I had a similar experience with Code Complete (I know most of what's in it but I have no idea when I learned it). I don't know if it's as basic as @schoen wanted but it might be close.
You will likely have seen advanced developers recommending it. But it is meant to teach routine daily stuff like how to name variables, lay out functions, why we want abstraction layers, and the like. And it really is aimed at people who may know nothing about code construction.
Okay, thanks. I read it cover-to-cover before I interviewed at Microsoft my senior year in college. But - like the developer in Zed's article - I must have forgotten. :)
