C++ Books
Read these books in the order listed:

Basic C++ books covering up through Standard Library (STL) and C++11

1. Thinking in C++ Vol I, Bruce Eckel
   an excellent (and free) introduction for those coming from C (experience in C works against you). Core C++ only
2. Thinking in C++ Vol II, Bruce Eckel, Chuck Allison
   covers templates and Standard Library (C++98 standard). Decent, and free online, but I prefer Josuttis' book below. Note that some things are deprecated (e.g. auto_ptr) in favor of more modern C++11 features
3. Effective C++, Scott Meyers
   required reading. A "style guide" that will help you to avoid becoming a "C with classes" programmer. Note that a few concepts are deprecated (e.g. auto_ptr) in favor of more modern C++11 features
4. The C++ Standard Library, 2nd edition, Nicolai Josuttis
   required reading. Excellent coverage of the Standard Library. Make sure that you get the 2nd edition since all code has been updated for C++11
5. Exceptional C++, Herb Sutter
   required reading. A goldmine of techniques and idioms for experienced programmers looking to become professionals. Especially emphasizes exception-safety and deeper aspects of the language. Note that some things are deprecated (e.g. auto_ptr) in favor of more modern C++11 features

Design Patterns (a popular vocabulary for solving common problems. Applies to any object-oriented language)

1. Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software, GangOfFour
   required reading. The original and best
2. Head First Design Patterns, Freeman, Freeman et al
   gimmicky introduction to the most important design patterns. Java-based. I prefer the GangOfFour book
3. Modern C++ Design: Generic Programming and Design Patterns Applied, Alexandrescu
   (see section on Template Metaprogramming for description)
   

Boost libraries (90+ powerful libraries that are under consideration for integration into future C++ standards)

1. The Boost C++ Libraries, Schaling
   free online. You won't spend much time with this book, but it helpfully orients the reader before tackling the Boost website. Note that many Boost libraries have either been integrated or superceded by the C++11 standard. Here is a list that I stole of outdated Boost libraries

   Replaced in C++11 (in addition to what was already replaced in TR1)
   
       Foreach --> Range-based for
       Functional/Forward --> Perfect forwarding (with rvalue references, variadic templates and std::forward)
       In Place Factory, Typed In Place Factory --> Perfect forwarding (at least for the documented use cases)
       Lambda --> Lambda expression
       Min-Max --> std::minmax, std::minmax_element
       Move --> Rvalue references
       Ratio --> std::ratio
       Static Assert --> static_assert
       Thread --> thread
       Typeof --> auto, decltype
       Value initialized --> List-initialization (§8.5.4/3)
   
   Replaced in TR1 (draft version of C++11)
   
       Array --> std::array
       Bind --> std::bind
       Enable If --> std::enable_if
       Function --> std::function
       Member Function --> std::mem_fn
       Random --> random
       Ref --> std::ref, std::cref
       Regex --> regex
       Result Of --> std::result_of
       Smart Ptr --> std::unique_ptr, std::shared_ptr, std::weak_ptr (but boost::intrusive_ptr still cannot be replaced)
       Swap (swapping arrays) --> std::swap
       Tuple --> std::tuple
       Type Traits --> type_traits
       Unordered --> unordered_set, unordered_map
   
   A large part of MPL can be trimmed down or removed using variadic templates. Some common use cases of Lexical 
   cast can be replaced by std::to_string and std::stoX.
   
   Some Boost libraries are related to C++11 but also have some more extensions, e.g. Boost.Functional/Hash 
   contains hash_combine and related functions not found in C++11, Boost.Chrono has I/O and rounding and many other 
   clocks, etc. so you may still want to take a look at the boost ones before really dismissing them.
   

2. Boost website
   difficult to get oriented, but most of the docs are excellent after some initial learning curve
3. C++ Template Metaprogramming: Concepts, Tools, and Techniques from Boost and Beyond, Abrahams and Gurtovoy
   a nice introduction to a more advanced Boost library: MPL

Toolkits - choose one for GUI, networking, process management, sound, etc

1. wxWidgets
2. Qt
3. GTK+

Template Metaprogramming ("code that generates code")

1. C++ Template Metaprogramming: Concepts, Tools, and Techniques from Boost and Beyond, Abrahams and Gurtovoy
   a nice introduction to Boost MPL library. Probably the most useful since it concentrates on how metaprogramming is done nowadays
2. C++ Templates: the Complete Guide, Vandevoorde and Josuttis
   starts with details concerning the template mechanism (warning: some details are outdated, e.g. "export"). The last two-thirds of the book introduce traits and policies. The code for smartpointers and tuples is deprecated in favor of Boost/C++11 versions
3. Modern C++ Design: Generic Programming and Design Patterns Applied, Alexandrescu
   an advanced treatment of traits, policies, and template metaprogramming. Note that his Loki library, although never in widespread use, inspired later libraries such as Boost MPL. Various other code snippets (e.g. smartpointers) are also deprecated in favor of Boost/C++11 versions

CUDA programming (for accelerated numerics on highly-parallel NVidia GPUs)

1. CUDA by Example: An Introduction to General-Purpose GPU Programming, Sanders and Kandrot
   describes how to program GPU kernels using CUDA language extensions to C. Runtime API (as opposed to the Driver API)

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