The Dragon Book is not the best book these days, it focuses too much on stuff you won't care about and not enough on the stuff you do care about. (e.g. it focuses a lot on parser generators and says almost nothing about analysis and optimization)
EDIT: A good followup text is "Advanced Compiler Design and Implementation" by Muchnick
I'm not even that interested in actually making one, but the way they work is fascinating, and this book was excellent, and I kept it after the class was over.
The Dragon Book is not the best book these days, it focuses too much on stuff you won't care about and not enough on the stuff you do care about. (e.g. it focuses a lot on parser generators and says almost nothing about analysis and optimization)
EDIT: A good followup text is "Advanced Compiler Design and Implementation" by Muchnick