Keep Updated on Software Technology - Books - The Hard Way

Software Tech - Staying Updated via Books - The Hard Way ..

To keep yourself updated on current technology used in Software development & operations, there are various sources at varying level of technical content.

• Blogs & Articles
• Videos on Youtube
• Books
• Videos from Publishers
• Courses from LMS Platforms

Book Publishers

Of all, only Books are the source of detailed information on a subject. Although all publishers are not equal, many good publishers exist in IT Software development..

Below are the important publishers, listed on their content importance balanced on both quality and diverseness..

1. Addison Wesley Professional (AWP) (www.informit.com)

This is part of Pearson IT, focussed on professional books instead of Educational. Quality content mostly on design. Pearson has other imprints like Que and Sams publishing with different levels of content, but awp is top notch content..

2. Wiley (https://www.wiley.com/)

Wiley is both educational and professional books publisher across many fields other than IT.

It has several books on design stuff on main wiley brand for Computing category and has top notch titles released earlier but not published in recent years..

Apart from that it has other brands.

- Dummies brand has few books on tech (https://www.dummies.com/) which are easy to read..

- Wrox brand has specialized books on IT. It was very active and great content earlier...

- Sybex brand has books on IT Certification...

3. Oreilly (www.oreilly.com)

One of the best publisher, specialized on computing and has good quality content on diverse range of topics and large collection.. It has both deep conceptual books as well as practical books. It is more up to date on happenings. Safari subscription, which also has videos and other publisher contents is awesome but pricing is too steep..

4. Manning Publications (www.manning.com)

Great publisher, specialized on computing and has good quality content on diverse range of topics, medium collection. It has some conceptual books and more practical books, upto date happenings. Live book format is great and subscription pricing is value for the content..

5. The Pragmatic Bookshelf (https://pragprog.com/)

Quality content but less diverse subject. Some really good authors featuring here.. Small collection, balanced content.

6. Apress (https://www.apress.com/)

Moderate to Good Quality content. More Hand On type approach. You can find a book on most of the topics. It is part of the Springer Group. Large Collection of books..

7. Packt (https://www.packtpub.com/)

Moderate to Good Quality content. Again more hands on.. You can find a book on any topic, which other publishers dont publish at all. Very large collection. Books will get outdated, since they are more on application.. Subscription pricing is value for the type of content...

8. No Starch (https://nostarch.com/)

Good Quality content on specific subjects. Easy to read for novice..

9. Leanpub (www.leanpub.com)

Not a main stream publisher, but few authors here, since the publishing model is different. Moderate quality content, moderate collection..

10. McGrawHill Professional (https://www.mhprofessional.com/computing)

You may find few titles promising and some certification related books and some category of computing, moderate collection.

11. Morgan Kaufmann (https://www.elsevier.com/books-and-journals/morgan-kaufmann)

Part of Elsevier brand focused on Computing. Moderate collection. Content more like educational/research, more suitable for research purpose. Still you find few books like Joe Celko’s Complete Guide to NoSQL..

Selection Criteria

The above list is long, good be enough for browsing and knowing about... 

But to be practical, getting choosy to a few publishers will save time on not just browsing but really ready/watching content.. (with this you may loose some topics but we mean to be decisive)...

On Concepts/Design/Architecture front - AWP/Wiley/Oreilly

On Balanced - Oreilly/Manning/Pragmatic

On Hands On - Packt/Apress 

Lean Recommendation

My recommendation on getting updated as of today...

On Concepts - Buy Books from AWP/Wiley (Select Titles) - Conceptual books will not be outdated soon.. 

On Balanced - Manning Online Subscription (along with owning one ebook plan) - https://www.manning.com/subscription

On Hands On - Packt Online Subscription (along with owning one ebook plan)

Watch & Buy books through (https://www.humblebundle.com/books), i recommend oreilly, manning, pragmatic book bundles if collection matches your interest or buy individual books directly from respective publisher sites..