r/webdev · 2019
Most-mentioned books in r/webdev during 2019
This page ranks books by exact tracked mentions in r/webdev within the published source unit for 2019. Counts come from the reconciled subreddit-by-month matrix; a source unit may be a bounded sample.
#1 You Don't Know JS
Kyle Simpson
Kyle Simpson's free GitHub series that bootcamp grads keep crediting when they finally understand closures, this, and coercion.
#2 Clean Code
Robert C. Martin
The book 536 Reddit threads cite when arguing about naming variables — revered by beginners, argued over by seniors.
#3 Cracking the Coding Interview
Gayle Laakmann McDowell
The book that turned software hiring into a sport — written by the ex-Googler who introduced programming challenges to the process in the first place.
#4 Design Patterns
Erich Gamma
The 1994 Gang of Four catalog that named 23 object-oriented patterns, gave developers a shared vocabulary, and taught a generation to over-apply both.
#5 Eloquent JavaScript
Marijn Haverbeke
Marijn Haverbeke's free online JavaScript book — variables to async in one volume — by someone who said he wouldn't wish a game-programming career on anyone.
#6 The DevOps Handbook
Gene Kim
Four practitioners codify how Etsy, Netflix, and Google actually ship software — then explain why your org does the opposite.
#7 The Mythical Man-Month
Frederick P. Brooks Jr.
Fred Brooks spent the 1960s building IBM's OS/360 and wrote down everything that went wrong — in 1975, and it still lands.
#8 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.
#9 Code Complete
Steve McConnell
Steve McConnell's 900-page construction manual for software, ranked third on Reddit's canonical reading list and still cited 25 years after publication.
#10 Grokking Algorithms
Aditya Y. Bhargava
A Python-illustrated tour of data structures and algorithms that r/learnprogramming treats as the first step before Leetcode, not a replacement for it.
#11 Refactoring
Martin Fowler
Martin Fowler's catalog of named moves for cleaning up code that already works, cited 116 times across Reddit in 7 years as the Clean Code alternative people actually prefer.
#12 The Clean Coder
Robert C. Martin
Uncle Bob's professionalism manual: say no to bad estimates, refuse death marches, and work the 40 hours then study on your own time.
#13 The Design of Everyday Things
Don Norman
A cognitive scientist argues that when you can't open a door or use a stove, the door and stove are broken — not you.
#14 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.
#15 Think Like a Programmer
V. Anton Spraul
V. Anton Spraul's guide to breaking down any programming problem before writing a single line of code — written for learners who know syntax but freeze at blank pages.
#16 Working Effectively with Legacy Code
Michael C. Feathers
Michael Feathers wrote the book for the developer who just inherited 30 devs' worth of code across 5 years in 5 different styles and has to ship next quarter.