As I've slowly realised over the years, the best way to improve how we work is to learn from the experience of others. One of the easiest ways to do this is from books (even in these days of online resources).

I thought I'd therefore start a ball rolling (hopefully) by mentioning the books that I've found most useful over the last couple of years, and hope that others can also make some suggestions for books that really make a difference to your everyday lives.

* Techie Books

Being an open-source developer at heart, I hate to admit it, but Microsoft press have two excellent books on the development and coding process:

Rapid Development, Steve McConnell
Code Complete, Steve McConnell

* Management (project, hr, time)

I don't want to inflate Ashley's ego too much, but he's written the industry standard on project management (it's required reading by our project managers, who each have a copy). Herding Cats is indispensable for developers who find themselves managing others, and the mythical man month is an all time great on the myths and realities of project development and human resources.

Web Project Management, Ashley Friedlein
Herding Cats, J Rainwater
Mythical Man Month, Frederick P. Brooks

* Web-specific

The IA book, from O'Reilly, comprehensibly covers issues for structuring and developing large-scale sites (including search, metadata, usability, etc.). The Design of Everyday Things is another classic that - although not really web-specific - is hugely applicable to accessibility and usability issues, and should be required reading by all designers who continue to produce nonsensical flash navigation. The Zeldman book, although not great for reference, is a good first-timer for people that need to understand the need for web standards. The Krug book is, in my opinion, better than the Nielsen books on usability, and is written with humour and an honest, practical approach to usability issues.

Information Architecture, Louis Rosenfeld & Peter Morville
Design of Everyday Things, Donald A. Norman
Designing with Web Standards, Jeffrey Zeldman
Don't make me think!, Steve Krug

A final request - I've yet to find a _great_ book on Content Management, and the various issues within (workflow, interoperability, XML, etc) - any suggestions?

Thanks for the recommendation Dan (usual commission..?).

In terms of my own reading recommendations I'd point you to the nether regions of this site where the support material to my two books hides:

# Recommended reading list on web project management
- see http://www.e-consultancy.com/book/book_reading.asp
There a couple there you've already mentioned and a few others.

# Recommended reading on content management
- see http://www.e-consultancy.com/book2/reading_list.asp
This is from my second book, a large part of which is on content management, so not all the books there are on CM but also cover web analytics, usability, eCRM and so on.

I think probably the best one on CM in my view is Bob Boiko's CM Bible though it is very long and possibly too detailed for some managers. There may well be room in the market for a CM book which is the equivalent of Steve Krug's excellent "Don't Make Me Think" for usability (i.e. taking a dry and sometimes complex topic and make it short and accessible). Whether CM can be so easily condensed is a tricky one...

Boiko's is soon to release an updated version of his Content Management Bible (I owe him some content for it...) which I'm sure will be very popular and very authoritative.

Ashley

Thanks for starting this thread. I've recently been discovering the same thing - we all need to stop bumbling along in the dark trying to figure it out on our own. Why not be guided by others who have already been successful at it?!

I found a great internet marketing book that has been quite helpful to me, so I'll pass it along. It covers all the basics of doing business online quite nicely as well as helping you through the more advanced aspects of email marketing, optimized sites, opt-in lists etc. The only down side is that it's so content-rich that it can take some time to get through it all.

Street Smart Internet Marketing: Tips, Tools, Tactics and Techniques to Market Your Product, Service, Business or Idea Online - by Justin Michie (The book's site is http://www.internetmarketingbook.com for those who might be interested.)