Programming Pearls (by Jon Bentley) is no doubt a classic. I like reading those columns. The book is one of those few ones that I would not want to put down until finish reading the last words, and I would even take it with me while traveling on a plane or in a bus. I think I have gone through this book (the 1st edition) at least three times. Some of the topics were so impressive that I can remember them after a long time. And this actually helped in one of my phone interviews. A problem that had been discussed in one of the columns was asked...
Of course, even not for interview preparations, I would still strongly recommend this book to others.
As for the interview, I was stuck in the last question and did not have time to finish it. The main problem was not complicated, but I was misled by the terms the interviewer used. By the time I realized what he was talking about, I had already wasted too much time. The interviewer was nice and polite, and I thought he had been patient to me. But unfortunately at that time I could not get fully concentrated. Soon after the interview was finished, I figured out a straightforward way to tackle the problem... What a pity! Actually after the interview I did a search over the internet for the definition of the term, and I found two versions. The one on wikipedia is what I had thought it would be, but there are other places that back his point, too. Anyway, I need to put it off for now and focus on my presentations next week in Beijing.