Purely Functional Data Structures

These are books that I've reread major portions of repeatedly because they consistently trigger broader thinking about their subject matter. Purely Functional Data Structures by Chris Okasaki broadened how I think about algorithmic complexity analysis, after decades of mostly imperative programming. Other books on lambda calculus, type theory, OCaml, Haskell, etc. preceded this in my reading list, but this book clinched my love of functional programming. The Garbage Collection Handbook by Richard Jones, Antony Hosking, and Eliot Moss provides broad, yet sufficiently detailed, coverage of automatic memory management that most techniques can be understood and implemented without digging into the primary literature. That said, this book (actually its predecessor, Garbage Collection by Jones and Lins) inspired me to dig deep into memory management, and jemalloc is one of the incidental results.

> Purely Functional Data Structures A classic! Good suggestion. I'm curious to check out Programming on Purpose.

I think these meet the criteria... P. J. Plauger's "Programming on Purpose" series of essays. Purely Functional Data Structures by Chris Okasaki. I would put both of these alongside Bentley's "Programming Pearls" books which I saw mentioned in another comment.

The Art of Computer Programming Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs Purely Functional Data Structures Programming in the 1990s A Logical Approach to Discrete Math

A Mentoring Course in Smalltalk[0]. I was really surprised, after reading and really loving Design Patterns, that there was still so much to say about OO design. I did love Design Patterns a lot though. Purely Functional Data Structures by Chris Okasaki was also really useful for Haskell, as was Real World Haskell. Programming Prolog probably had a bigger influence on my Prolog than the other books, even though I read Art of Prolog and Prolog Programming in Depth first. Especially the latest edition, it's a really beautiful book. [0]: http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/andres-valloud/a-mentoring-co... (http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/andres-valloud/a-mentoring-course-on-smalltalk/paperback/product-3788890.html)

> Purely functional data structures by Chris Okasaki Is that really language agnostic? I don't know how you could follow along with it without knowing some ML or Haskell.

If you want to go down the Functional rabbit hole more, "Purely Functional Data Structures" by Chris Okasaki would be a good next step. There's a book and a paper - from what I hear, the paper is just Okasaki's original work, whereas the book is a more complete coverage of the field.