While this book has been around for over 20 years, it wasn’t until this year that I finally managed to read it. I always assumed that since I was writing code on my own I didn’t need to follow any guidelines. I was wrong.

The book covers a ton of territory – some of it didn’t pertain to me – but much of it did. In fact, many of the ideas presented would be helpful for even non-programmers to pay attention to. Though, programming and software development are the focus many of the ideas are transferable to any project. Simple things like the importance of continuing to educate yourself – even if it doesn’t pertain to your current project is just one of the many useful ideas the book puts forth.

The book manages to cover a lot of potentially heavy topics with a distinctive lightness and humor. There was never a point in reading the book that I felt bogged down. In fact, it was one of the few programming related books that I had a hard time putting down.

If you are a programmer, or thinking of jumping into programming or any related field, I highly recommend picking up a copy of this book and reading it. I won’t teach you how to code, but it will help you with every project you pursue after reading it.