As a long-time programmer and IT architect, I was always thinking that being pragmatic isn’t only a matter of mastering technologies but also and more importantly a matter of wisdom and maturity. This book teaches you how to adopt the right mindset when addressing certain classes of problems. Each aspect is illustrated through relevant analogies. This good reading will certainly help you understand that pragmatic programmers are those who developed the ability to keep in mind the big picture of a given project when diving into every aspect of it. This paradigm isn’t taught at schools and universities.

Coders at work by Peter Seibel

I would not consider this reading as a reference for programmers in a way that they can find answers to their most common questions. It’s a collection of 15 interviews and highly opinionated thoughts on programming with some of the best programmers for the last decades. You don’t need to have a strong technical background to appreciate this reading. The interviews are easy to understand for both beginners and experts.

The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric S.Raymond

This book is a must-read for those who want to understand the philosophy behind the open-source movement. Eric.S Raymand shares his experience working on fetchmail (An open-sourced e-mail utility). He uses strong analogies to compare the open-source world to a bazaar where the collaborative work makes things fit together with the result of providing robust and mature softwares.

   Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good by Sarah Lacy

A good reading for tech entrepreneurs. It narrates the stories of the best-known social networking services and tools and many other web 2.0 successes since the beginning of the internet bubble. This book is based on interviews and time spent with the entrepreneurs behind those widely-used tools – such as Facebook, Paypal, Twitter, … – Every aspect of their personality is described as well as the way they conducted their businesses to success.

Technical readings

Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software
by Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson and John Vlissides

As a programmer, it’s important to understand all these patterns. But keep in mind that design patterns should not be considered as rules. They’re more a set of generic solutions for the most common design problems.

NoSQL Distilled by Martin Fowler

A good reading to understand every type of NoSQL databases

Pro Git by Scott Chacon

The best reference to master git

Learn Vimscript the Hard Way by Steve Losh

A must-read for an advanced use of Vim

A Year with Symfony by Matthias Noback

A way to dive into Symfony and understand the HTTPKernel (which is the heart of the framework). I read it cover to cover but you can pick any chapter in any order. The journey from the request to response is a must read. Other topic are also addressed, from your project structure and configuration to the security of your application. This book is useful for both beginners and experts.