Books that Changed Your Life? 311
Pubb asks: "I'm a Computer Science teacher at a school with an interesting tradition. Every year, the graduating student who has performed best in a particular subject area is given a book prize. Rather than give this particular student the usual book on Java or Linux, I would like to get something more impactful. I ask you, fellow Slashdot readers, to name the books that helped unleash your geek within. All I ask is that the book be reasonably available, even if it is no longer in print."
Books that changed my life. (Score:3, Interesting)
Fahrenheit 451 (which was on the restricted reading list at my jr High and High School.)
Brave New World (also on the list)
1984 (Yep on the list)
and I Robot.
the little schemer (Score:3, Interesting)
A really good introduction, I think, for someone who is interested in more "theoretical" aspects of computer science; what you learn from that book is directly applicable to CS, but also mathematics, analytic styles of philosophy, &c.. Another way to look at it is as a more advanced, and more technical, companion to Godel, Escher, Bach.
Geeks love cooking, right? (Score:5, Interesting)
Right now, I'm reading Salt: A World History [amazon.com] by Mark Kurlansky. It's the history of the world as told by salt. Salt, it seems, was the petroleum of the ancient world. Venice, for example, was founded on considerable wealth generated mostly from salt. British salt was ballast in slave ships, making one third of the voyage to the New World and creating a entire economy in the Caribbean. The Romans were paid in salt, which they called 'sal'. It's from this that we get the modern word 'salary'. And a Roman salad was lettuce/veg with oil and salt.
In that same vein, you've got another hell of a book in Robert Wolke's What Einstein Told His Cook: Kitchen Science Explained [amazon.com]. It's basically excerpts from Wolke's "Food 101" column in the Washington Post, but they make for fascinating reading.
I've also got Alton's books. I'm Just Here for the Food [amazon.com] is a great intro to the why's and how's of cooking.
If your student winners aren't into food, you might try the latest volume in Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, The Confusion [amazon.com]. Although in case they haven't read Quicksilver [amazon.com], you might want to get that as well, and maybe give them both as a set. At a little over 1,700 pages, if they don't find a job right away, they'll have something to occupy their time this summer.
You could also give them a gift certficate from your local book seller. Maybe put it in a nice card that everyone can sign?
-B
Zen, Gita, C, Forth (Score:5, Interesting)
Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
The Baghavad Gita
The C Programming Language
Thinking Forth
Re:For Serious Amatures Only! (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd go with an ultra-classic: The Mythical Man Month or the Knuth books, depending on budget. Most everything else will be controversial or covered by cirriculum (almost added Design Patterns but that is in at least some cirricula and loses a lot of its lustre in dynamic languages).
Richest Man in Babylon (Score:3, Interesting)
HHGTG & 1984 (Score:4, Interesting)
on the other i have 1984.
take your pick
A few off the top of my head..... (Score:3, Interesting)
2) The Age of Spiritual Machines, or just about anything by Ray Kurzweil. Help them develop their geek blueprint for what they want to accomplish with their life.
3) Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. This is a tough one for some people though. Some people that have grown up thinking that self interest automatically is bad, while altruism is automatically good, and a lot of these people will despise the message in this book. That's unfortunate, as this book is one title that people consistently mention when asked what their favorite book is.
Re:Zen, Gita, C, Forth (Score:3, Interesting)
Bertrand Russell (Score:2, Interesting)
Green Eggs and Ham! (Score:3, Interesting)
Ok maybe it was a little bit of a joke, but something light, enjoyable and has absolutely nothing to do with anything at all is a better gift then something thats meant to teach. People need to relax more, when I've just finished a course, the last thing I want is more reading material on the exact same subject, and I always hate people that give gifts with the attitude, 'this helped me, learn from it.' Maybe I do need to learn more, but I do it on my own time. If you give someone more and more heavy material without a break, they're going to burn out or ignore it all, either way it means very little.
