--- title: My favorite Computer Science books, and why | daily.dev description: A curated personal list of favorite computer science books, including Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming, Sedgewick and Wayne's Algorithms 4th Edition,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/my-favorite-computer-science-books-and-why-whctjjjgh twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: My favorite Computer Science books, and why | daily.dev og:description: A curated personal list of favorite computer science books, including Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming, Sedgewick and Wayne's Algorithms 4th Edition,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/my-favorite-computer-science-books-and-why-whctjjjgh og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/wHCtjJjGh.png og:image:alt: My favorite Computer Science books, and why 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. # My favorite Computer Science books, and why **[Lobsters](https://daily.dev/sources/lobsters)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A curated personal list of favorite computer science books, including Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming, Sedgewick and Wayne's Algorithms 4th Edition, Kernighan and Pike's The Practice of Programming, Bryant and O'Hallaron's Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective, Okasaki's Purely Functional Data Structures, Bentley's Programming Pearls, Warren's Hacker's Delight, Gusfield's Algorithms on Strings, Trees, and Sequences, and Nisan and Schocken's The Elements of Computing Systems. Each entry includes brief personal commentary on why the book stands out, covering topics like algorithms, systems programming, functional data structures, bit-twiddling tricks, and building a computer from scratch. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community take How the wider developer community reacted, aggregated from 1 discussion and 14 comments across lobsters (as of 2026-09-14). **TL;DR:** The list is well received, with people affirming most picks (especially Hacker's Delight and Nand2tetris) while pointing out a few notable omissions like OSTEP and Principles of Computer System Design. **Sentiment:** 75% positive · 20% mixed · 5% skeptical **The case for** - Multiple people second the recommendation of Hacker's Delight and share bit-twiddling resources/tricks. - One commenter credits the Nand2tetris-related book with a major positive impact on their career. - Someone calls it an excellent list, having read or agreeing with every entry. **The pushback** - Some are surprised that OSTEP (Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces) wasn't included. - One commenter notes the omission of 'standard' CS books from the list. **By community** - lobsters (positive): Commenters largely praise the selections and add their own favorites and supplementary resources, with only mild pushback about omissions. **Highlights** > I'm surprised [OSTEP (Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces)](https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/) didn't make it to the list. It's such a well-made book, and it really does justice to the *easy* in it's title. Top recommendation for anyone who's looking to get into operating systems. > — [darius-it on lobsters · 2 points](https://lobste.rs/s/gybcec/my_favorite_computer_science_books_why#c_ddznfp) > These threads are dangerous for the screws holding up my bookshelves (and my wallet). Surprising to not see the "standards", but an interesting list. > — [omidmash on lobsters · 4 points, 1 comments](https://lobste.rs/s/gybcec/my_favorite_computer_science_books_why#c_pcykot) > +1 for Hacker's Delight!! Wrapping my head around division by constants was tough, but I've got it enough to have presented on it a few times. The general proof is pretty ugly, but the individual cases aren't bad. Usually I start with this: ``` div3: movsxd rax, edi sar edi, 31 imul rax, rax, 1431655766 shr rax, 32 sub eax, edi ``` and prove that it implements division by 3, and then do 5 and 7, and then it's a good time to stop :) > — [kenballus on lobsters · 1 points, 1 comments](https://lobste.rs/s/gybcec/my_favorite_computer_science_books_why#c_6lveiz) > I owe my career (among other things) to Nand2tetris course. My first post on my professional blog is about it. Such a treasure. > — [frontsideair on lobsters · 1 points](https://lobste.rs/s/gybcec/my_favorite_computer_science_books_why#c_e7bgdz) > This is an excellent list -- every book on this list, I have either not yet read, or agree with including it. > — [orib on lobsters · 1 points](https://lobste.rs/s/gybcec/my_favorite_computer_science_books_why#c_wyrmss) **Source threads** - [lobsters](https://lobste.rs/s/gybcec/my_favorite_computer_science_books_why) · 38 points · 14 comments ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Ten Books That Shaped How I Think](https://daily.dev/posts/ten-books-that-shaped-how-i-think-lijdyvcex) · BirkeyCo · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [The Software Engineering Books I keep recommending](https://daily.dev/posts/the-software-engineering-books-i-keep-recommending-znf1prrwn) · Tech World With Milan · 19 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#algorithms](https://daily.dev/tags/algorithms), [#functional-programming](https://daily.dev/tags/functional-programming), [#data-structures](https://daily.dev/tags/data-structures), [#computer-science](https://daily.dev/tags/computer-science) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/my-favorite-computer-science-books-and-why-whctjjjgh) ```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":"My favorite Computer Science books, and why","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/my-favorite-computer-science-books-and-why-whctjjjgh","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/my-favorite-computer-science-books-and-why-whctjjjgh"},"datePublished":"2026-08-23T21:21:36.904Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T07:31:46.095Z","description":"A curated personal list of favorite computer science books, including Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming, Sedgewick and Wayne's Algorithms 4th Edition,...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--P4t4XyoV--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2001","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--P4t4XyoV--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2001","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Lobsters","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":"Lobsters","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--tl8v_Fku--/f_auto,t_logo/v1698841318/logos/lobste.jpg","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/lobsters"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/my-favorite-computer-science-books-and-why-whctjjjgh","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"algorithms,functional-programming,data-structures,computer-science","timeRequired":"PT3M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Lobsters","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/lobsters"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"My favorite Computer Science books, and why"}]} ```