50 Books Every Geek Should Read
Eric Dahl / InsideTech
Ever find out one of your friends hasn’t read “Neuromancer” or doesn’t know what a Babelfish is or why it’s important to keep a towel handy at all times? Did you have that brief moment where you thought, “Man, it’s like I don’t even know you?”
If you’re gonna work in tech, write code, or just spend way too much time on Engadget, Lifehacker, and BoingBoing, there’s a certain amount of reading that goes with the territory. And I’m not just talking about O’Reilly books here. Discovering “Snow Crash” or geeking out on crypto history teaches us part of the language we all share in tech. (Plus, it’s just really fun.)
From classic sci-fi to programming bibles and productivity hacks, we’ve collected the best of the best. See how many of the 50 Books Every Geek Should Read you’ve polished off, or pick your favorite category and start working your way through the rest. And be sure to let us know if we’ve missed any.
larry_blac
2 days ago
4 comments
peteyv, there are many excellent tutorial books for C++ available, and as it is not used en masse for development, many of them are availailable at super super discounted prices. You can get something like "master C++ in 21 days' (ha ha ha ha ha...let me know how that works for you, should you try it), but there are legit programming references such as the C++ Developers Bible, which are excellent syntatical and vocabulary references; however, if you are a true novice programmer, it would be wise to first 'get your head' around the concepts of OOA&P as the language and syntax will avail you nothing if you do not understand the fundamental concepts of OOP....you will be able to write code, but should anyone ever have to come behind you to perform modifications or updates to your code, they will likely seek you out and shoot your porch light out each year for the remainder of your life!!!! A word to the wise from an old SE...take it for what it is worth.
peteyv
3 days ago
2 comments
Hi. I'm a novice at programming. Can any of you suggest a book that will help me to get my head around the thinking process/logic that is necessary to really know what I'm doing? I feel like much of what I do is guess work or trial and error. My current challenge is C++. Thanks for any suggestions.
mjrevel
16 days ago
2 comments
Online edition of "brave new world"
http://www.huxley.net/bnw/index.html
StrayLight_SK
19 days ago
6 comments
Further to my other post... One book that I would offer for consideration is a book called "Dream of Glass" by Jean Mark Gawron. This book, in a MUCH more elequent way than BladeRunner, asks the question: "If we have the power to *create* life (as in *artificial* intelligence) do we have the right to control or , more importantly, *end* (as in *destroy*) that life form?
StrayLight_SK
19 days ago
6 comments
OK... I GOTTA talk about this! If you've both seen the movie AND read the book you've got to know that Bladerunner has very little in common with Electric Sheep. Electric Sheep DOES belong here. But the book is not *about* bladerunners. It's about what makes humans *human* (Dick's thesis cites "empathy" as being the true and only Turing Test) and why a *machine* can never be designed to *feel*. (The "empathy" thing.) Thus humans have replaced idol worship (religion as we know it today) with "empathy boxes" around which they regularly gather to *bond*.
StrayLight_SK
19 days ago
6 comments
William Gibson's "Neuromancer" DEFINATELY belongs here... But before Neuromancer there was John Brunner's Shockwave Rider. All the more topical given today's *global* financial meltdown. I even found a version of "Hearing Aid" (read the book) on the Web.
gsnape
3 months ago
98 comments
I so agree all of these are needed
Shaka_Osaka
3 months ago
6 comments
Shaka Osaka
What where is Dune? you know the spice must flow
phyrian
3 months ago
2 comments
I don't think the list is meant to be comprehensive, or give insight into understanding software. Rather, the list is intended to be books you can read in order to understand the people who understand software. It's a list of books that make up (part of) the culture of the geek. If you've read these books, you might be a geek. Of course there are other books that we find interesting, and that could be included on the list, but these are many of the more important ones. Think of it as a sort of instruction guide for non-geeks.
dilipkumar636
3 months ago
4 comments
there are many important books to read other than this books.
tamara_al_oola
3 months ago
2 comments
Did I overlook it, or did you guys, with your fabulous list of books, forget Bruce Schneier?
I don't think you can honestly leave him off the list of books that must be read to understand software, security and sanity.
--Tamara
DeadFly
3 months ago
2 comments
Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Steven Levy really needs to be on the list otherwise you're missing the true hacker ethic.
http://tinyurl.com/5fepde
edahl
3 months ago
134 comments
greaserkn: Check out page 2 of Tech History. I always thought that one was a great story.
greaserkn
3 months ago
2 comments
What about: The Cuckoo's Egg, the non-fection novel by Clifford Stoll? I think this should be in the list!
TechnoByrd
3 months ago
2 comments
That's actually not true. Karel Čapek's play coined the term robot, but his play did not include any sort of laws of robotics. His robots were also flesh and blood man-made servants, much like Golems. You can give him credit for repopularizing the rebellion theme in drama, but his work had nothing at all to do with specific laws that absolutely governed and determined his creations' behavior.