Bill's
"Recommended Books List"
for new sites & people

Several new-site-start-ups recently have asked about a "book list" to stock their sites with.    Additionally, there are some sites where because of language issues, people learn much much better via the written word rather than verbally or in class-room or conference sessions.

So - here's the list to satisfy those requests.   I've tried to list by category, let me know if the list is useful to you, and/or if you feel there should be additions, deletions and/or changes.

I have listed books in order of most important first, in each section.  (all prices in US $).

 A note about ISBNs: - MANY of the ISBNs you'll find in this web-page are for older and/or out-of-print titles or older "editions"- HOWEVER, when you give BOTH a title and an ISBN to a book dealer or to Amazon or other electronic systems - they will usually find the most current edition.    I have had troubles in the past, though, with giving only an ISBN; especially an out-dated one.


Unix - basic systems administration, configuration, network management & operations and security:
  • "UNIX System Administration Handbook (2nd Edition)" by: Nemeth, Snyder & Seebass; Addison Wesley(?) ISBN: 01315 10517
  • "DNS & Bind   by: Paul Albitz & Cricket Liu - O'Reilly ISBN: 1-56592-512-2
  • "TCP/IP Network Administration" Craig Hunt - O'Reilly ISBN: 1-56592-322-7
  • Essential System Administration   by:  AEleen Frisch    O'Reilly   ISBN: 0-937175-80-3    440 pages   $
  • System Performance Tuning by: Mike Loukides  O'Reilly  ISBN: 0-937175-60-9   313 pages  $ 24.95
  • Sendmail  by: Brian Costales & Eric Allman;  O'Reilly ISBN:1-56592-056-2
  • X Window System Administrator's Guide    by: Linda Mui & Eric Pearce    O'Reilly   ISBN: 0-937175-83-8  346 pages  $39.95
    • Tools of the Trade - skills & techniques & scripting & other things:
  • Mastering Regular Expressions   by: Jeffrey E.F. Friedl   O'Reilly    ISBN:  1-56592-257-3  342 pages;  $29.95
  • Learning the vi Editor   by: Linda Lamb   O'Reilly    ISBN: 0-937175-67-6    173 pages
  • The GAWK Manual   by: RObbins, Close, Rubin, Stallman   Free Software Foundation  ISBN: 1-882114-25-6   180 pages
  • Sed & Awk by: Dale Dougherty   O'Reilly   ISBN: 0-937175-59-5      393 pages
  • Applying RCS & SCCS - by: Don Bolinger & Tan Bronson    ISBN:  1-65692-117-8   501 pages   $ 29.95
  • Using csh & tcsh   by: Paul DuBois    O'Reilly   ISBN: 1-56592-132-1     221 pages   $29.95
  • The Unix C shell Field Guide   by: Anderson  & Anderson - Prentice Hall -ISBN: 0-13-937468-X     374 pages   $39.95
  • "Premises Cabling" by: Sterling - ISBN: 08273 72442
  • SCSI - Understanding the Small Computer System Interface - by: NCR Corp - Published by: Prentic Hall   ISBN: 0-13-796855-8    64 pages   $17.95
  • The File Formats Handbook by: Gunter Born   International Thomson Computer Press   ISBN:  1-85032-117-5

    • Windows NT platform:  ( i desperately need to update this section - info is "on the way")

    Administration:
    Essential Windows NT Systems Administration - (not sure of author)  O'Reilly ISBN: 1-56592-274-3

    Security specific:


    the Apple Macintosh platform: - still the most (remotely) secureable - Why - think about it - it has no command line how can you telnet into a computer and hack it, if it has no command line!
  • The Macintosh Bible by: Sharon Zardetto Aker - ISBN: 15660 91403  1500 pages  maci$28.95
  • Sad Macs, Bombs and other Disasters by: Ted Landau - Addison Wesley  ISBN: 020 1622076  608 pages  $24.95
  • Networking the Macintosh  by: Bill Woodcock    McGraw Hill - ISBN:  0-07-071684 - 6   360 pages   $27.95
  • Teach yourself Macintosh in 24 hours - by:  Baldwin & Epler    Hayden Books   ISBN:  1-56830-408-0   392 page   $19.99

    • Perl - the cross-platform scripting language:
  • "Learning Perl"  by:  Randal Schwartz - O'Reilly ISBN: 1-56592-042-2
  • "Programming Perl"  by:  Larry Wall & Randall Schwartz  - O'Reilly ISBN: 0-937175-64-1   465 pages
  • Perl 5 Desktop Reference - by: Johan Vromans - ISBN:  1-56592-187-9  1996   39 pages  O'Reilly,  $6.95
  • Perl 5 Pocket Reference - by: Johan Vromans - ISBN: 1-56592-495-9  1998    67 pages O'Reilly,  $6.95
  • "Perl/Tk" - pocket-guide  by: Stephen Lidie   ISBN: 1-56592-517-3; $9.95

    • Advanced subjects - helpful if you have higher numbers &/or high performance and/or break-in issues:
  • "Panic! - Unix system crash dump analysis" by: Drake & Brown - (based on Solaris 2.3x, but generic enough for any popular Unix
  •       version(s) - comes with CDROM - ISBN: 01314 93868
  • "System Performance Tuning"  by: Mike Loukides - O'Reilly ISBN: 0-937175-60-9   313 pages  $24.95
  • Unix Power Tools

    •  TCP/IP Theory & Practice:  these are the two best in the business - however, they are all four very technical and you need to know and understand both system calls & C programming to get a lot out of them.  Both of these are "sets"; you can and probably should by all the books in each set, but on the other hand - buying just one or two is still a great learning experience.
     
