Re:Introduction to Computing Systems (Patt/Patel) (Score 1)

This is a great intro book. Coming out of high school and having only programmed in C++, it was really useful as an overview of what is really going on inside a computer. It's a concepts-only book though; the assembly language and architecture are not used in the real world. I took Patt's classes as well. They made all my other classes seem boring and terse in comparison - he really makes you think. His teaching style was very polarizing though. Other useful books: Hennessey and Patterson's Computer Architecture, Raymond's Art of Unix Programming, Rochkind's Advanced Unix Programming