Students often ask me for Ruby on Rails books that I could recommend.
There are two Rails books that I recommend:
Agile Web Development wit Rails (if you start with Rails)
Ruby for Rails (once you know Rails)
However, there are some books that are not about Rails, but I think that every Rails programmer should read:
Refactoring - Martin Fowler
This book teaches you what is elegant code and how easily you can change your existing code into something beautiful :) It also teaches many OOP concepts.
The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master - Andrew Hunt and David Thomas
Lots of useful techniques every programmer should know. Testing, debugging, version control etc.
Peopleware - Tom de Marco
It's not technology that matters. It's people. Read it before you start any bigger project.
Death march - Edward Yourdon
Why projects fail. What to ask for before you join a new team.
What other books would you include in this list?
