Designing Data-Intensive Applications
Martin Kleppmann
Systems★★★★★
The book I recommend most to engineers moving into architecture. Reread the consistency/consensus chapters yearly.
Reading log
Books
What I'm reading, have read, and think is worth your time. Updated as I go.
Read
Fundamentals of Software Architecture
Mark Richards & Neal Ford
Architecture★★★★☆
Good vocabulary and trade-off framing for architecture decision records (ADRs).
AI Engineering
Chip Huyen
AI / ML
Currently working through the evaluation and RAG chapters — matches a lot of what I've learned building production RAG systems.
Designing Machine Learning Systems
Chip Huyen
AI / ML★★★★★
One of the few ML books that treats production concerns as first-class, not an afterthought.
The Staff Engineer's Path
Tanya Reilly
Career★★★★☆
Useful for the architect-vs-staff-engineer identity question that comes up a lot in senior IC roles.
A Philosophy of Software Design
John Ousterhout
Software Design
On the list — keep hearing it referenced in complexity/abstraction debates.