What's on your TC bookshelf?

["Chuck Martin" <cm -at- writeforyou -dot- com>]

I leaned back from my work a little while ago and looked at the stacks of
book on my desk and realized I had quite an interesting and useful
collection--and thet were probably less than half of my total TW/tech
library. The thought occurred: how does this compare with others? I use many
of these at different times, to double-check grammatical and style rules, to
look up code, to support my decisions, and so on.

The list (which I could add to when I got home and unpack a few more boxes
and check my bookshelves), with the occasional comment:

- "Dynamics in Document Design," Karen A. Scriver (an intruguing-looking
book that I found recently for $5 at Half Price Books, but have yet to delve
into deeply)
- "Microsoft Windows User Experience" (a very useful reference)
- "HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide, 4th Ed.," Musciano & Kennedy
(O'Reilly)
- "Usability Engineering," Jakob Nielsen
- "Great Web Typography," Wendy Peck
- "JavaScript: The Definitive Guide," David Flanagan (O'Reilly)
- "Web Design: The Complete Reference," Thomas A. Powell
- "Designing Web Interfaces," Rees, White, & White
- "Webster's Dictionary of English Usage"
- "The Inmates are Running the Asylum," Alan Cooper (one of the books I've
read completely, and highly recommend to eveyrone on a product team)
- "The Design of Everyday Things," Donald A. Norman (a bible,
well-leafed-through, read and re-read)
- "Handbook of Technical Writing, 3rd Ed.," Brusaw, Alred, & Oliu
- "The Chicago Manual of Style, 13th Ed." (when I can find a good deal and
when I get the spare cash, it's on the the 15th edition)
- "The Web Content Style Guide," McGovern, Norton, & O'Down (a really good
capsule of web-based terminolgy)
- "User Interface Design for Programmers," Joel Sposky (I've read most of it
in random chunks and it is very good)
- "Managing Your Documentation Process," JoAnn T. Hackos (one of many books
I'm part-way through)
- "The Elements of User Interface Design," Theo Mandel
- "Web Design in a Nutshell, 2nd Ed.," Jennifer Niederst (O'Reilly) (with
apologies to Eric, whose book I have at home, this is the best, clearest
reference I've found)
- "User and Task Analysis for Interface Design," Hackos & Redish (another
book I've started and will finish, hopefully sooner than later)
- "Customer Centered Design: A New Approach to Web Usability," Chandler &
Hyatt
- "About Face 2.0: The Essentials of Interaction Design," Alan Cooper (I
finished "1.0" and this looks like a great update so far, highly
recommended)
- "Technical Editing," Carolyn D. Rude (one of my textbooks and still of
great value, I still haven't been able to figure out if this 1991 edition
has been updated)
- "Designing and Writing Online Documentation," William K. Horton (never
read all of the book, but took 2 of his classes at IBM and attended his
sessions at early Online Help Conferences, I've not seen new books from this
great resource in far too long)
- "Read Me First! A Style Guide for the Computer Industry," Sun
- "Usability for the Web: Designing Web Sites That Work," Brinck, Gergle, &
Wood
- "Web Usability for Dummies," Mander & Smith
- "Bugs in Writing, Revised Ed.," Lyn Dupre (a really, really great book
that's also fun to read)
- "The Art & Science of Web Design," Jeffrey Veen

I also have "GUI Bloopers" somewhere, am reading "Dreamweaver H.O.T." for my
Dreamweaver class, and have "Son of Web Pages That Suck" for my current
bedtime reading. In my cart at bookpool.com are "Designing With Web
Standards" and "ASP.NET for Dummies," and I'm waiting for them to get "ASP
2.0 for Dummies" before I finish my order, and am about halfway thorugh
"Interaction Design," which I'm hoping to use to try and teach a class or
seminar on the subject.

Chuck Martin