Hooray!

Just yesterday I suddenly received three [very well known] books I had ordered from the Amazon a while earlier: Art of Computer Programming, Volume 1 (Fundamental Algorithms), Art of Computer Programming, Volume 2 (Seminumerical Algorithms) and Art of Computer Programming, Volume 3 (Sorting and Searching) by Donald E. Knuth, guy which has greatly influenced the programming scene.

I say suddenly because I had selected the most cheapest delivery method for them and the estimator on the order tracking page predicted that I should receive them at some point in October, which, in my mind, sounded way too slow for delivery in this time and year.

Anyways, I got them (they are approx. 600 pages each) and now I’m waiting to find enough time to actually read even some of it through! I already started the first one and have to say that I find Knuth’s writing style to my liking, although I’m already fearing a bit about the mathematics he might have for some of the algorithms..

I have read quite some number of programming books before, but I think that instead of focusing specific technologies or products -which most IT books nowadays seem to be about – it’s probably helpful to actually read some of these fundamental base books as well. Like for IT project management, they say that you should read The Mythical Man-Month
(which I also have owned for quite some time already, but never managed to finish… shame on me) in order to understand concepts like why adding more people to the already late project makes it even more late etc..