Goal
The path to "Kill It with Fire"
Here is the reading path leading up to this book, derived from its dependencies and ordered from the fundamentals.
The path so far (3 books)
Why read this first: Once you know what good code looks like, you need techniques to safely move existing code toward that standard. Refactoring offers a systematic way to improve structure without changing behavior, guided by code smells.
Why read this first: Once safe refactoring moves are in hand, you take on the hardest case: legacy code without tests. You first find seams to break dependencies, cover them with tests as a safety net, and only then improve the structure.
Sources
Why read this first: Working Effectively with Legacy Code covers the techniques for getting untested code under test by finding seams, and changing it safely. Kill It with Fire works at the level outside that: whether an aging system should be rebuilt at all, whether a migration will add value, and how to tell when a project is finished, argued through case studies. Read with the code-level techniques already in hand, its alternatives to a rewrite are easier to picture concretely.