Being a computer science student is a bit tricky, you have to always keep up to date with latest improvements in technology . But how do you ensure you’re always up to date ? Reading computer science books is one way to keep yourself informed and improve your performance in class as student.

In this guide , am going to share with you some of the top 10 best computer science books that have tested time and are continuously updated according to changes in the computer science field . For this list, i have included some computer science PDF , CS books and the best computer science textbooks as well .

The computer science books we have shared here are purely books to get you started with principles and basics in computer science as student but not necessarily programming . If you want to become a better programmer, i would recommend you read my article best java books to learn programming or best kotlin books to learn programming .

Top 10 Best Computer Science books 2018

Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software is a book to help you understand and appreciate today’s world of PCs , digital media and the Internet .

The author Charlse Petzold starts by asking a question : What do flashlights, the British invasion, black cats, and seesaws have to do with computers ? The author believes they show us the ingenious ways we manipulate language and invent new means of communicating with each other.

And through CODE the author continues, we see how this ingenuity and our very human compulsion to communicate have driven the technological innovations of the past two centuries , Using everyday objects and familiar language systems such as Braille and Morse code, author Charles Petzold weaves an illuminating narrative for anyone who’s ever wondered about the secret inner life of computers and other smart machines.

Clearly the book will give you a deeper understanding and respect for Computer Hardware and Software . The book costs only $16.37 on Amazon . Use link below to grab a copy of the book .

Even bad code works, However , But code which isn’t clean can bring an organization to unbelievable expenses in the long run . Every year, countless hours and significant resources are lost because of poorly written code. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Author Robert C. Martin A.K.A Uncle Bob in his book Clean Code : A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship presents a ideology to help young & professional programmers to write clean code . In his book, he focuses on instilling values of software craftsmanship and how better you can improve yourself as a programmer .

In this book you’ll be reading lots of code and you’re challenged to think– what’s good about that code, and what’s wrong with it . More importantly, you will be challenged to reassess your professional values and your commitment to your craft.

The book is divided into three parts . The first part includes principles , practices and patterns of writing clean code . The second part introduces you to numerous complex case studies . Each case study serves as an exercise in understanding how to clean up code .

The third part is the payoff: a single chapter containing a list of heuristics and “smells” gathered while creating the case studies. The result is a knowledge base that describes the way we think when we write, read, and clean code.

Hackers : Heroes of the computer Revolution a book by Steven Levy traces the origin of hackers and how this thing of ” hacking ” in the computer world started about . The book introduces you to those brilliant and eccentric nerds from the late 1950s through the early 80s who took risks bent the rules and pushed the world in a radical new direction .

In this book , you’ll read about noteworthy hackers such as Bill gates , Mark Zukerberg , Richard Stallman and Steve Wozniak all whose fascinating stories begins in early computer research labs.

Levy in his book profiles the imaginative brainiacs who found clever and unorthodox solutions to computer engineering problems . In general the book looks at the hacker ethics and how best you can learn from it’s heroes .

This another fascinating computer science book that focuses on exploration of how computer algorithms can be used in our everyday life to solve common decision making problems rather than using our human minds .

In this book author Brian Christian (who holds degrees in computer science, philosophy, and poetry, and works at the intersection of all three ) and Tom Griffiths (a UC Berkeley professor of cognitive science and psychology) show how the simple, precise algorithms used by computers can also answer very human questions .

The two authors explain how to have better hunches and when to leave things to chance, how to deal with overwhelming choices and how best to connect with others. From finding a spouse to finding a parking spot, from organizing one’s inbox to understanding the workings of human memory, Algorithms to Live By transforms the wisdom of computer science into strategies for human living.

If you’ve ever done a degree in computer science, you should know how important this book is to a computer science student .C programming is a foundation to coding in any computer science major.

The book C programming language is written by Brain Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie and will help you to get started to programming in C language . This book helps readers keep up with the finalized ANSI standard for C while showing how to take advantage of C’s rich set of operators, economy of expression, improved control flow, and data structures .

The books takes you through a set of well thought examples to help you understand the language to it’s fullest . Most Students call this book a bible of C programming language .However , keep in mind , this book is not meant for beginners the least you should have is a background in data structures .

Types and programming Languages provides a comprehensive introduction to both type systems in computer science and basic theory of programming languages .

The book has got a lot of programming examples which will explain new concepts and the theoretical sections are driven by the needs of implementation . Each chapter is accompanied by numerous exercises and solutions, as well as a running implementation, available via the Web.

Dependencies between chapters are explicitly identified, allowing readers to choose a variety of paths through the material. The core topics in this book include the untyped lambda-calculus, bounded quantification , type reconstruction, simple type systems, universal and existential polymorphism, subtyping , recursive types, kinds, and type operators. Extended case studies develop a variety of approaches to modeling the features of object-oriented languages.

Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs is another programming classic computer science book . If you want to become a better programmer regardless of what language, this book is worthy your time . The book will make you a better programmer by teaching you new languages and techniques for learning .

The book has got five chapters which will teach you how to think and understand computational process . The book also has got knew sections on higher-order procedures in graphics and on applications of stream processing in numerical programming, and many new exercises .

If you’re serious about learning programming, this book should be on your top list as well . I have seen many computer science students say how this book has changed their perspective towards computers .

Get yourself a copy of Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs

The core of any computer science major lies in understanding how Algorithms work to solve common decision making problems in our everyday life . So if you’re going to do computer science course , do not expect to skip a course unit in data structures and Algorithms .

Introduction to Algorithms covers a broad range of algorithms in depth, yet makes their design and analysis accessible to all levels of readers. Each chapter in this unit is self contained and as such can be used as an independent unit of study .The algorithms are described in English and in a pseudo code designed to be readable by anyone who has done a little programming. The explanations have been kept elementary without sacrificing depth of coverage or mathematical rigor.

The book has got many examples and exercises to help you learn and understand various algorithms and how they work .

One of the first and very helpful course units in any computer science major is Computer architecture and design . Computer architecture : A Quantitative Approach will teach you all principles of how a computer is organized and works .

This book focuses on areas where the most exciting computing innovation is happening, while always keeping an emphasis on good engineering design.

Computer architecture : A Quantitative Approach includes important topics such as domain- specific architectures , warehouse-scale computing, with the first public information on the newest Google WSC , new material dealing with the use of stacked DRAM; data on the performance of new NVIDIA Pascal GPU vs. new AVX-512 Intel Skylake CPU; and extensive additions to content covering multicore architecture and organization .

The book was written by John L. Hennessy and David A. Patterson .

In this thesis the author John Battelle writes about the inside story of google, how Larry Page and Sergey Brin painstakingly grew google from just a search engine to something far bigger than you can think of .

According to John Battelle, a company that answers that question—in all its shades of meaning—can unlock the most intractable riddles of business and arguably of human culture itself. And for the past few years, that’s exactly what Google has been doing.

The author continues to say that the Search offers much more than the inside story of Google’s triumph. It’s a big-picture book about the past, present, and future of search technology and the enormous impact it’s starting to have on marketing, media, pop culture, dating, job hunting, international law, civil liberties, and just about every other sphere of human interest.

Conclusion

The books i have shared on this list are among the best computer science books . If you want to learn programming better i would recommend you read this Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs or this Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs ( Remember this book is particular about C programming ) .

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