36 books like Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture

In my consulting gigs, I come across plenty of clueless remarks. Here's a classic one: “We're falling behind schedule, so let's hire more coders.” Or a more recent gem: “We'll be ten times more productive if we generate code with AI.”

When I encounter such nonsense, I don't facepalm or cringe. Instead, I put on my poker face and drop a quote from The Mythical Man-Month.

In an industry where last year’s book is already outdated, Fred Brooks' collection of essays has been a guiding light for nearly half a century. His aphorisms have become legendary. “The bearing of a child takes nine months, no matter how many women are assigned.” “Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.” “There is no silver bullet.” The list goes on and on.

John Carmack, one of the greatest programmers of our times, used to revisit this book every year or… show more.

This book’s title is absolutely perfect! There’s no agenda here other than identifying things that will make you a more effective and productive programmer.

That leads to a book packed with solid advice, whether it’s about how to write code or how to think about your career. The authors are consultants, so there are plenty of clear and interesting examples drawn from many different problem domains. That’s super fun for someone like me who’s hyper-focused on a single kind of programming.

Few people want to grow up like their parents. In the early 2010s, many programmers scoffed at the design principles of the ‘90s. Why should anyone care about the nuances of object-oriented design? That’s such a Java thing to bother with!

To seasoned developers, this rejection felt like a baby and bathwater situation. Then Sandy Metz came to the rescue. Her book persuaded younger developers (or at least, those in the Ruby community) that those old ideas were still valuable.

Practical Object-Oriented Design in Ruby traced a straight line from the pioneering times of Smalltalk, through the years of the software craftsmanship movement, directly to modern programming.

It’s a timeless book in the best sense of the word: it would have felt relevant back in the 90s, or when it was published, or today. Few people want to grow up like our parents–but as it turns out, we all do.

If you check out Amazon’s best selling books on object-oriented design, you might see a relic from 1995 still hanging near the top: "Design Patterns". That book transformed software design. Its four authors will forever be known to my generation as the “Gang of Four".

Some of the original patterns may feel outdated today, but others remain essential. Pity that the book itself is such a tough read. Good thing that another "gang of four”, spearheaded by the excellent Kathy Sierra, gave us this lighthearted take on the original patterns.

The Design Patterns book was a densely packed truck of ideas. By comparison, Head First Design Patterns is a whimsical bumper car. It’s quirky and accessible, which some serious programmers found off-putting: “It’s a book for teenagers!“, they griped.

Yes, it’s not for everybody. But it’s fun, unassuming, and it teaches important concepts. So it makes my list.

Smalltalk is not as common or popular as it once was, but the influence its design had on programming is hard to overstate.

Reading this book has changed how I think about object orientation, and how I design systems, learning the patterns of Smalltalk makes it clear what object oriented design is really intended to achieve.

Of all the books I recommend, this is practically a sort of personal bible, which I very frequently consult.

This book doesn't just show you how to code; with realistic patterns and real-world examples, it's like having experienced mentors guiding your every keystroke. These patterns aren't just snippets; they're blueprints for building robust, flexible software.

I think the book is practically mandatory for all developers, novice or seasoned. It transformed how I approach problems, teaching me techniques I use daily in systems design and development.

This book is different from the others I recommended, because its focus is not really on creating algorithms, but rather on how to improve code with a systematic process, keeping functionality but enhancing quality.

The author shows several practical techniques that he applies to real-world problems and empower you to elevate your code's quality and adapt it seamlessly to changing needs. It's not just about writing code; it's about becoming a more effective and confident developer.

I consider this book a companion on the journey to mastering the craft of coding. With it, you’ll always be able to achieve higher-quality code, no matter the original version of the code.

Head First books are always fun. They know how to engage your brain and have cartoons/puzzles.

I recommend this book whether you are first learning git or have used it for some time. Understanding git is a big deal so you can work efficiently. Without having to keep deleting the repository and starting over!

Many of my favourite algorithms books give short shrift to designing APIs for the algorithms and data structures that they present. The Sedgewick and Wayne book, by contrast, goes all in on an object-oriented API design. This is my book choice for Java programmers and those interested in larger program design considerations. Clear your calendar: each chapter here is massive, but I think the time investment is worth it. I especially like the chapter that shows how to tune classic algorithms for realizing speedups when working with strings.

To be honest, I did not expect to learn something new from this book, given the fact that I have been working on enterprise-level applications since high school, which mostly follow a microservice architecture. 

Still, I have to admit that in Richardson's discussion on decomposition strategies, inter-service communication, and managing distributed data, I still got some valuable insights into dealing with such an architecture. Particularly, the saga pattern for managing transactions was definitely a game-changer for me.