by Brian W. Kernighan & Dennis M. Ritchie
One of the seminal books in the computer industry, as well as one of the first books I purchased. The current (2nd) edition covers ANSI standard C, but I still own the 1st edition, which covers "classic" or "K&R" C. Written by the people who created the C language, it's still considered the book on C. Not every book by the creator(s) of a language/program/technology is readable (e.g. Bjarne Stroustrop's C++ books), but I feel this one is.
Buy 1st edition (© 1978) from Amazon.com
Buy ANSI edition (© 1988) from Amazon.com
Buy second edition (© 1989) from Readme.doc
by Patrick Henry Winston, and Berthold Klaus Paul Horn
While this may not be the book on Lisp, it is one of a set of the better books on Lisp. The authors are from MIT, which is the home of more Lisp hackers than anywhere else. I found it quite helpful, though I would not call myself an expert on Lisp.
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by W. F. Clocksin and C. S. Mellish
Prolog is a unique language in the world of programming. Rather than specify a set of steps for the computer to take, you give it a set of facts, rules which allow it to deduce other facts from the given facts. Then it tries to find solutions to your query. It takes a change in habits and thinking for most programmers to get used to the Prolog way. This is probably the book to learn Prolog. Ask anyone who knows Prolog (if you can find such a person). Besides, Springer Verlag (the publisher) has a fine reputation for publishing great math and comp. sci. texts.
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