You missed "Design and Evolution of C++". I find it is a must read as well, for the insights in the development of the language. But it is a great list.
Cheers

You completely overlooked: The C Programming Language (2nd Edition) (Paperback) by Brian W. Kernighan, Dennis Ritchie, Dennis M. Ritchie

Every other C++ book assumes you read this book about C. I'd bump Design Patterns in favor of that one.

I'm pleased to see Scott's picks, and to discover that the list was similar to my own list of must-haves (a slightly different concept from "most important", I admit), with Stroustrup, Meyers, and the Standard in common. I consider Josuttis, Effective STL, and More Effective C++ as necessary staples as well. Scott's exposition of multiple dispatch in More Effective C++ is by itself worth double the price of admission - may we expect a new edition? On Scott's recommendation, I expect shortly to purchase Modern C++ Design.

Adding to Top 5
C++ Coding Standards: 101 Rules, Guidelines, and Best Practices — Herb Sutter, Andrei Alexandrescu
Exceptional C++ — Herb Sutter
More Exceptional C++ — Herb Sutter

The most important C++ books... today? I wouldn't recommend Gamma and Alexandrescu any more. BTW, IIRC the last important C++ book came out in 2004: Matthew Wilson's 'Imperfect C++'.

While I find great those books, I have to say that maybe those are the most important, but not the best, IMHO.

The best C++ books that I've ever read are "Thinking In C+" Vol.1 and Vol.2 by Bruce Eckel (Chuck Allisons co-wrote Vol.2). I fell in love with C++ reading those books.

They are also, IMHO, the best books to learn C++. After those, I find Scott's Effective series very interesting and Andrei's Modern C++ as the best advanced book. Also, I have to mention "Inside the C++ Object Model" by Stanley B. Lippman, that explores a field that almost all other books ignore.

The most important C++ book will provide an integrative view of the "multi-paradigm" (an oxymoron) language C++. Coplien and Stroustrup have attempted first steps towards a unifying view of C++ but the great concept is still missing.

I can't argue with Scott's choices, but I think this might be a good place to mention other books that are contenders. In my visits to various organizations, I have noticed that the ARM (Stroustrup & Ellis) has been used by multitudes, as has Lippman's C++ Primer (which improved with each edition - the 4th edition is very good [thank you, Barbara!]). Two others qualify by numbers of users: Nico Josuttis' C++ Standard Library, and the STL Tutorial by Musser et al (that's how normal people learned STL in the 90s). And Nico and Daveed's C++ Templates book did for templates what Bjarne's books did for the language as a whole. And in its day, Cargill's Style book was on most developers shelves or down the hall.

Other books pushed the envelope (Coplien's Advanced C++, Barton and Nackman, Eisenecker and Czarnecki, to name a few) but their audience was smaller (yet crucial - the movers and shakers of the C++ world know these books very well and were influenced by them).

And of course the best current book on STL is Scott's. Another just-in-time success, since most developers are past the beginner's stage STL-wise.

I continue to be amazed at the breadth of the "community" that embraces C++. Researchers, bit fiddlers, generic library developers, educators, financial sector developers, lots more. A diverse array of quality contributors.

When I see titles like “The Five Most Important <fill in the blank> Books”, my mind immediately flashes back to the final scene in the 1960 movie “The Time Machine”. In that scene, George (the time traveler) has returned from another time to tell his friends of his wondrous travels. They of course, do not believe his stories. Frustrated, George returns to his library and his time machine. A moment later, his one remaining friend Filby hears a ruckus and rushes to the library, but it’s too late, George is gone. Looking around the library, Filby notices three books are missing. Filby ponders; which three books would he take? Finally, Filby poses the question to the audience—“Which three books would you take?”

At the risk of dating myself, I watched that movie with my father in 1960 and to this date I could only come up with one, the other two have eluded for some 46 years now. In the spirit of the movie and Scott’s article we should honor the same constraints: You can only choose five books, no more, no less. As Scott mentioned, there are no spots for honorable mention or those almost making the cut. Scott didn’t miss a book, he chose his five. To suggest another book, suggest which book it would replace and why—you only get five.

Honoring these constraints, here is my take. I agree with Scott’s first three choices; however, I would replace “International Standard for C++”, with “Object-Oriented” Analysis and Design with Applications” by Grady Booch. Like “Design Patterns”, this book is invaluable in understanding OO concepts and knowing that, understanding C++ is easier. Moreover, I think the first book (TC++PL) is sufficient in this regard. That leaves “Modern C++ Design” and like the question posed in the movie I can’t really decide, but that would be cheating so I choose “Design and Evolution of C++" because knowing ‘why’ something was done is often better than knowing ‘how’.

Anyway, that’s my take but I would like to take the opportunity for a shameless plug and an obvious violation of my own words. I highly recommend “Head First Design Patterns” (http://www.headfirstlabs.com/index.php). It is an excellent follow-up to “Design Patterns by Erich Gamma (et al)”. It is Java oriented; however, I converted (most of) their exercises and examples to C++ which are freely available at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/hfdp-cpp/

I was going to say Lippman's C++ Primer -- thanks Chuck Allison.

I would like to add two more to the list:
Exceptional C++ by Herb Sutter
and
The Design and Evolution of C++ by Bjarne Stroustrup

Yes, Exceptional C++ does focus on exceptions, but you'll learn a lot more about writing solid code and how C++ works in much greater detail from this book than any other.

The reason I like "The Design and Evolution of C++" is because it focuses on how we got here with C++. Why is it the way it is, not what it is. Often, when you understand the reasons the designers made their tradeoffs gives you a much better understanding of the language. You can empathies with their choices based on whatever constraints they had, and it's actually easier to remember facts about the language when you have context around the decisions.

Why Lippman's C++ Primer is not on Scott's list, while it is a must-read for almost all of the C++ guys?

to Glenn: thanks for your work and well done! but, honestly, your coding style of class member access specifiers may be a little weird to somebody :P

I'm sure it didn't have the impact of many of the books mentioned here so far, but one of the most important books for me was Allen Holub's C + C++: Programming with Objects in C and C++. As a long time C programmer wanting to learn C++, I had read other tutorials, but this book really bridged the gap for me. I will always think of it as the most important C++ book that I have read. Without it, I would have had a much harder time understanding these others.

hello!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SOS,please help me
i want to study c++,and c++ class
so i want to have some good books
like C++ Effective Object-Oriented Software Construction
but i am in china and there is no english one,and i don not know where i can find it or download .
so please help me

Given Scott's no-production background, it's no suprise that he didn't mention Large-Scale C++ Software Design, which I think is a must-read for any large scale C++ software development.(http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0201633620).

"Advanced C++ Programming Styles and Idioms", 1991. Coplien. (called "Acid" because the cover was a particular shade of purple, and it expanded the mind)

It was unique, in that the use of pure virtual classes, concrete types, and static singletons as factories, were not only introduced, but elucidated with practical examples which are still valid today.

Templates were not yet part of the language, but at the earliest stage, it showed how C++ could be used to create classes in practice, and as such it is the most essential, practical and complete introduction to object oriented programming, ever.

I'm still 'learning' C++. I own a couple books on the list. I think his (Scott's) book 'Effective' should remain on HIS list because it contains 20% OR LESS material about the standard C++ library. These huge C++ books (1000+ pages) would be more 'important' if the content was divided into two separate volumes -- Volume I would be C++ the language (1000+ pages). Volume II would be Standard Library (1000+ pages) The problem is a lot of the C++ books for sale seem to target High School students on up.

Thanks for the info...

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