I don't have any one complete book that I can recommend, and I don't even really have a great reading list for this. But I'll make an attempt to share what I think is useful as a starting point.

1. Systems Operations is first and foremost about understanding systems, in all of their complexity, which means understanding the internals of your OS primarily.

2. Performance and networking, in particular, are super important areas to focus on understanding when it comes to learning the topic to help with software development.

3. A lot of it is about understanding concepts in abstract and being able to extrapolate to other situations and apply these concepts, so there's actually quite a lot of useful information that can be learned on one OS and still applied to another OS (or on one game engine and applied to another, et al).

Here's a few books I think are worth reading, not in any particular order of prevalence, but loosely categorized

Databases:

High Performance MySQL: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1449314287/

SQL Queries for Mere Mortals: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321992474/

The Art of SQL: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0596008945/

Networking:

TCP/IP Illustrated: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0201633469/wrichards... (updates on author's site at http://www.kohala.com/start/tcpipiv1.html)

The TCP/IP Guide: https://www.amazon.com/TCP-Guide-Comprehensive-Illustrated-P...

UNIX Network Programming: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0131411551

Beej's Guide to Network Programming: http://beej.us/guide/bgnet/

Operating Systems:

Operating Systems Concepts: https://www.amazon.com/Operating-System-Concepts-Abraham-Sil... (various editions, I have the 7th edition... I recommend you find the latest)

Modern Operating Systems: https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Operating-Systems-Andrew-Tanen... (the "Tanenbaum Book")

Operating Systems Design and Implementation: https://www.amazon.com/Operating-Systems-Design-Implementat-... (the other one, the "MINIX Book")

Windows Internals:

Part 1: https://www.amazon.com/Windows-Internals-Part-architecture-m...

Part 2: https://www.amazon.com/Windows-Internals-Part-2-7th/dp/01354... (I had the pleasure of being taught from this book by Mark Russinovich and David Solomon at a previous employer, was an amazing class and these books are incredible resources even applied outside of Windows, we used 5th edition, I linked 7th, which has the 2nd part pending publication).

MacOS Internals:

Part 1: https://www.amazon.com/MacOS-iOS-Internals-User-Mode/dp/0991...

Part 2: https://www.amazon.com/MacOS-iOS-Internals-II-Kernel/dp/0991...

Part 3: https://www.amazon.com/MacOS-iOS-Internals-III-Insecurity/dp...

Linux Kernel Programming:

Part 1: https://www.amazon.com/Linux-Kernel-Development-Cookbook-pro...

Part 2: https://www.amazon.com/Linux-Kernel-Programming-Part-Synchro...

The Linux Programming Interface: https://www.amazon.com/Linux-Programming-Interface-System-Ha...

General Systems Administration:

Essential Systems Administration: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0596003439/

UNIX and Linux Systems Administration Handbook: https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-Linux-System-Administration-Hand...

The Linux Command Line and Shell Scripting Bible: https://www.amazon.com/Linux-Command-Shell-Scripting-Bible/d...

UNIX Shell Programming: https://www.amazon.com/Unix-Shell-Programming-Stephen-Kochan...

BASH Hackers Wiki: https://wiki.bash-hackers.org/

TLDP Advanced BASH Scripting Guide: https://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/

The Debian Administrator's Handbook: https://debian-handbook.info/browse/stable/

TLDP Linux System Administrator's Guide: https://tldp.org/LDP/sag/html/index.html

Performance & Benchmarking:

Systems Performance: https://www.amazon.com/Systems-Performance-Brendan-Gregg-dp-... (this is Brendan Gregg's book where you learn about the magic of dtrace)

BPF Performance Tools: https://www.amazon.com/Performance-Tools-Addison-Wesley-Prof... (the newer Brendan Gregg book about BPF, stellar)

The Art of Computer Systems Performance Analysis: https://www.cse.wustl.edu/~jain/books/perfbook.htm (no longer available from Amazon, but is available direct from publisher. This is basically the one book you should read about creating and structuring benchmarks or performance tests)

I guess that's a "reading list", but this is just a small part of what you need to know to excel in systems operations.

I would say for the typical software developer writing web applications, the most important thing to know is how databases work and how networking works, since these are going to be the primary items affecting your application performance. But there's obviously topics not included in this list that are also worth understanding, such as browser/DOM internals, how caching and CDNs work, and web-specific optimizations that can be achievable with HTTP/2 or QUIC.