Microserfs (Score:5, Interesting)
microserfs [mccormick.com] by doug coupland [coupland.com] is by far one of my favorite books of all time. i read it my sophomore year of high school and even now it still resonates strongly with me. actually, i really like almost all his books (particularly all families are psychotic [amazon.com], hey nostradamus! [amazon.com], and generation x [amazon.com]).
i have a hard time expressing just how profound an effect doug coupland's work has had on me microserfs was the book that cemented my decision to major in c.s. for the first time in my life there was a book with characters who i could actually relate to. looking back now, a lot of the technological details seem a bit quaint, but it is still a really excellent read.
Siddhartha (Score:3, Interesting)
Three Different Areas (Score:3, Interesting)
Science: The Elegant Universe (Green)
Language: Orality & Literacy (Ong)
Descarte was one of the first philosphers to discuss the quandry about a "thinking machine", mentioning the problem in viewing a machine dressed up in a hat -- can we consider it human?
The Elegant Universe is a brilliant read on string theory, which is just an utterly amazing concept (down to the quantum theory level).
Orality & Literacy describes how a cultures that have a written language will evolve differently than those who only speak. It examines how an oral society will not consider an "oak" tree to be anything similiar to a "pine" tree, because the concept of a "tree" doesn't exist. Literacy brings about abstractions.
I also recommend that you look at an older slashdot article Books on Programming Theory [slashdot.org] for more books.
Future of Ideas by Lawrence Lessig (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:A few off the top of my head..... (Score:3, Interesting)
The reason that they mention it as their favorite book is that it allows them to feel superior to others, while simulitaniously justifying their own greed. Atlas Shrugged is a ham-handed attempt to browbeat it's readers into agreeing that not only is freemarket capitalism good, but any form of wealth redistribution is evil, and anyone who believes in any form of wealth redistribution is evil, and on top of that, people who make alot of money really are better than the rest of us and we should be worshiping them for what they provide us with and poor people smell.
Okay, maybe I went a little overboard with that last one, but Ayn Rand could have got the same message across in about 10 pages instead of 600 or whatever it is if she wanted to.
Only one choice. (Score:3, Interesting)
Changed my life, in that it encouraged me to get a university degree in the first place, and continues to encourage me to get my PhD.
Rand (Score:2, Interesting)
Funny thing about Rand Fans, "Let's all be individualists, just like Ayn Rand." Perhaps that's unfair of me. Second thing about Ayn Rand, I once saw a picture of her, in a 'leisure setting.' Perhaps she had once suffered and worked hard, but this picture gave no hint of it. It gave me the feeling that her writings were an attempt to justify the silver spoon it appeared that she was born with, in her mouth.
As for Self Interest, I guess I subscribe to E.E. Doc Smith's version, enlightened self interest. Find your share of the pie, but recognize that you are sharing a pie, and be fair about it. Strive to make the pie larger, while you're at it, and everybody can get a larger share.
The Catcher in the Rye (Score:4, Interesting)
a good book... (Score:3, Interesting)
"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" [amazon.com].
Even though I wasn't taking that course, I was curious and bought the book. Once I opened it, I couldn't put it down.
It is a an excellent look at curiosity and discovery, and a very funny book besides. The subject of the book, Physicist Richard Feynman, became a Nobel Prize winner.
Just excellent.
Here's two books you might not anticipate... (Score:3, Interesting)
Truman Capote's In Cold Blood [amazon.com].
Whaaaa?
Stephen Covey is the best selling author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. In First Things First he teaches a character-based (personal values, not ASCII) method of time management. It basically asks you to identify what things are absolutely important to you and asks you to commit to priorities that will make those goals happen in a way you can support. It sounds like Pointy-Headed Boss babble-speak, and it is to a point, but if you can separate the "Businessman's Book" vibe it becomes a simple way to ensure you're living the life you want to live.
In Cold Blood is for a completely different reason. It's the first 'true crime novel', and quite possibly the best. It's part detective story, told from the point of view of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation police officers that tried to solve the brutal quadruple murder of the Clutter family in rural Kansas. It's also a psychological study of the two murderers: on the run, their capture, and execution.
