Over two decades of programming, I've read most of the books listed in this thread. Some of them contain real pearls, while others are undeservedly popular. In

Over two decades of programming, I've read most of the books listed in this thread. Some of them contain real pearls, while others are undeservedly popular. In my opinion, each language is suited to (and perhaps designed for) certain kinds of problems. There is no 'general' software design approach. Each language has developed its own idioms and patterns, which are best learned by tracing through production code of competent programmers who are solving problems that are somewhat similar to yours. Most books actually need to be taken with a grain of salt, as they often sound more authoritative and general than they really are.