Lisp Books
Thursday, May 20, 2004
The last few days, I've made postings about four specific Lisp books ( On Lisp, ANSI CL, PAIP, SICP); however, I have a much larger list of Lisp books on my web site that I have acquired over the years. For the record, I've posted my current list of Lisp books below. I've divided them into 8 different categories:
- Essentials
- Learning Lisp
- Artificial Intelligence
- CLOS
- Lisp Implementation
- Lisp Machines & Historical
- Other Lisps
- Lisp-Related Books
Here is the list:
Essentials:
- Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming: Case Studies in Common Lisp - This book is a tremendous way to learn CL! I wish there were more programming books like it.
- On Lisp: Advanced Techniques for Common Lisp - This book is the best book I've seen for really showing what makes Lisp different from other programming languages. There is an online version available on Paul Graham's site.
- Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs - This book can make you think about programming in a different way. There is a companion instructor's manual too. The book is available online and there are online versions of the Sussman & Abelson lectures too.
- The Little Schemer - Takes a bit of getting used to the style of this book, but it helped me get out of my C mindset.
- ANSI Common Lisp - Good introduction to CL. I don't like it as much as Paul's On Lisp, but that book was a hard one to beat.
- Common Lisp the Language, 2nd Edition - Pre-ANSI reference to CL. There is an online verion available.
- Object-Oriented Common Lisp - Despite the title, this is really a general introduction to CL. It was one of the books I used to learn Lisp and I still think it is a good text for learning CL.
- The Seasoned Schemer - Takes "The Little Schemer" further in teaching you to "think about computing".
- The Scheme Programming Language - Good introduction to R5RS Scheme. There is an online verion available.
- Essentials of Programming Languages, 2nd Edition - Some people swear by this book. I never got through it. Uses Scheme.
- Practical Common Lisp - Excellent Common Lisp tutorial.
- Lisp, 3rd Edition - Another book some people find useful for learning lisp. I own it but haven't read it.
- Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach - The ultimate AI book! Takes an agent-oriented approach throughout the book to introduce different AI techniques. Once you've read PAIP and decided that you're still interested in AI, this book is the one to read.
- Genetic Programming: Vols I, II & III - The first is the best book on Genetic Programming, Volume II adds ADF's (Automatically Defined Functions). Volume III is mostly just a series of case studies.
- Building Problem Solvers - Very readable introduction to problem solvers in Lisp.
- Common Lisp Modules: Artificial Intelligence in the Era of Neural Networks and Chaos Theory - Small book with lots of concise AI example code.
- Artificial Intelligence Programming - Haven't read it but it was cheap!
- Introduction to Artificial Intellignece - Another one I haven't read but got used for a great price.
- Object-Oriented Programming for Artificial Intelligence: A Guide to Tools and System Design - Another cheapie, I read a few chapters but got bored.
- Object-Oriented Programming in Common Lisp: A Programmer's Guide to CLOS - Good intro to CLOS programming.
- The Art of the Metaobject Protocol - When you want to move past, extend or change CLOS (or just understand it better), this is the book. There is a partial online version available.
- Object-Oriented Programming: The CLOS Perspective - Collection of articles about OO using CLOS .
- Handbook of Programming Languages, Vol. IV: Functional and Logic Programming Languages - Has a nice introductory chapter on CLOS.
- Lisp In Small Pieces - Best book on implementing Lisps.
- Anatomy of Lisp - If Lisp In Small Pieces wasn't around, this would be the book on implementing Lisp. Unfortunately, it is a bit dated now.
- Performance and Evaluation of Lisp Systems - Describes a methodology for improving Lisp performance. There is an online version available.
- Garbage Collection - Not specifically Lisp-oriented, but good coverage of different GC techniques.
- Advanced Lisp Technology - Focus on recent research on Lisp in Japan.
- Patterns of Software: Tales from the Software Community - Nice combination of Design Patterns and Lisp history. There is an online version available.
- The Brain Makers - Very good history of the Lisp Machine companies.
- Lisp Lore: A Guide to Programming the Lisp Machine - Gives a good feel for what it was like to develop on lispm's.
- The Architecture of Symbolic Computers - A couple of chapters on lispm's.
- Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution - Covers the early days at MIT.
- Artificial Life: A Report from the Frontier Where Computers Meet Biology - Historical work that covers a lot of the early AI & Artificial Life work.
- The AI Business - Another book that covers some of the early AI work.
- The Connection Machine - Describes the massively parallel computer that Daniel Hillis & team developed.
- Aaron's Code: Meta-Art, Artificial Intelligence and the Work of Harold Cohen - Using Lisp to paint pictures. There is a good article about Cohen's work on Franz's site. There is also a Lisp screen-saver that you can download that generates unique art.
- An Introduction to Programming in Emacs Lisp - Great intro & very readable. There are online versions too.
- Writing GNU Emacs Extensions - This book and the previous one were the ones I used to learn Emacs Lisp with.
- The GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual, Vol 1 & Vol 2 - Good references. There are online versions too.
- The T Programming Language: A Dialect of Lisp - A dialect of Scheme. Paul Graham seems to have preferred it to CL.
- Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid - I loved this book when I first read it. The first copy I bought still sits on my bookshelf, having survived moves from New Zealand to Western Samoa to Boulder.
- Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern - Another great Hofstadter book.