  • W. Richard Stevens' book-set:
  • TCP/IP Illustrated:  Volume 1 - The Protocols by: W. Richard Stevens - Addison Wesley  ISBN: 0-201-63346-9  576 pages  $63.95
  • TCP/IP Illustrated:  Volume 2 by: Gary R. Wright & W. Richard Stevens   Addison Wesley  ISBN:  0-201-63354-X   1165 pages
  • Douglas Comer's book-set:
  • Internetworking with TCP/IP - Volume 1 - (third edition) (Principles, Protocols & Architecture) by: Douglas Comer    Prentice Hall  ISBN: 0-13-216987-8  613 pages  (First EditionISBN:  0-13-470154-2; 382 pages)
  • Internetworking with TCP/IP - Volume 2 - (second edition) Design, Implementation and Internals (with D. Stevens) by: Douglas Comer  Prentice Hall  ISBN: 0-13-125527-4
  • Internetworking with TCP/IP - Volume 3 - Client-Server Programming and APplications (with D.Stevens) by: Douglas Comer - Prentice Hall
  •     BSD Sockets version 1992 - ISBN:  0-13-474222-2
  •     AT&T - TLI version 1993 ISBN: 0-13-474230-3
    • AND: - a single book that "has it all" - albeit with significantly less detail than the above "sets" -if you only buy one book - you might want to think about this one.
  • TCP/IP Networking - Architecture - Administration & Programmin - by: James Martin & Joe Leben  Prentice Hall - ISBN:  0-13-642232-2  333 pages $

    • O'Reilly's "CD-ROM-Libraries" of CD-ROM books - these are ONLY the CD-ROM - but they are EXCELLENT since you
    can search / browse different subject-areas and it tells you where each book covers a given search area.  OBVIOUSLY - you can also purchase the individual hard-copy books themselves, if you so desire.
  • Unix CD bookshelf
  •         Unix powertools
  •         Unix in a nutshell
  •         Learning the Unix operating system
  •         Learning the vi Editor
  •         seb and awk
  •         Learning Korn shell
  • Networking CD bookshelf
  •         DNS and Bind
  •         Practical Unix and Internet Security
  •         TCP/IP Network Administration
  •         Sendmail Desktop reference
  •         Building Internet Firewalls
  •         Sendmail

    • O'Reilly's "Pocket-Guide-Books (appx 3 3/4" x 5" high):
  • "Perl/Tk"   by: Stephen Lidie ISBN: 1-56592-517-3; $9.95
  • "Sendmail" by: Bryan Costales & Eric Allman  - ISBN: 1-56592-278-6; $ 6.95
  • "Vi Editor" by: Arnold Robbins - ISBN: 1-56592-497-5; $6.95

    • Pocket-Guides - those pocket-sized summaries that are great to have at your machine - for excellent quick reference:
    from: "Specialized Systems Consultants" (P.O. Box  55549  Seattle, Washington 98155 USA (phone: 1 206 527 3385) - http://www.ssc.com

    pocket booklets(3" x 7" high):

  • "Unix System Comand Summary"  ISBN: 0-916151-17-4
    • fan-fold quick-guide(3" x 7" high):
  • "HTML Reference" - ISBN: 0-916151-79-4
  • "Vi Reference" - ISBN: 0-916151-41-7

    • PostScript Language & Problems:
    If you and/or or your users are having problems with PostScript files and Encapsulated PostScript files & moving such files to/from applications - you may want to take advantage of some of these texts.  In the early 90's I and others at Motorola Hong Kong IC Design centre solved a number of cross-platform PostScript file transfer problems with these four titles...
  • Understanding PostScript Programming (my copy is REALLY OLD (probably a second or third edition available, now) - by:     Sybex Publishing   ISBN: 0-89588-396-1  458 pages  $22.95
  • Thinking in PostScript  by: Glenn C. Reid   Addison Wesley    ISBN: 0-201-52372-8   220 pages  $22.95
  • Postscript Language Tutorial & Cookbook   by: Adobe Systems  ISBN:  0-201-10179-3   243 pages  $ 16.95
  • Postscript Language Reference Manual by: Adobe Systems ISBN: 0-201-18127-4    764 pages   $32.95

    • Software Development & related topics:
  • A Guide to the CMM by: Kenneth M. Dymond    Process Inc US   (processinc@aol.com)
  • The Rise & Fall of the American Programmer    by: Edward Yourdon  Prentice Hall ISBN: 0-13-191958-x   352 pages   $14.95


    • web-page by: Bill Schell - revID:4f , last updated:  Monday_22_April_2002