Truman Capote spent several years researching the crime. His childhood friend Harper Lee (the author of To Kill A Mockingbird) helped him with his research. He wrote a compelling character study that captures the times and the events beautifully and horribly.
Both books are ones that aren't 'geek-lit 101', but they did change my life.
Re:Zen, Gita, C, Forth (Score:2, Interesting)
This book is an amazing work for any engineer of any age to study: it interleaves an incredile set of personal, engineering, and philosophical issues into a very readable, consistent story line.
This book turned my life around in college when I was on the edge of total meltdown. After I read it I realized that it's OK to immerse myself in technology and that engineers aren't supposed to follow a recipe and become mindless robots (as we are often depicted). Good engineers must fully engage themselves with each individual problem and only then can create an insightful, clean, and inspiring work.
--
Freshman year (HS) summer reading (Score:1, Interesting)
1) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - I might never have discovered Adams on my own. After reading HHGG I devoured all the rest of Adams' books.
2) The Hunt for Red October - I immediately fell in love with this book, and the entire techno-thriller genre in general. Just about an entire shelf of my bookcase is taken up with the "Jack Ryan" Clancy books, and the rest of my library is peppered with the better efforts of some of his imitators.
3) In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash - You may not think you know this book, but if you've seen "A Christmas Story," you do-- this is the book it's based on (mostly chapter 2, but the movie incorporates stuff from other chapters). A wonderful trip back to a simpler time.
All three of these books still see action from time to time. I can recite passages from them from memory, and when I'm bored I'll pull one off the shelf, open to a random page, and know exactly where I am in the story.
To move this back on topic, how about giving the kid something not computer/geek related? Try to broaden his/her horizons a little bit.
Re:It might be english class fodder... (Score:3, Interesting)
Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey
Corliss Lamont's The Philosophy of Humanism
Herman Wouk's This Is My God
Chaim Potok's My Name Is Asher Lev
B. F. Skinner's Beyond Freedom & Dignity
Isaac Bashevis Singer's In My Father's Court
Edward O. Wilson's On Human Nature
Isaac Asimov's Guide to the Bible: The Old and New Testaments
Leo Rosten's Joys of Yiddish
Daniel Dennett's Consciousness Explained
Howard Fast's The Jews: Story of a People
Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian
Bertrand Russell's The Conquest of Happiness
C. S. Lewis's Miracles
Carl Sagan's Broca's Brain
Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World
Richard Dawkins' The Blind Watchmaker
Sigmund Freud's The Future of an Illusion
These are the books that have shaped me. I'm sure I've missed some, but I recommend them for all.
books that the best students would LIKE to receive (Score:3, Interesting)
You seem to imply that there are multiple subject areas, so I'll list multiple books, broken down by subject.
The assumption is that the student will actually want a copy of this book, which might not be the case with some other recommendations like The Art of War [amazon.com] or Gödel, Escher, Bach [amazon.com].
Since the student is graduating, how about How Would You Move Mount Fuji? [amazon.com], by William Poundstone. It's subtitled "Microsoft's Cult of the Puzzle - How the World's Smartest Company Selects the Most Creative Thinkers" and describes the roots of logic questions in interviews (specifically Microsoft's notoriously difficult interviews).
Since you mentioned Java or Linux, we can probably assume that the student knows his Design Patterns and UNIX Power Tools. How about Hardware Hacking: Have Fun While Voiding Your Warranty [amazon.com], by Joe Grand, Ryan Russell, and Kevin Mitnick?
Of course, it the student is a hardcore coder, you probably can't go wrong with the Art of Computer Programming, Volume 3 [amazon.com], Volume 2 [amazon.com], or Volume 1 [amazon.com], by Donald Knuth. Or if the student is an Open Source or Free Software zealot, then The Cathedral and the Bazaar [amazon.com] may be an obvious choice.
