Comment by mk

This is what is commonly refered to as "the dragon book". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compilers:_Principles,_Techniqu...

But that may be too massive for what you are looking for. I found that Crockfords essay http://javascript.crockford.com/tdop/tdop.html really helps if you know javascript. And reading something like tinypy http://www.philhassey.com/blog/2008/02/28/tinypy-10-mit-lice... may help.

Also not necessarily a compiler book, but The Little Schemer does have you building a basic scheme interpreter at the end of the book.