Genetic algorithm resource
Best references for me so far:
- Genetic Algorithms in Search, Optimization, and Machine Learning by David E. Goldberg: a classic, still considered as the bible of GAs by many.
- An Introduction to Genetic Algorithms by Melanie Mitchell: more recent than the previous reference and packed with probably more interesting examples.
- A Field Guide to Genetic Programming by Poli, Langdon, McPhee: this is more of a hands on guide and is getting very good reviews.
Also if you're an absolute beginner I'd suggest you to start with the Hello World of Genetics Algorithms. There's nothing like a nice clean example to get started.
This is a nice free book on the subject
http://www.lulu.com/items/volume_63/2167000/2167025/2/print/book.pdf
I know this is an old question, but no answer has been accepted yet, so I thought I'd add my own contribution. One of the best free resources in my opinion for all things related to evolutionary computation (genetic algorithms, evolution strategies, genetic programming, etc.) is Sean Luke's online book Essentials of Metaheuristics.
I found Melanie Mitchell's book, An Introduction to Genetic Algorithms, to be very good. For a wider coverage of evolutionary computation topics, Introduction to Evolutionary Computing by Eiben and Smith is also worthwhile.
If you're just starting out, I recently wrote an introductory article that may be of use.
There are further links both in that article and also on the home page for my evolutionary computation framework.