For the average software developer writing desktop applications, I'd say make sure you /really/ understand OS internals... at the base everything you do on a computer system is based on what the OS provides to you. Even though you are abstracted (possibly many layers) away from this, being able to peel back the layers and understand what's /really/ happening is essential to writing high-quality application code that is performant and secure, as well as making you a champ at debugging issues.

If you're trying to get into systems operations as a field, this is just a brush over the top surface and there's a lot deeper diving required.

Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment - Stevens, Rago [0]

Unix Network Programming - Stevens [1]

[0] https://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Programming-UNIX-Environment...

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Unix-Network-Programming-Sockets-Netw...

Richard Stevens' UNIX Network Programming books: http://amzn.to/2lmH8hy The 1st volume at least is going through a simple TCP/IP telnet server and enhancing it with features as you go (single connection, multiple connection, forking, multi-threaded server), etc.

I once did some research on networking and related stuff - it was not my primary topic, but I remember a few things.

During my reading, I found one of the best (as in readable) books was Doug Comer's "Internetworking With TCP/IP vol. 1" - an excellent theoretical reference. [1] However, skip the other volumes from Doug Comer (I think there are 3 volumes).

For writing practical applications, Richard Stevens' "Unix Network Programming" [2] is usually recommended, I didn't find it an easy read though. Perhaps others can pitch in.

For both the books suggested, getting a used old copy for cheap is a good idea because the core information was already there even in the first editions.

Finally, read up on PlanetLab [3]. Its a fascinating project - a small scale internet built on top of a subset of nodes contributed by universities and research organizations across the globe - that people can contribute to, and if you actually manage to get into the developer's list and make a contribution, you can quite honestly claim to have pushed the state of the art forward.

And lastly, be prepared to spend a good amount of time - I don't think it will be a fast or easy process. For whatever reason, I have found that the community around this work to be a little small, especially in comparison to how much it permeates pretty much everyone's life.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Internetworking-TCP-Vol-1-Principles-...

[2] https://www.amazon.com/Unix-Network-Programming-Sockets-Netw...

[3] http://svn.planet-lab.org/

OK, if you don't have any real experience in low-level embedded coding (relevant to device drivers), RTOS or OS design in general, file systems, data structures, algorithms, interfaces, etc. And, if you have "hobby level" experience with Assembler, C and C++. And, if your intent is to write a desktop OS, from the ground up, without making use of existing technologies, drivers, file systems, memory management, POSIX, etc. Here's a list of books that could be considered required reading before you can really start to write specifications and code. Pick twenty of these and that might be a good start.

In no particular order:

1- http://www.amazon.com/C-Programming-Language-2nd-Edition/dp/...

2- http://www.amazon.com/The-Answer-Book-Solutions-Programming/...

3- http://www.amazon.com/The-Standard-Library-P-J-Plauger/dp/01...

4- http://www.amazon.com/C-Traps-Pitfalls-Andrew-Koenig/dp/0201...

5- http://www.amazon.com/Expert-Programming-Peter-van-Linden/dp...

6- http://www.amazon.com/Data-Structures-In-Noel-Kalicharan/dp/...

7- http://www.amazon.com/Data-Structures-Using-Aaron-Tenenbaum/...

8- http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Algorithms-C-Kyle-Loudon/dp/...

9- http://www.amazon.com/Code-Complete-Practical-Handbook-Const...

10- http://www.amazon.com/Design-Patterns-Elements-Reusable-Obje...

11- http://www.amazon.com/The-Mythical-Man-Month-Engineering-Ann...

12- http://www.amazon.com/The-Programming-Language-4th-Edition/d...

13- http://www.amazon.com/The-Standard-Library-Tutorial-Referenc...

14- http://www.amazon.com/API-Design-C-Martin-Reddy/dp/012385003...

15- http://www.amazon.com/The-Linux-Programming-Interface-Handbo...

16- http://www.amazon.com/Computer-Systems-Programmers-Perspecti...

17- http://www.amazon.com/System-Programming-Unix-Adam-Hoover/dp...

18- http://www.amazon.com/Memory-Programming-Concept-Frantisek-F...

19- http://www.amazon.com/Memory-Management-Implementations-Prog...

20- http://www.amazon.com/UNIX-Filesystems-Evolution-Design-Impl...

