| Books Co-Authored by Kathy Sierra: |
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Are you looking to learn all about Java? This is a great place to start! Dive Head First into deeper levels of learning with attitude, a sense of humor, and serious coding. |
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Kathy Sierra
Kathy Sierra, co-creator of the Head First series, has been interested in learning theory and the brain since her days as a CD-ROM game developer (Virgin, MGM, Amblin') and an AI developer/ knowledge engineer. She developed much of the Head First format while teaching New Media Interactivity for UCLA Extension's Entertainment Studies program. More recently, she's been a master trainer for Sun Microsystems, teaching Sun's Java instructors how to teach the latest Java technologies and developing most of Sun's Java certification exams. Kathy also founded one of the largest Java community web sites in the world, javaranch.com, which won a 2003 and 2004 Software Development Magazine/Jolt Cola Productivity Award.
Her main interests today are in the areas of metacognition and the neurobiology of learning and memory. She's currently working on what Learning 2.0 really means, including the future of book-based learning.
Her non-geek interests include skateboarding (left over from long-ago California college days), skiing the Rockies and playing with her new Icelandic horse.
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Kathy's favorite books: |
 Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
ISBN 0060920432
Perennial
March 1991
Wouldn't we all love it if the end-users of our software were as engaged as someone playing a game? (Obviously even more important if what you're building IS a game!) The Flow book was required reading at one of the game companies I worked for, and it was one of those life-altering books for me.
 Chris Crawford on Game Design
by Chris Crawford
ISBN 0131460994
New Riders Publishing
June 2003
Fun thoughts on game design from one of the greats. Not a how-to, but it helps with your "thinking in games." An enjoyable and informative book that should be a prereq for anyone getting into games, but I'd recommend it to any developer.
 Java Cookbook
by Ian Darwit
ISBN 0596007019
O'Reilly Media
June 2004
Stranded on a desert island with only two Java books and my solar-powered laptop with a JDK, I'd want the API and the Java Cookbook. It would be a very long time indeed before I ran out of things to do.
 Javaspaces Principles, Patterns, and Practice: Tutorial and Reference Guide
by Eric Freeman, Susanne Hupfer, Ken Arnold
ISBN 0201309556
Addison-Wesley
June 1999
Slightly out of date, but a wonderful book on a fabulous technology. Helps you to think a little differently, and my secret plan is that if enough developers discovered how amazingly cool Jini and JavaSpaces (a Jini implementation of the tuple space concept) are, perhaps it will regain the popularity it once promised. But then, "I'm just a Jini girl living in a J2EE world."
 Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Hands-On Training
by Rosanna Yeung
ISBN 0321202988
Peachpit Press
December 2003
Just about the most perfect tutorial. The author obviously cares about the learner, and it shows. I wish all tutorials (step-by-step classroom style walk-throughs) were like this one.
 Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
by Steve Krug
ISBN 0321344758
New Riders Publishing
August 2005
He wrote it short enough to read on the plane, but you'll want to keep it close even after you get off. Intended for web designers, but helpful for anyone developing any kind of software or materials that someone else must understand and use. Or better yet, use comfortably and correctly without having to understand!
 The Mythical Man-Month: Anniversary Edition
by Frederick P. Brooks
ISBN 0201835959
Addison-Wesley
August 1995
I find myself remembering some of these concepts every time I start to assemble a team or just ask for help... Every developer must read this at least once.
Chaos: Making a New Science
by James Gleick
ISBN 0140092501
Penguin (Non-Classics)
December 1988
I love weird science books on any topic (although quantum physics is a favorite), but this book is my top pick in the science category, even though it's old enough that most of you have probably already read it once. If you haven't, you won't look at the world in the same way ever again.
Machine Beauty
by David Gelernter
ISBN 046504316X
Basic Books
January 1999
An argument for considering the aesthetics and emotional content of the technical work we do. Whether we're building hardware or software, beauty matters. This short book is one of the best geek books I've ever read, by one of the great thinkers of our time.
Information Anxiety 2
by Richard Saul Wurman
Que
December 2000
(Out of print)
A classic book (now updated) from one of the best information designers on the planet. This book is great reading for anyone who is a producer of information/knowledge OR anyone who is a consumer of information/knowledge. That's pretty much everyone, I guess.
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