C Programming Used Books Haul

I found this pile of books at the used book store, including some venerable titles!

• C Primer Plus (5th Ed.) by Stephen Prata (2004)
• Advanced Unix Programming by Marc J. Rochkind (1985)
• The C Programming Language by K & R (1978)
• The Practice of Programming by Brian W. Kernighan and Rob Pike (1999)
• The Standard C Library by P.L. Plauger (1992)

Of these, I've only had a chance to read The Practice of Programming, which I checked out of the local library in 2006 or so. I was excited to find a pre-ANSI copy of K & R as well and I look forward to reading it — for historical value if nothing else.

I'm often surprised by how much value I get out of reading technical books from an earlier era. Certainly, there are lots of books that probably have little or no value these days, but the legacy of UNIX and C is something that I interact with almost daily in one form or another. If nothing else, it's good to be reminded of the heritage of my craft.