Recommend a good book for modelling/programming basics?

[scrupul0us]

While I consider myself a competent coder, I can easily admit that I lack the skills needed to really write efficient applications

Can anyone suggest some books that really hit on the proper ways to develop applications?

I tend to find that when I'm coding a project/site that I'm always backtracking to either implement things that should have been done from square one or to 'hack' what I've already done to work with other portions of what I may be doing which as you can imagine eats a ton of time and results in REALLY ugly PHP code...

I guess what I'm saying is, I understand PHP but I lack general programming skills, concepts and models and it's really becoming an issue

Any suggestions, primarily books, would be greatly appreciated 😃

[NogDog]

The only book I've read in the last decade concerning application analysis and design is Head First Object-Oriented Analysis and Design. It's Java-oriented, but for the most part translates easily to PHP. I won't call it a great book, but it was interesting and I felt it was worth the time I spent with it. (I think I might have skipped a chapter or two that seemed to address things I didn't feel I needed to read.)

At a somewhat lower level in the programming process, I'll make my usual recommendation for PHP Objects, Patterns, and Practice.