 | Concrete Mathematics: Foundation for Computer Science by Ronald L. Graham
Buy new: £45.31 / Used from: £31.99 Despite what you might think, it's all based upon maths. Unfortunately, perhaps.
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 | The C Programming Language (2nd Edition) by Brian W. Kernighan
Buy new: £19.16 / Used from: £14.58 C is what low (not lowest) level programming is made of. Learn with its creators.
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 | Expert C Programming by Peter van der Linden
Buy used from: £22.69 I'm told this is a good companion to the C Bible above. Never read it though.
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 | Introduction to Algorithms by Thomas H. Cormen
Buy new: £57.80 / Used from: £33.28 In order to write good software you need to be proficient with algorithm design and analysis.
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 | The Art of Computer Programming: v. 1-3: Bd. 1: Fundamental Algorithms / Bd. 2: Seminumerical Algorithms / Bd. 3: Sorting and Searching: Vol 1-3 (Series in Computer Science & Information Processing) by Donald E. Knuth
Buy new: £80.85 / Used from: £134.80 The Bible of algorithm theory. A massive three-volume masterpiece from Master Knuth.
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 | Design patterns : elements of reusable object-oriented software by Erich Gamma
Buy new: £24.66 / Used from: £18.00 Software should be well designed and this books teaches how to circumvent common pitfalls.
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 | The Practice of Programming (Professional Computing) by Brian W. Kernighan
Buy new: £14.49 / Used from: £8.50 A good programming style should top a good design. This book teaches you the former.
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 | Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
Buy used from: £1.00 Now that you have the foundations, you can stop to catch your breath while reading a true geek book :)
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 | The C++ Programming Language, Special Edition by Bjarne Stroustrup
Buy new: £27.46 / Used from: £22.00 C is not everything. C++ takes it to a different paradigm: Object-Oriented.
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 | Java in a Nutshell (In a Nutshell (O'Reilly)) by David Flanagan
Buy new: £25.65 / Used from: £2.03 This was my introduction to Java and honestly I can't recommend it high enough.
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 | TCP/IP Network Administration: Help for UNIX System Administrators by Craig Hunt
Buy new: £22.43 / Used from: £7.49 This book has all you need to know about Unix-oriented network adminstration. Ok, maybe almost everything.
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 | DNS and BIND by Paul Albitz
Buy used from: £0.64 Definitely the best reference on DNS adminstration using BIND. Trust me on this one.
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 | Computer Networks by Andrew S. Tanenbaum
Buy used from: £51.37 This book covers networks from physical level to top level applications. A must.
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 | Operating Systems: Design And Implementation (International Edition) by Andrew S. Tanenbaum
Buy used from: £19.00 A bit dated but arguably still the best reference on Operating System design.
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 | The Design and Implementation of the 4.4 BSD Operating System (Addison-Wesley UNIX and Open Systems Series) by Marshall Kirk McKusick
Buy new: £39.09 / Used from: £15.00 The very best book to get acquainted with a particular OS implementation: the 4.4 BSD
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 | Understanding the Linux Kernel by Daniel Bovet
Buy used from: £2.93 If you want to learn about the guts of Linux, start here. And learn a bunch of cutting edge OS theory as you go along.
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 | Compilers: Principles, Techniques and Tools by A.V. Aho
Buy used from: £7.94 Regarding compiler design, the so-called "Dragon Book" might be a decent introduction to a challenging subject.
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 | The Gnu C Library Reference Manual by Sandra Loosemore
A comprehensive guide to the Glibc written by the ones who really know the drill including McGrath and Drepper.
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 | The ANSI Common Lisp Book (Prentice Hall Series in Artificial Intelligence) by Paul Graham
Buy new: £37.29 / Used from: £33.56 If you program in a higher level, Lisp is arguably the language of choice. This books is a perfect introduction to the ANSI Common Lisp dialect.
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 | Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
Buy used from: £65.95 To end with a master's stroke here's the finest modern sci-fi by Ted Chiang.
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