Books that marked me.
Not a reading list — a curated shelf. The software books that actually changed how I work, with a line on why; the ones with deeper notes open into a full ficha. Scroll down for what I read off the clock.
- Read ★★★★★
The Software Craftsman
The book that turned "I write code" into "I take responsibility for the software I ship." It gave me a name — and a spine — for what I already half-believed.
Read my notes → - Read ★★★★ ★
Clean Code
The first book that made me care what code looks like, not just whether it runs. Naming, function size, intention — I argue with it as much as I agree, and that is the point.
- Read ★★★★★
The Pragmatic Programmer
Less about code, more about how to think as a developer for a whole career. DRY, tracer bullets, "don't live with broken windows" — vocabulary I still use weekly.
- Read ★★★★★
Código Sostenible
Craftsmanship and TDD told in Spanish, from the trenches of real projects. The one I recommend first to Spanish-speaking devs — it lands closer to home than the American classics.
- Reading
Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code
The catalogue that gives names to the moves I was already making by instinct. Reading it slowly, one smell at a time, against code I actually own.
- Read ★★★★ ★
Test Driven Development: By Example
Red-green-refactor from the source. Watching Beck take tiny steps on purpose rewired how I approach a blank file — design as a consequence of tests, not a document I write first.
- Reading
Working Effectively with Legacy Code
Legacy = code without tests. Seams, characterization tests, breaking dependencies safely — the survival manual for the codebases we actually get paid to work on.
- Reading
Clean Architecture
Dependencies point inward, details stay at the edges. The book behind how I reason about boundaries, ports and what belongs in the core of a system.
What I read when I close the laptop.
Fiction and the odd book that nudged how I think. Less canon, more me. (These are my own quick takes — read them as such.)
Fiction
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Amanecer Rojo
Space Spartacus — a kid from the bottom of a brutal caste system claws his way to the top. Pure momentum; I did not expect to tear through it the way I did.
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Los Asquerosos
A man flees the world to an empty village and is happier for it. Prose so dry and precise it made me laugh out loud — my favourite Spanish novel in years.
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Dune
The book that made world-building click for me — politics, ecology and religion doing the heavy lifting, not the lasers. I reread bits just for the texture.
Non-fiction
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So Good They Can't Ignore You
"Follow your passion" is bad advice — rare skills come first, passion follows. It quietly reframed how I think about building a career.
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How to Win Friends and Influence People
Old and a little corny, still mostly right. Underneath the salesmanship it is just one idea: take other people seriously, genuinely.
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Emotional Intelligence
The case that self-awareness and handling emotion matter as much as raw intellect — useful well beyond the office.