Interesting.  I also tried reading the Dragon Book, but I found it quite stale.  I really enjoyed "Modern Compiler Design" (<a href="http://www.few.vu.nl/~dick/MCD.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.few.vu.nl/~dick/MCD.html</a>).  They also talk about implementing functional languages.<p>And if you already know how to write a lexer and a parser, "The Implementation of Functional Programming Languages" by Simon Peyton Jones is worth reading.