One of the things those of us who don’t go through a traditional computer science program miss is a strong foundation in the hard science of computers. I don’t have a really strong algorithm, programming language design, or compiler background, but I want to learn. A few months ago I was geeking out with Rajeev Pandey, one of our Distinguished Technologists at HP Cloud (and all-around great guy), about how programming languages are like human languages and how they color our perceptions of the world. Rajeev mentioned that he could probably come up with a list of the top 5 programming language design books he’d read, and I jumped on it. I got that list from him a few weeks ago, he said it was fine for me to share it, so here it is on Amazon. I’m especially interested in reading The Recursive Universe and The New Turing Omnibus. Enjoy!