Top 10 audiobooks for developers

Audiobooks seem to be the new popular way of extracting knowledge from books in today’s busy world. With audiobooks, you can listen to a narration of a book from a device you already carry with you rather than taking physical books with you. And unlike e-books, you can listen to audiobooks anytime while doing some other work. Because of the nature of audiobooks, they have massively risen in popularity in the past few years and everyone wants to take advantage of them to expand their knowledge. But what’s in it for us developers? This article will look at my top 10 audiobooks that you should listen to if you want to upskill yourself as a developer.

Top 10 audiobooks

Here is my list of 10 audiobooks that you must listen to as a developer. One thing to note here is that not all these are specific to software engineers but will definitely help you if you are one. I’ve also left the Audible link for each one of these, but if you use a different service you can simply search for them. This list is in no particular order.

Atomic Habits

As a developer, you simply never stop learning. You need to constantly upskill and update yourself to be relevant, it is a never-ending process. This book, Atomic Habits, goes over how you can turn your actions into good habits and how you can break the bad ones. It has a lot of great practical tips and tricks about you can introduce a new habit in your life slowly but steadily and how you can maintain it.

I believe this book is a must-listen whether you are a student or not. If you want to know more, you can read our detailed review of Atomic Habits and why every programmer should read it.

The Pragmatic Programmer

The original edition of The Pragmatic Programmer was written back in 1999 by David Thomas and Andrew Hunt that helped people discover the fun and joy of programming and developing better software. The audiobook version is the new edition that is updated for this new generation of programmers. The narration is also very well done by Anna Katarina which makes it a great listen.

The Clean Coder

This one is more for the experienced developers among us. In this audiobook, The Clean Coder, Robert C. Martin explains the ways, tools, and techniques to better your craft as a programmer. He also explains many aspects of the professional life of a programmer like handling pressure, avoiding burnout, creating a better work environment for you and your team, etc. This is a great listen especially if you are a working individual.

The Healthy Programmer

We all want to lead a healthy life. I think I speak for everyone when I say sitting in front of a screen the whole day is not the best way of doing so. The Healthy Programmer is an audiobook about staying fit and it contains a plethora of practical tips and information about staying healthy as a programmer so you can keep doing what you love.

How to Win Friends & Influence People

As I mentioned earlier, this is one of those audiobooks that are not specific to developers but will definitely be applicable to them. Nowadays, software engineering is a more social job than ever. This book How to Win Friends & Influence People is meant to help you to be influential with the way you speak, be more influential, and bring more impact to your organization.

Soft Skills: The Software Developer’s Life Manual

A lot of us are excellent developers but are not that good at expressing what we are capable of. Whether you are looking for a job or already working in a company, soft skills are required everywhere. In Soft Skills: The Software Developer’s Life Manual John Sonmez cover a lot of concepts and topics regarding soft skills for sharpening the equally critical non-technical skills.

Software Engineering at Google

All of us has dreamt of working at a huge company like Google. But how do they actually manage and sustain their codebases in real life? In Software Engineering at Google, software engineers from Google explain exactly that. Mark Sando narrates how to manage large everchanging codebases that remain sustainable.

The Complete Software Developer’s Career Guide

This is a great listen for all the aspiring software engineers out there. In this audiobook The Complete Software Developer’s Career Guide, the industry veteran John Sonmez talks about everything you need to make a career in software. It goes over different programming languages like C++, Java, Python, C#, and which one you should learn first. Not only that, this audiobook also goes over several soft skills topics like communication, working with teammates, etc. All of this in one complete packages makes it a great listen especially for students.

No Rules Rules

We all know Netflix is the N of the famous MAANG set of companies. But what is it in Netflix that makes it a dream company to for? In the audiobook No Rules Rules, the co-founder Reed Hastings himself explains the work culture behind one of the most successful, and innovative companies of the modern age. It is not doubt a great listen if you want to work for a MAANG company at some point in your career.

The Unicorn Project

For the last one, the The Unicorn Project is a fictional novel but it is such a great read developers. It tells the fictional story of how a group of rebel engineers and visionary business leaders band together, overcome organisational inertia, and catapult a 100-year-old sleeping giant to the highest level of growth by leveraging culture engineering excellence, customer satisfaction, and employee engagement.

Conclusion

And that’s a wrap. These were my top 10 audiobooks you should listen to as a developer. If you are new to audiobooks, I would suggest you pick any one of these that interest you and see if you like it. Some prefer audiobooks over traditional books and vice versa, it is completely up to you which suits you the most. I hope this list of books will help you upskill yourself as a developer. Which one of these did you like the most? If you have any audiobook suggestions that we should listen to, let me know in the comments!

If you have any questions regarding this article or want to talk about anything technology, you can find me on Twitter. Thank you for reading!