Textbooks

• Felleisen, Findler, Flatt, and Krishnamurthi. How to Design Programs, 2nd edition.

Recommended Readings and Resources

• Friedman and Felleisen. The Little Schemer: Fourth Edition MIT Press, 1996. An alternative introduction to recursive programming.
• Friedman and Felleisen. The Seasoned Schemer MIT Press, 1996. More on functional and imperative programming
• Felleisen and Friedman. A Little Java, A Few Patterns MIT Press, 1998. Why all this matters and how it scales to Java
• Abelson and Sussman. Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs MIT Press, 2nd edition, 1996. The classic textbook on Scheme and the functional approach to programming.

Scheme Readings

If you wish to learn to use Racket as a tool, which is not the goal of this course, then you will find lots of resources at racket-lang.org.

For information about other versions of Scheme and applications, check out the Community Scheme Wiki.

Other Readings

• If your native language is not English, or even if it is, the following book will help you improve your writing:

  Strunk and White The Elements of Style Longman (1918, 4th ed., 1999). A useful resource on English grammar and usage. Also contains many good tips on style. It is not perfect, but it has a lot of good content. It is available online but it's far more useful to have the 105-page paperback in your hand, or on your desk to inspire you.

• The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. (Amazon) Most graduate students need some help with managing their time, and this only gets harder as you go along. This is one of the classic books on time management. It gives guidance on juggling competing demands on your time, setting (and keeping!) priorities, and the psychological dimension of time management. I've had a number of students who found this book invaluable.
• Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, by David Allen. (Amazon) This is a system of keeping track of your tasks. It is extremely nerd-friendly (and I mean that in a good way).