How much a programmer should read in order to keep himself updated? [closed]

Question

There are lots of technical books available. Below are few links which lists some good books

If you could only have one programming related book on your bookshelf what would it be and why?

What non-programming books should a programmer read to help develop programming/thinking skills?

Best books on the theory and practice of software architecture?

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1711/what-is-the-single-most-influential-book-every-programmer-should-read

... and the list can go on and on and on.

It will be really difficult to read all of the above mentioned books. I am not sure if its even possible for anyone to do that.

Even if you filter it based on one's area of interest or work, list is still very large.

.. and the technology keeps on changing (even more books :-( )

So, my question is how much a programmer should read lets say per year? How much hours one should put in such activities to keep oneself up to date?

How do we find out the time required?

PS: Average programmer reads less than one book per year (Code complete). What about the good programmers?

Answer 1

This is a bit of an open-ended question with no real answers, but in my opinion: read as much as you can. If you've picked your books well, the time invested more than pays for itself. I like the following quote (attributed to Abraham Lincoln):

Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.

Reading is just one way to sharpen that axe (practice being being the other, equally important way).

Putting an actual number to your question is slightly meaningless - not all books are "equal". Some are much shorter and lighter than others, and they differ in their content as well; some can take months or even years to digest. I try to read at least 3 or 4 of the heavier ones per year, and a few dozen of the lighter ones (I don't always succeed in finding the time, however).

I should also add that after a lot of reading, your mechanical reading ability increases. Even more importantly - your knowledge of various topics also increases, and you start to "get" things a lot more quickly. After a few years of this type of reading, a book of 700 pages can be read in a few days / weeks. So, to summarise, don't worry about the exact numbers, just pick books well, and read a lot.

Answer 2

This is a really, really individual question. Not all people read at the same speed; not all people gain the same amount of skill from reading the same book; not all people retain knowledge over time in the same way. Reading technical books, while generally a good idea, must be evaluated by its costs and benefits like any other career-building move.

This means that you must experiment and observe, at least roughly, how much time it takes you to read an X-page book (that is the easier part) and how much it helps you in your work (yes, this part is way harder). Reviews by others can predict how much value a particular book will be to you, but this works better if you know which reviewers are good predictors for you personally - also something to be worked out by experiment. I find that there are to major ways to finding really useful books: either books recommended by reviewers that you have confidence in, or books mentioned in bibliographies of other really useful books.

That said, I think that whatever skill you want to keep as part of your core strengths probably is worth reading an entire book about at least each year (or the corresponding amount of other media).

(Just to illustrate how non-transferable answers to this question are likely to be: I read about a hundred books a year, and I think I profit from that quite a bit - but I'm a freakishly fast reader, and I commute 1-2 hours every day, and our university library kicks ass. I certainly wouldn't ever recommend this for anyone else.)