--- title: Criminally Underrated Programming Books | daily.dev description: A curated recommendation of three underrated programming books worth reading: 'The Practice of Programming' by Kernighan and Pike (language-agnostic... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/criminally-underrated-programming-books-olggoabfo twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Criminally Underrated Programming Books | daily.dev og:description: A curated recommendation of three underrated programming books worth reading: 'The Practice of Programming' by Kernighan and Pike (language-agnostic... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/criminally-underrated-programming-books-olggoabfo og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/olGGOabFo.png og:image:alt: Criminally Underrated Programming Books 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. # Criminally Underrated Programming Books **[bigboxSWE](https://daily.dev/sources/bigboxswe)** · 6 min read · 15 upvotes · 1 comments ## Summary A curated recommendation of three underrated programming books worth reading: 'The Practice of Programming' by Kernighan and Pike (language-agnostic fundamentals, dense but brief), 'Programming Pearls' by John Bentley (creative algorithm problem-solving through essays), and 'Coders at Work' by Peter Seibel (interviews with legendary programmers like Ken Thompson and Donald Knuth). The picks are praised for being short, accessible, language-agnostic, and focused on timeless principles rather than specific frameworks or interview grinding. ## 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. **@nubprogrammer** · 0 upvotes > man wish i could get them 🥀 ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [My favorite Computer Science books, and why](https://daily.dev/posts/my-favorite-computer-science-books-and-why-whctjjjgh) · Lobsters · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#algorithms](https://daily.dev/tags/algorithms) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/criminally-underrated-programming-books-olggoabfo) ```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":"Criminally Underrated Programming Books","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/criminally-underrated-programming-books-olggoabfo","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/criminally-underrated-programming-books-olggoabfo"},"datePublished":"2026-03-31T12:33:55.852Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T12:45:13.397Z","description":"A curated recommendation of three underrated programming books worth reading: 'The Practice of Programming' by Kernighan and Pike (language-agnostic...","image":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/7zSD4p2LTVM/sddefault.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/7zSD4p2LTVM/sddefault.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"bigboxSWE","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"bigboxSWE","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--KMRj-zRu--/f_auto/v1711188128/logos/bigboxswe","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/bigboxswe"},"commentCount":1,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/criminally-underrated-programming-books-olggoabfo","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":15},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}],"keywords":"algorithms","timeRequired":"PT6M","video":{"@type":"VideoObject","name":"Criminally Underrated Programming Books","description":"A curated recommendation of three underrated programming books worth reading: 'The Practice of Programming' by Kernighan and Pike (language-agnostic...","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/7zSD4p2LTVM/sddefault.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-03-31T12:33:55.852Z","duration":"PT6M","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/olGGOabFo","embedUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/embed/7zSD4p2LTVM"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"bigboxSWE","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/bigboxswe"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Criminally Underrated Programming Books"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/criminally-underrated-programming-books-olggoabfo","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"man wish i could get them 🥀","datePublished":"2026-04-12T08:52:31.944Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/olGGOabFo#c-CkFKtRAmZ","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Atharv","url":"https://daily.dev/nubprogrammer","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--iKAhtmCU--/f_auto/v1760698008/avatars/avatar_EP7yoOu1w1OjIXSXdNYQq?_a=BAMAK+ZW0"}}]} ```