I've had what I believe to be a pretty standard university ComputerScience education. I've got 12 years of industry practice behind me. I've read constantly, and tried to apply what I've read. But I know I haven't read the seminal papers in the field. I'm not even sure which papers would be considered "seminal". What are your opinions? Links would be appreciated, if available. -- Richard Rapp

* The "GotoConsideredHarmful" paper: read what was really said, rather than what people think was said.
* ''NoSilverBullet'', by FredBrooks. 
* AlonzoChurch, ''An unsolvable problem of elementary number theory'', American Journal of Mathematics, 58 (1936), pp 345 - 363.
* The basis for all relational and SQL database systems: ''A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks'' by TedCodd.  See http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.110.1845&rep=rep1&type=pdf