Rating: 
Summary: Imparts benefits from much experience with wisdom & humor
Review: This book is exactly what I was looking for to lead a seminar in bioinformatics at UNC Chapel Hill that brings together bio-chem-phys students with computer science students to try to raise the level of programming sophistication of the former, and raise the level of biochem/biophys sophistication of the latter. It collects examples of why and how to read code, pointing out lessons about the idioms and pitfalls that can help you write, maintain, or evolve code under your control. Full of good ideas, drawn from a lot of experience, and written with humor. The only problem is that inexperienced programmers, who would benefit most from this book, are unlikely to pick up a book on how to read C programs unless someone tells them to. Experts will find that they have already learned most of these things from their experience, although they may still enjoy this book for confirming what they know. But I think that experts will also enjoy being able to loan this book to inexperienced programmers to transmit the wisdom distilled from experience.
Rating:
Summary: Unique and innovative read
Review: This is the most interesting technical read I have had since the release of Dave Thomas and Andrew Hunt's "Pragmatic Programmer". Which isn't suprising, given that Dave appears to have been involved with this book as well. The conveys book experience as opposed to raw information. He gives pragmatic advice that will benefit both junior and senior engineers in their day-to-day code and project development. I've become bored with the usually 'foo in three weeks' style books. If you are in the same position and you are interested in books about proven techniques and the pragmatic approach, this book is for you. The first few chapters had me questioning my purchase but the closing chapters removed any doubt that I had spent my money well. There were helpful hints that will save me minutes and hours throughout the work-week which means that I will be working smarter rather than harder. It was only through random chance that I saw this book in the Palo Alto Borders. Great books like these need solid marketing. That being said, I applaud Addison-Wesley in their investment in a book like this which is a little outside of the norm, but is an incredibly valuable work for the software engineering community.
Rating:
Summary: Reading other people's code can teach you a lot
Review: Those wishing to understand the various styles of programming and meta-programming that have become common in open source code, as well as those who seek to broaden (if not deepen) their understanding of software engineering, would be smart to pick this up. Not only will this book help you to understand the innards of your favorite or least favorite software, but it provides insight into why the creators made the choices they did. It's not going to teach you about computer science as well as a good textbook will, but it will give you an understanding of and appreciation for what programmers balance in their minds as they shape their complex creations. Think of it as The Story and its Writer (ISBN 0312397291) applied to software.
Rating:
Summary: Bible for maintenance software engineers
Review: Thousands of books have been written about code writing and only one about code reading...
Rating: 
Summary: Very good handling of an extremely tough subject
Review: Why do people approach the same problem in many ways? There is no ONE answer to it. The Code Reading is not an easy subject by any means. I do not know of any other book that even tried to attempt at this subject. So, I picked this one with out even thinking twice. The first reaction when I read the book is "what the he... is this all about" :-). I guess, it is the same reaction I had got many times reading and understanding code written by others. Just as in it takes a while to understand and digest a piece of new code you ever come across, it might take a while to get to understand and digest the concepts behind this book. I had to revisit and reread the concepts and apply it to practical situation to be able to grasp the abstractness of the subject in a concrete manner :-). If you are with me this far, probably this book is for you. Still wondering what the heck is all this about? Here is a simple explanation from myside: If you LOVE to do coding, HAVE to read the code for a living, WANT to learn *any* TECHNIQUES, then this book is for you!!!
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