Focus helps, of course. But my list (and other reading material..yes, it was abbreviated) was actually pretty focused - it specializes in programming language theory and implementation, particularly for functional programming languages.

The problem with reading a lot before coding is that you learn the knowledge ("what to do") without learning the wisdom ("when to do it). Even if you specialize in one area, there's a large body of practical knowledge that people do unconsciously when they're working on a problem, but don't think to write down in a book. Or if they do write it down in a book, you won't understand the context for it until you've been in several situaions where their advice has both worked and not worked. When I was studying this stuff in college, I read multiple books on each topic, it "clicked", I knew when to use each technique - but I didn't know when not to. As a result, my designs tended to be jam-packed with features. It takes experience to realize "Oh, metaclasses are really handy in this one situation...but most of the time, you are better off banning them because the cost in understanding your code is greater than the code simplification they give you."