Originally Posted by raymor

To keep my eyes from glazing over from starting at code and to make me a BETTER software engineer as opposed to one who can do more things poorly, I read anything about the theory and practice of programming as opposed to the syntax and interface of a specific class in a specific language.

In other words, books about development methodologies, security principles, test driven development, database design principles, etc. The stuff that teaches me how to do things BETTER rather than how do to yet another task. The documentation for a specific class in a specific language I just use for reference while I'm coding.

Since things like database design principles change score once every 30 years, classic works like Codd and Date, the inventors of SQL, are good reading and can be found at half price books, borrowed, etc.