21- http://www.amazon.com/PCI-System-Architecture-4th-Edition/dp...

22- http://www.amazon.com/Universal-Serial-System-Architecture-E...

23- http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-PCI-Express-Hardware-Deve...

24- http://www.amazon.com/Serial-Storage-Architecture-Applicatio...

25- http://www.amazon.com/SATA-Storage-Technology-Serial-ATA/dp/...

26- http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-BIOS-Developing-Extensible-Inte...

27- http://www.amazon.com/Professional-Assembly-Language-Program...

28- http://www.amazon.com/Linux-Kernel-Development-3rd-Edition/d...

29- http://www.amazon.com/Version-Control-Git-collaborative-deve...

30- http://www.amazon.com/Embedded-Software-Primer-David-Simon/d...

31- http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Embedded-Systems-C/dp/1565...

32- http://www.amazon.com/Making-Embedded-Systems-Patterns-Softw...

33- http://www.amazon.com/Operating-System-Concepts-Abraham-Silb...

34- http://www.amazon.com/Performance-Preemptive-Multitasking-Mi...

35- http://www.amazon.com/Design-Operating-System-Prentice-Hall-...

36- http://www.amazon.com/Unix-Network-Programming-Sockets-Netwo...

37- http://www.amazon.com/TCP-Illustrated-Volume-Addison-Wesley-...

38- http://www.amazon.com/TCP-IP-Illustrated-Vol-Implementation/...

39- http://www.amazon.com/TCP-Illustrated-Vol-Transactions-Proto...

40- http://www.amazon.com/User-Interface-Design-Programmers-Spol...

41- http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Interfaces-Jenifer-Tidwell/d...

42- http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Interfaces-Jenifer-Tidwell/d...

43- http://www.amazon.com/Programming-POSIX-Threads-David-Butenh...

44- http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/embedded/hwsw/software/hd-gma#d...

45- http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/architectu...

46- http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/embedded/hwsw/hardware/core-b75...

47- http://www.hdmi.org/index.aspx

48- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Visual_Interface

49- http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Device-Drivers-Sreekrishnan-...

50- http://www.amazon.com/Making-Embedded-Systems-Patterns-Softw...

51- http://www.amazon.com/Python-Programming-Introduction-Comput...

52- http://www.amazon.com/Practical-System-Design-Dominic-Giampa...

53- http://www.amazon.com/File-Systems-Structures-Thomas-Harbron...

54- ...well, I'll stop here.

Of course, the equivalent knowledge can be obtained by trial-and-error, which would take longer and might result in costly errors and imperfect design. The greater danger here is that a sole developer, without the feedback and interaction of even a small group of capable and experienced programmers could simply burn a lot of time repeating the mistakes made by those who have already trenched that territory.

If the goal is to write a small RTOS on a small but nicely-featured microcontroller, then the C books and the uC/OS book might be a good shove in the right direction. Things start getting complicated if you need to write such things as a full USB stack, PCIe subsystem, graphics drivers, etc.

This post only contains non-aff links

While I'm certainly good at C, and have been the guy people asked the C and C toolchain questions at a couple places I've worked, I'd say you're in for more than 1 book to grok the topics you've expressed interest in, and haven't met the single book that does all you want.

1: If you're a python programmer, I do suggest staying with pure C and AWAY from C++. You have little use case for it if you can mix python and C and it is literally pain incarnate while you do not know every little bit of it and/or work with people who do not know every little bit of it.

2: Secondly, a single book on C will not get you where you're going. You will need several.

3: I'd stick with K&R for reference, but then go to the following two books for threading and all the other stuff like networking:

You need these two books to get down C and it's ecosystem (make, autotools, etc): Advanced Unix Programming by Rochkind (Really good explanation of signals especially): http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-UNIX-Programming-Marc-Rochkin...

Gnu/Linux Application Programming by M. Tim Jones (Recovers some of the same stuff as AUP, but does better with the toolchain): http://www.amazon.com/GNU-Linux-Application-Programming/dp/1...

If you want to go more advanced, this is likely the correct book: Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment: http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Programming-UNIX-Environment-...

Although if you're diving deep into networking, this is likely the correct book: Unix Networking Programming: Vol I by Stevens:

http://www.amazon.com/Unix-Network-Programming-Sockets-Netwo...