Around this time last year I was reading serialized installments of an interview with Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas on Artima.comy. Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas are the authors of The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master and you can get a flavor of the book from reading the ten installments of the Artima interview.

Don’t Live with Broken Windows
Orthogonality and the DRY Principle
Good Enough Software
Abstraction and Detail
Building Adaptable Systems
Programming Close to the Domain
Programming is Gardening, not Engineering
Tracer Bullets and Prototypes
Programming Defensively
Plain Text and XML

I highly recommend the book. It’s a fun read (if you think software engineering can be fun (I do)) and structured in short punchy sections that make it ideal for reading on the commuter train.