The Definitive Guide to Symfony (Expert's Voice in Open Source)
Fabien; Zaninotto, François Potencier

£35.89

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I want to like this book because, having read it I'm still enthusiastic about learning symfony.

But normally when I read a book like this I feel inclined to try out bits of code as I go - and the layout of this book just isn't conducive to that.

I really don't like the way that the section on "the basics" doesn't even cover database connections, and code generation isn't covered till chapter 14.

Extending and Embedding PHP
Sara Golemon

£45.86

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I can't claim to have read the whole of this book - but I have found parts of useful on occasions when I needed that deeper insight into how PHP works.

I have found it well written and very approachable for such a deeply technical book.

There doesn't seem to be much to compete with it - though please comment if I've missed something.

It's definitely on my TODO list for further reading.

Agile Software Development with SCRUM
Ken Schwaber
Mike Beedle

£40.26

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This books seems to be aimed at people who don't really know about Scrum - which seems odd given how well known Scrum has become. I guess in a way this book is a victim of it's own success.

Chapter headings like "get ready for scrum", "scrum practises" and "applying scrum" led me to think I was buying a practical , how-to book. While I do have a much clearer idea now of what scrum involves, I don't feel that at the end of reading it I would be able to run a project using scrum.

Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams
Tom DeMarco
Timothy Lister

£20.99

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This is an interesting book, with much the same feel as Mythical Man Month, but a focus more on managing the team.

Both books promote the theory that programmers vary vastly in productivity, and that you want to hire the good ones!

This book focusses more on the productivity of teams, suggesting that it isn't so much the individual productivity that matters but that of the group.

Android Essentials (Books for Professionals by Professionals)
Chris Haseman

£15.99

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Having got my android phone I decided I'd like to be able to program it, the instructions on the Google code site were great - especially as they provide an Eclipse plugin, and there's only one phone version so far - making the directions very targeted.

Then I looked on my safari bookshelf  and found this book.

It's well written, assumes you already know Java and just want to get going quickly on Android, and has downloadable sample code - so far so good.

Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art: The Black Art Demystified (Best Practices (Microsoft))
Steve McConnell

£22.22

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This is another great book by Steve McConnell.

His empahsis is on large projects with thourough development processes; he gives many examples of rigorous studes that back up his advice.

If you follow all the advice in this book - you'll be able to make very accurate estimates with a clear idea of the risks involved.

Even if you don't need so much detail - the book provides many tips to greatly improve the accuracy of even rough calculations. 

Don't Make Me Think!: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
Steve Krug

£21.41

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This book is well written, short, and clear.

It has reassured me about much of what I do - and given me some pointers for areas I can improve on.

One of the great things about this book is the way it addresses the combination of technical and political issues that web projects can get bogged down in - it has a nice section called "Help my boss wants me to ___" with some good sample letters to the boss.

It really brings home that conventions are useful - and you need to test the site on users - little and often.

Joe Celko's SQL for Smarties: Advanced SQL Programming (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems)
Joe Celko

£44.75

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I was really looking forward to reading this book, it had been on my wish list for years....

But it's hard to know how to tackle it.

This is a heavyweight book and it's mostly organised by SQL keyword with some chapters on subjects like temporal queries and statistics.

It seems to me that the best way to read this book is cover to cover - but for me it's just to big to do that.

The book also suffers from being too oriented towards 'pure' SQL, spending pages on features that aren't yet available.

Test Driven Development (The Addison-Wesley Signature Series)
Kent Beck

£20.04

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The premise of this book is to design organically (No grand plans).

Programming is reduced to the sequence

• write a test
• write code that passes the test
• clean up that code (remove any duplication)

Much of the book is about getting into and keeping a good programming mindset - one nice tip is to always leave a failing test at the end of the day (this give you something concrete to start on the next day).

This book has changed the way I work (a bit).

Working Effectively with Legacy Code (Robert C Martin)
Michael Feathers

£32.51

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While waiting for a long database import to run I've been browsing my Safari bookshelf and this book looks really good.

I haven't by any means read the whole thing - but it really seems to have answers to questions I have been asking.

The topic of legacy code is one I have worked with a lot - and it's always challenging.

This book deals well with the technical, business, emotional and social impacts of this work.
With chapter titles like

      Chapter 6. I Don't Have Much Time and I Have to Change It