Joshua Bloch a software engineer related, contributor and (in some way) evangelist of Java has been asking at the time Coders at Work was published about the books of every programmer should read.

Seibel: Are there any books that every programmer should read?

Bloch: An obvious one, which I have slightly mixed feelings about but I still think everyone should read, is Design Patterns. It gives us a common vocabulary. There are a lot of good ideas in there. On the other hand, there’s sort of a mish-mash of styles and languages, and it’s beginning to
show its age. But I think it’s absolutely worth reading.

Another is Elements of Style, which isn’t even a programming book. You should read it for two reasons: The first is that a large part of every software engineer’s job is writing prose. If you can’t write precise, coherent, readable specs, nobody is going to be able to use your stuff. So anything that improves your prose style is good. The second reason is that most of the ideas in that book are also applicable to programs. My desert-island list is a little bit odd. For example, a book that’s terribly
important to me is Hacker’s Delight, by Hank Warren.

Coders at Work – Page 171 – Joshua Bloch