Ask HN: What's the best textbook you've read?

I recommend doing as many as you can

The text is interesting, but most of my learning has come from the exercises. You should plan to do the exercises.

SICP

I liked the first edition of K&R a lot. Today I suspect it shines most when compared to recent intro language books. It was succinct yet offered insight into both the language's design concepts and its implementation

The C Programming Language, by Kernighan & Ritchie (2nd Edition). I picked that up and was hooked

Introduction to Algorithms (CLRS).

Spivak's "Calculus".

The Art of Electronics by Horowitz and Hill It covers nearly all aspects of electronics both theory and practice. It’s still relevant after all these years.

AI - A modern approach by Russell & Norvig.

The Feynman Lectures.

Elements of Computing Systems

The Elements of Statistical Learning.

covers most of the maths that pops up continually in programming.

It is incredibly illuminating and I also recommend it highly.

one textbook I am always happy to recommend is the Princeton Companion to Mathematics.

A lot of great pictures, exerything is explained (and shown) geometrically.