--- title: 6 books engineers should read | daily.dev description: This post lists six essential books for engineers, emphasizing the depth and practical insights books provide compared to other mediums. Two recommended books... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/6-books-engineers-should-read-whhfpfyvn twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: 6 books engineers should read | daily.dev og:description: This post lists six essential books for engineers, emphasizing the depth and practical insights books provide compared to other mediums. Two recommended books... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/6-books-engineers-should-read-whhfpfyvn og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/whhFpfyVN.png og:image:alt: 6 books engineers should read og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # 6 books engineers should read **[swizec.com](https://daily.dev/sources/swizec)** · 5 min read · 1059 upvotes · 20 comments ## Summary This post lists six essential books for engineers, emphasizing the depth and practical insights books provide compared to other mediums. Two recommended books are suitable for all experience levels: 'The Pragmatic Programmer' and Dale Carnegie's book on winning over colleagues. For senior engineers, four additional books are suggested to enhance leadership, responsibility, and decision-making skills: 'Extreme Ownership', 'The Phoenix Project', 'Software Engineering at Google', and 'Thinking in Bets'. Readers are encouraged to delve deeper into these books for a comprehensive understanding. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@mbastakis** · 9 upvotes > Very high quality suggestions. Thanks **@mdirfan** · 8 upvotes > **Books that are suggests**: (With summary articles) > 1. [How to win friends and influence people](https://fs.blog/how-to-win-friends-and-influence-people/) > 2. [The Pragmatic Programmer](https://swizec.com/blog/my-favorite-lessons-from-pragmatic-programmer/) > 3. [Extreme Ownership](https://medium.com/swlh/extreme-ownership-for-software-engineering-96daf6a2a774) > 4. [The Phoenix Project](https://swizec.com/blog/the-phoenix-project-recap/) > 5. [Software Engineer at Google](https://swizec.com/blog/what-i-learned-from-software-engineering-at-google/) > 6. [Thinking in... **@rivon0507** · 3 upvotes > I'm reading those books right away **@valentijn** · 1 upvotes > Thanks! Going to read these **@haskov** · 1 upvotes > When I see the phrase "it feels kinda slimy and dishonest, but it works" that's a huge red flag to me. We should be striving for collaboration and cooperation, not manipulation. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Don’t just attend KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon, Merge Forward your experience\!](https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-just-attend-kubecon-cloudnativecon-merge-forward-your-experience--l0rpp73x8) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Announcing H2 2026 KCDs](https://daily.dev/posts/announcing-h2-2026-kcds-m96goajm1) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Two months of Open Community Groups](https://daily.dev/posts/two-months-of-open-community-groups-asf52zhbs) · CNCF · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [CNCF Unveils Schedule for KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon Europe 2026](https://daily.dev/posts/cncf-unveils-schedule-for-kubecon-cloudnativecon-europe-2026-ikhcoa5cb) · CNCF · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [CNCF Debuts KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon Japan 2026 Schedule](https://daily.dev/posts/cncf-debuts-kubecon-cloudnativecon-japan-2026-schedule-xp5pyudub) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#career](https://daily.dev/tags/career) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/6-books-engineers-should-read-whhfpfyvn) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"6 books engineers should read","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/6-books-engineers-should-read-whhfpfyvn","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/6-books-engineers-should-read-whhfpfyvn"},"datePublished":"2024-06-29T15:36:48.621Z","dateModified":"2024-08-23T14:33:28.459Z","description":"This post lists six essential books for engineers, emphasizing the depth and practical insights books provide compared to other mediums. 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Thanks","datePublished":"2024-07-03T18:21:40.260Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/whhFpfyVN#c-ez9KrqlQR","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Mike Bastakis","url":"https://daily.dev/mbastakis","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocJVMEk8GlahCi4K9tjlgs7UA9D6Nb-Gu3Fj861TTiwEokVruWrE=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":9}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Books that are suggests: (With summary articles)\n\nHow to win friends and influence people\nThe Pragmatic Programmer\nExtreme Ownership\nThe Phoenix Project\nSoftware Engineer at Google\nThinking in Bets\n\nThanks for sharing your learning experience!","datePublished":"2024-08-28T05:25:54.296Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/whhFpfyVN#c-4yhFmZ6co","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Mohd Irfan","url":"https://daily.dev/mdirfan","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--kF1avxVK--/f_auto/v1724809810/avatars/avatar_BRrwAn0drjN3lGHpijyYR"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":8}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"I’m reading those books right away","datePublished":"2024-07-06T05:44:01.365Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/whhFpfyVN#c-sBrbBmyK7","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"TSIRIHERIVONJY Flavien","url":"https://daily.dev/rivon0507","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocL9-IQiM-G8bIvAIyP08ya-V5sEIfFDv2XaLQJ3Kr2_hOzJibQ=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":3}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Thanks! Going to read these","datePublished":"2024-07-07T19:03:10.166Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/whhFpfyVN#c-4kvCuTcsF","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Valentijn","url":"https://daily.dev/valentijn","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/14164609?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"When I see the phrase “it feels kinda slimy and dishonest, but it works” that’s a huge red flag to me. We should be striving for collaboration and cooperation, not manipulation.","datePublished":"2024-09-22T02:35:12.642Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/whhFpfyVN#c-HVwnLr3Cr","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Jordan Haskovec","url":"https://daily.dev/haskov","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/6157052?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}}]} ```