Guns, Germs and Steel (Score:5, Interesting)
well, it might be a little far afield, but guns, germs and steel [amazon.com] is one of the few books i've read that dramatically changed my point-of-view about a lot of things all at once. it basically sets out to figure out why the disparities between different cultures and races exist.
along the way, he draws from several diverse disciplines (botany, genetics, anthropology, archeology, etc), which is probably the most relevant facet of the book to the question -- it does a great job of showing how to use different approaches to solve problems.
-esme
Re:Rand (Score:2, Interesting)
My List (Score:3, Interesting)
- The Selfish Gene [world-of-dawkins.com]
- Vehicles: Experiments in Synthetic Psychology [amazon.com]
- Chimpanzee Politics [amazon.com]
- Getting to Yes [amazon.com]
- In a Different Voice [amazon.com]
- The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind [julianjaynes.org]
- Consilience: The Unity of Human Knowledge [amazon.com]
- The World's Religions [amazon.com]
- Life 102: What To Do When Your Guru Sues You [amazon.com]
- Zen Flesh, Zen Bones [amazon.com]
Plus a number of other books mentioned here.Note that I don't necessarily believe everything in these books, but all of them provided me with important insights. Also, props to my 6502 assembler manual, long since turned to dust.
Eigenpoll (Score:1, Interesting)
The Twenty-One Balloons (Score:2, Interesting)
Off the top of my head (Score:3, Interesting)
Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman! Adventures of a curious character compiled by Ralph Leighton. I was handed this book the night before Feynman was scheduled to give a talk, and I consumed it all at one reading. I sat in awe during his speech, amazed at his wit and quick mind. Then a group of us went out to dinner with him, and sealed forever his place as one of the people I worship.
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. Both versions, the 1939 short story first published in Thrilling Wonder Stories, and the 1956 novel. One of the first books I read which explored profound societal changes caused by a discovery. He truly thought out the consequences of being able to jaunte, and the obsolescence of things like prisons, borders, and women's rights.
The Lord of the Rings By some british guy. I heard they made it into a movie recently. The book which kicked off my interest in mythos, languages, and adventuring.
1984 by Eric Blair, and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Books I read when I was capable of understanding the perverse and twisted self-supporting arguments used by those in power to maintain their hold on tenuous authority.
Starship Troopers by RAH. Again, a book about fascism, ultra-nationalism, and blind obedience to authority. Plus some cool weapons and tactics. This book opened my eyes how cool toys could be used to seduce young men to perform extreme acts without thinking about their actions or consequences.
Harry Potter by JK Rowling. After reading the first two books, I realised how difficult it is to write easy reading prose, and I've never tried to write fiction since. I also like the carefully camouflaged deeper meanings, such as Aquinas' 7 virtues and vices, good/evil/lawful/chaotic house themes, use of latin and greek root words to betray the truth behind people, spells, and creatures.
The Lensman Series by E. E. Doc Smith. First sci-fi books I picked up as a child, and forever fueled my imagination for space flight.
The Art of Seduction by Robert Greene and The Kama Sutra, both are completely unconnected to the modern western world, but contain nuggets of knowledge hidden within. Both need to be read with an eye on how each situation can be translated into dealing with modern women. ESR's sex tips is a good, albeit stilted, distillation of these books translated into geek, for geeks.
There are others, fun books like HHGTTG, and the Disc World series. But those haven't really changed my life other than as mild sources of humourous quotes.
the AC
Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser (Score:1, Interesting)
I know what some might say: the book was really a serious examination of the IBP. To that I say (and in fact it is a mirror argument made by Schlosser), MacDonald's has the power to make the IBP change their ways. They won't.
As a result, I am a skinny geek with a social life and a babe for a girlfriend who shares my view. :-)
If you can't read the book (which is damn interesting -- read it) then watch "Super Size Me" by Morgan Spurlock. Pretty much a movie version of the book but focused entirely on MacDonald's instead of the fast food economics in general that is plaguing the 1st world nations and preying off of the 3rd world.