoffs behind every database, queue, and distributed system you will ever touch.
#4 Introduction to Algorithms
Thomas H. Cormen
The textbook four MIT professors wrote to settle every algorithms argument, cited by 254 Reddit commenters across 12 subreddits and still going.
#5 The Soul of a New Machine
Tracy Kidder
A journalist watches a team of engineers at Data General burn themselves out building a minicomputer nobody remembers, and writes the definitive account of what that costs.
#6 Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software
Charles Petzold
A retired software engineer builds a computer from telegraph relays and flashlights, one chapter at a time, until you understand what a CPU actually does.
#7 The C Programming Language
Brian W. Kernighan
The 1978 book that defined C's syntax, co-written by its creator, still cited by name 281 times across Reddit in 7 years.
#8 The Pragmatic Programmer
Andy Hunt
Two veterans hand you a checklist for the craft: don't write code you don't need, own your tools, and fix the broken window before someone else does.
#9 Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach
James F. Kurose
Kurose and Ross walk the network stack from HTTP down to the wire, so the physical layer arrives after you already understand why it exists.
#10 Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective
Randal E. Bryant
The CMU course-in-a-book that pushes programmers to read assembly, defuse a binary bomb, and stop pretending they understand what happens after main() returns.
#11 Modern Operating Systems
Andrew S. Tanenbaum
Tanenbaum's textbook walks through every layer of an OS — scheduling, memory, file systems, threads — one chapter at a time, with the implementation details left in.
#12 The Phoenix Project
Gene Kim
An IT manager inherits a failing project, a mutinous ops team, and a CEO deadline — and has to ship before the company does.