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Technical Books for a High School Library?

Posted by Cliff on from the filling-the-shelves dept.

Doug Penny asks: "Our High school librarian has ask me to compile a list of computer/technical books for our library. I've seen references to this on Slashdot before, but all seem to be more college or professional related. Does anyone have some good suggestions for curious high school students? Thanks."

1 of 43 comments (clear)

  1. Non-programming books by Scarblac · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Almost everybody seems to be suggesting programming language books. Useful for programmers, but not quite enough for a complete "tech" library, nor very useful for people who don't program yet and don't think they should.

    Also, anyone who says the Knuth Bible isn't academic but high school level is totally out of his mind.

    I think they should have books that inspire people, and be very readable and not purely technical. Unfortunately I don't own that many of them myself, but how about

    • Ed Regis - Great Mambo Chicken and the Transhuman Condition
    • Godel, Escher, Bach, an Eternal Golden Braid (perhaps not a "tech" book though - but any library should have it)
    • Oliver Sacks - Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Childhood

    And hrm... I too know more about programming :-). I can't imagine a student learning programming these days without heavy use of the Internet. References are online and quickly outdated. I'd say get a few books that teach the first steps - "Learn to program using Python" by Alan Gauld is one. It shows most examples in three different languages (Python, TCL, QBasic iirc), and starts with the very basics.

    Code Complete is also very good, but not for beginners - it describes what makes good code good code. If you get any Java books, also get "Effective Java - Programming Language Guide" by Joshua Bloch.

    I guess there's little chance of getting a Linux box there on which people can get accounts to try programming a bit? :-)

    Most people won't want to dive into programming right away, I think. Get a book about making web pages. HTML, JavaScript, PHP perhaps. Or Flash. Actually, from what I hear Flash may be perfect to start in as it's easy to make cool looking things - but I don't have experience with it.

    I'll stop rambling.

    --
    I believe posters are recognized by their sig. So I made one.