Writing Solid Code
by Steve Maguire
ISBN 1-55615-551-4

An easy to read book for programmers who want to improve the quality of the code that they write. Sensible, practical advice that's often overlooked.
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Code Complete: A practical Handbook of Software Construction
by Steve McConnell
ISBN 1-55615-484-4

Equivalent to having a whole bookcase full of good quality programming books. Code Complete covers lots of issues that you should be aware of if you're serious about software. Whilst it's not a definitive work on any of the subjects that it covers, it does give a good and broad overview, offers practical advice and has copious references for further reading. Don't expect to agree with everything in it, but read it!
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Clouds to Code
by Jesse Liberty
ISBN 1-861000-95-2

An excellent book about how applications are actually produced. From initial meetings with the client, through analysis, design, development, testing and release. Using an iterative development cycle, use cases, UML, design patterns, C++, COM, and SQL server the book charts the progress of a "real" project and is shows the mistakes as well as the successes.

Interesting reading, and reassuring to see that I'm not the only one who only uses the bits of the methodologies that work for me. The most useful thing I learnt from this book was how useful use cases can be, from initial analysis right through to controlling feature creep and working out how to test. Worth reading.
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