In a post on JavaLobby, Meera presents her TOP5 of technical books published in 2008.
I definitely agree with the first three:  a new book from Robert C.  Martin, the second edition of the great Effective Java and a collection of articles from ThoughtWorks.
I haven’t read yet the first one but i liked his “Agile Software Development” and the initial reviews are quite good.
The new edition of Effective Java contains 21 new items and presents 1.5 language features such as enum, generics and annotations and also updates items related to improved features e.g.  items in the concurrency section.
An interesting reading is also the ThoughtWorks Anthology, a collection of essays on various IT topics, ranging from software methodology advices to ant build files optimization tips.
If you are a software developer or if you know one, this time of the year is the right time to buy one of these books.
Let me add a few more titles, that even if not published in 2008 (or not technical) could be good gift ideas:

	Java Puzzlers: Traps, Pitfalls and corner cases Another book from the great Joshua Bloch based on the JavaOne’s serie of presentations, full of thought-provoking “puzzles”  related to details or known bug of the Java language. Here is a video of one of the Joshua’s presentations:
	C++ Common Knowledge: Essential Intermediate Programming As the cover says : “What Every Professional C++ Programmer Needs to Know—Pared to Its Essentials So It Can Be Efficiently and Accurately Absorbed”. As an Effective Java for the  C++ language,  it uses the same itemized approach and it describes very clearly and with many examples what every C++ programmer should know. Perfect for anyone who needs to review the language skipping the basics.
	My job went to India In this book published in 2005 , Chad Fowler takes his experience with outsourcing in India as a starting point to give reasonable advices about IT carer development. Even if some of these could sound obvious (as reasonable advices usually are), the book is still an enjoyable reading and give you the opportunity to review the way you approach your job in IT and think about what could be improved. Highly recommended.
	Permutation City A post-cyberpunk sci-fi book by Greg Egan, full of clever ideas about AIs, future post-death scenarios and virtual reality.

In handwritten letters it said, “Google World Headquarters”.

Ubergizmo publishes this touching interview from 1998 and this reminds me of the great book “The Search” by John Battelle , a vivid and detailed description of the search market in the pre-bubble era (plus some chapters with debatable content about the future of the search engine and the search market in general).
Maybe it’s the right time to start “Founders at Work” or to buy the recent “Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good”.
All Books about great people and successful ventures, someone should really write something similar to Banvard’s Folly (GREAT book with awesome stories) set in the bubble era, possibly non following the Startup.com documentary lousy approach…