If you buy just one book on how to develop software professionally, this is it. McConnell covers the breadth and depths of the software profession with greater readability than any other. The material in the book is also written with "WHY?" in mind. Other technical "How-To" books have a half-life of 2-3 years, this has been around almost a decade and still reads true in 2001.

Perhaps the most charming aspect of the writing is McConnell's use of the good, the bad and the ugly in his examples. You can learn as much disecting "bad code" as looking at polished code, maybe more!