#35 in the ranking · technical · 1986
Programming Pearls
Programming Pearls, by Jon Bentley, published in 1986, is cited by 110 people in conversations on Hacker News and Stack Exchange. It shows up in 18 of the 20 years, from 2008 to 2025, with the most mentions in 2010. People who cite it also cite The Pragmatic Programmer, Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs and The C Programming Language.
Year by year
Peak: 12 mentions in 2010
Mentions per year: 2007: 0; 2008: 6; 2009: 8; 2010: 12; 2011: 10; 2012: 11; 2013: 4; 2014: 3; 2015: 6; 2016: 6; 2017: 7; 2018: 5; 2019: 6; 2020: 6; 2021: 6; 2022: 9; 2023: 3; 2024: 6; 2025: 3; 2026: 0.
Where it’s cited
What people write
From a text search; it doesn’t yet tell recommending apart from just mentioning.
Programming Pearls too would still be worth reading
Hacker News · 2024 · in “Ask HN: What books should I read to improve as a software engineer?” · see comment ↗
I also agree with the recommendations elsewhere on the list of Andrew Tanenbaum's book on operating systems, and of Jon Bentley's Programming Pearls books.
Hacker News · 2021 · in “Ask HN: What are some of the best well-written books on computer science?” · see comment ↗
A distant second recommendation is Programming Pearls, which had some gems in it.
Hacker News · 2025 · see comment ↗
I would recommend as a first read, a book by Jon Bentley titled "Programming Pearls".
Stack Exchange · 2012 · in “Resource/book suggestion to effectively writing software for python/c++ beginner” · by Yavar · CC BY-SA 3.0 · see comment ↗
I also highly recommend Programming Pearls.
Stack Exchange · 2008 · in “What is the single most influential book every programmer should read?” · by daniel · CC BY-SA 2.5 · see comment ↗
For example, say you list Programming Pearls as a read book.
Stack Exchange · 2011 · in “Putting books read in resume” · by Sergio · CC BY-SA 2.5 · see comment ↗