#28 in the ranking · technical · 1987
The Little Schemer
The Little Schemer, by Friedman and Felleisen, published in 1987, is cited by 143 people in conversations on Hacker News and Stack Exchange. It shows up in all 20 years, from 2007 to 2026, with the most mentions in 2011. People who cite it also cite Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, The C Programming Language and Introduction to Algorithms.
Year by year
Peak: 22 mentions in 2011
Mentions per year: 2007: 6; 2008: 9; 2009: 18; 2010: 15; 2011: 22; 2012: 5; 2013: 4; 2014: 5; 2015: 11; 2016: 8; 2017: 8; 2018: 8; 2019: 4; 2020: 5; 2021: 16; 2022: 19; 2023: 5; 2024: 8; 2025: 5; 2026: 1.
Where it’s cited
What people write
From a text search; it doesn’t yet tell recommending apart from just mentioning.
Everybody has already mentioned most of the best books I've read, so I'll mention one that I haven't seen on this thread yet - The Little Schemer.
Hacker News · 2024 · in “Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?” · see comment ↗
I will highly recommend The Little Schemer.
Hacker News · 2022 · in “When programming books are wrong” · see comment ↗
The Little Schemer is my favorite by far!
Hacker News · 2021 · in “Ask HN: What is the best programming book you've read?” · see comment ↗
I would sugest starting with "The Little Schemer" (and perhaps "The Reasoned Schemer" after that).
Stack Exchange · 2011 · in “Accessible book on functional programming” · by pmn · CC BY-SA 3.0 · see comment ↗