I've read both SICP and CTMCP and would recommend the latter as a first read. Sure the language it teaches in is not practical, but I actually found that to tak

I've read both SICP and CTMCP and would recommend the latter as a first read. Sure the language it teaches in is not practical, but I actually found that to take away the distractions of reading a book in whatever your target language is. Also its the first book that got me thinking about how programming languages actually work and what actually happens under the hood when you're writing code. Great book.