"The Pragmatic Programmer", "Clean Code", "Refactoring" - these are among the classic works that we are told should be on every programmer's bookshelf. Often, they make it to the shelf, but remain unread. Have you ever wondered why these books are considered such beacons to our community? Have you maybe even felt guilty for not reading them all? We'll go through the "cliff notes" edition of these classics, and maybe even find a few future classics to inspire you to check out what’s on your own bookshelf.