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Books that Changed Your Life?
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."
an Eternal Golden Braid.
A must book for anyone serious about CS.
Make even shorter URLs - 8LN.org
You know, it might be english class Fodder, but Fahrenheit 451 is a book that every kid should seriously *read*, on their own, and not in a class.
Seriously, it's one of the best lessons you could give a kid in today's world. A nice hardcover would be the perfect addition to a book collection or a great novel to start a love of reading.
My one other recommendation, though esoteric and perhaps more suited to my interests, would be "Descartes Error", by Damasio. It's a book about the tie between logic and emotion in the human brain, and reads like a novel (a non-neurologist could easily read it). I highly recommend it.
What Should I Do with My Life?
...that is all. :-)
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
A good Computer Science program will cover everything in GEB with more depth and without all the stupid-writing-tricks and dumbing down that Hofstadter employs. As someone who forced myself through GEB (to see what all the fuss was about) after graduating from a good CS program, I would describe it as a must-read book only for highschool-educated Perl hackers without any exposure to theoretical computing.
A true icon of what our culture is, what we hope, and what we fear. Some parts read a little oddly with the way technology realy went, but all in all a great book.
That which is done from love exists beyond good and evil
It also gives Wilde's brilliant opinions on what the meaning of Art is. Basically, in a time when so many people are asking "Why are we here", Wilde gives an answer. Obviously you may not agree with him later, but damned if you don't believe while reading it.
It's hard to explain Wilde's writing in a short comment. His writing is full, beautiful, and has endless amounts of wit. It is the perfect "life changer" for a geek.
Just a couple of quotes from Dorian Gray(taken from Wikipedia):
This is a hard topic for me, as I'm an avid reader, I could come up with 20 books off the topic of my head to suggest.
Anyone remotely interested in science should check out A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. What a great book to learn about all aspects of science. Well-written, informative, and interesting all at once.
- Ben
"I either want less corruption, or more chance
to participate in it." -- Ashleigh Brilliant
By Douglas Hofstadter
If you've read it, you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, words fail me -- just go buy it.
I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve. BB
Well besides the scriptures which in a public school/college setting should not be given as a reward I would have to say.
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.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
The Little Schemer, a very unusual book on LISP (well, OK, on Scheme, but close enough.) It is a fun read, written in a sort of oddball Socratic method style, and it also has a sequel, the Seasoned Schemer.
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.
Protect your liberties. Donate to the ACLU
Right now, I'm reading Salt: A World History 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. 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 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. Although in case they haven't read Quicksilver, 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
Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.
For a Programmer:
Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
The Baghavad Gita
The C Programming Language
Thinking Forth
The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason changed my entire concept of money and how to use it. It contains all the stuff you wish someone would have taught you growing up. It is written in parable form and is short and easy to read and understand, yet contains some very inspired text. Amazon Link
on one end of the spectrom, i have HitchHikers Guide To The Galaxy.
:)
on the other i have 1984.
take your pick
Don't call me back. Give me a call back. Bye. So yeah. But bye our, well, but alright we are on a shirt this chill.
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.
\/\/oobie
Douglas Coupland - Microserfs was extremely important to me. It made me aware of the pitfalls awaiting the unwary software engineer, and so I left University determined to ensure I maintained a sensible balance between my working and social lives.
It's done wonders for my mental state and, not coincidentally, the quality of my work.
There's lots of other good books mentioned in this thread too, so good luck trying to choose just one! That said, make sure that whatever you get is a nice hardcover edition.
by Plato. A discussion of the nature of knowledge and the ways in which we know what we know. This book has proven to be absolutely indispensable for my work as a programmer. Rigorous mental discipline with an eye toward tearing down what we think we know to understand how to know is not only good practice for designing applications but also for life in general. I give it to all my student-aged friends.
By Morris Kline
4 86 248232/qid=1089163233/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_4/104-478919 4-2901520?v=glance&s=books
This 1960s text is one of the drue diamonds in the rough for me.
I had advanced math, and science all thruogh high school, like many fellow slashdotters, but this book REALLY put all the pieves together.
It is a fantastic read of the history of math, and HOW we got to where were are. It begins with the concept of zero, axioms of truth, and how these truths are built upon... all the way through calculus.
It is an absloutly fascinating text, that really awakened me to the world of abstract mathematics, their buildings from basic truths, the realization that we STILL have a long way to go, and there is still a bleeding edge of mathematics.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0
by L. Ron Hubbard. It's much easier to avoid the potholes of life if you know what a pothole looks like. Dianetics is truly what I'd recommend if you want to curl up on a winter evening by a nice warm fire. My copy burned for about 20 minutes!
No weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men.-Ronald Reagan
we don't even RTFA and you expect us to give you BOOK SUGGESTIONS?
/jab
you must be new here, right?
I was just at the end of second grade, and *really* into submarines. My neighbor was two years older than me, and made fun of me for getting "little kids' two-page books" when we went to the bookmobile. So early that Summer, I got another age-appropriate book about submarines, but I also got 20,000 Leagues. It took me most of the Summer and several renewals, but I was determined to read that book. To be honest, quite a bit of it zoomed over my head, too. But I read the whole thing.
A good lesson in stick-to-it-ivness, and it helped launch my life-long interest in Science Fiction, which helped launch my interest and career in technology, as an engineer.
As a bad side-effect, I never looked at any of the many 20,000 Leagues movies quite the same, after that book, since none I've seen were truly faithful. (Most tried to hint at nuclear power, instead of really good batteries, etc.)
I really ought to reread the book, some time. For all the books I've read and re-read, I've never re-read that one.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
I'm not joking, its still a favorite of mine for some reason.
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.
"I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
microserfs by doug coupland 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, hey nostradamus!, and generation x).
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.
A good geek should know about the ones that came before, and learn from their mistakes and triumphs. Some books on geek history:
In The Beginning Was The Command Line by Neal Stephenson is a good overview of the culture of Linux, Macintosh, Be, and Microsoft in essay form. I've given it to non-computer geeks to teach them about Linux, and why it's different from windows. He talks about how modern society tries to impose a false image over everything to make things easier to deal with(like Disney) and compares that to the GUI vs. CLI differences. I don't agree with everything he says, but Stephenson is definitely a great writer, and he has the book available free at the link I put in.
Hackers by Steven Levy covers important epochs of the hacker culture, from its beginning at MIT to game developers in the 80s. It even has a chapter on Stallman starting GNU! A must-read for any geek.
Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse. It's just one of those books everyone should read.
Philosphy: Meditations (Descarte)
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 for more books.
If you at all interested in copyright, patents, open source, public domain, Internet, and the airwaves, this book is a well-written overview of these issues, along with suggested solutions to some of the problems involved. In paperback.
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.
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
Never read Atlas Shrugged, though I did read The Fountainhead. A guy down the hall Freshman year in college was a Rand fan, which got me to the point of reading one. Shortly later, I began reading Atlas Shrugged, and it seemed like same story, same characters, different setting.
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 living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
I know on the surface it looks like a simple read, but the book nails every aspect of conflict so precisely, but still stated in simple enough terms that can be easily applied to nearly any situation. I don't mean to make it sound like a self help book or anything of the sort, but when are we ever not fighting for what we want?
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. A journey in coming to grips with the real world and finding your place in it.
"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character
and What Do You Care What Other People Think? both by Richard P. Feynman et al.
Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Steven Levy
All three of these books I happened to have read between my sophomore and junior year of high school.
These books changed my life because they provided accounts of people (geeks) pursuing their love of science/technology in a fiercely dedicated and independent way, all at a young age (you get early accounts of folks like Stallman, Gates, Jobs, Woz, etc. as 20-somethings in "Hackers") , and ended up making huge contributions to research/industry. You also get to hear about the enormous sacrifices, regrets, and risks taken (some succeeding, some failing), and ultimately an important perspective on the lives of some very smart and important characters in a way that I think is still relevant to graduating high school kids today.
Best,
Andrew
I was in the bookstore getting books for a class a couple (ahem) of years back, and I noticed an optional text for a compsci course:
"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!".
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.
Stephen Covey's First Things First
Truman Capote's In Cold Blood.
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.
My father is a blogger.
It is silly to look down your nose at mere self taught Perl hackers.
It is silly to look down on anyone, but I don't think that is the issue here. A lot of people who don't have a computer science degree can make excellent programmers (although I would think having a degree would make it a lot easier). The thing I find interesting is that those who teach themselves programming often seem to think that CS is about programming, and it isn't.
Some one who gets a PhD in CS probably has no intention of doing much programming in their lifetime (most of the ones I know don't do much). Someone who teaches themself a language probably does. These people are out to do different things. That is why I find the idea of a PhD looking down on a perl hacker to be silly. They aren't in the same line of work.
The bottom line is that Computer Scientist != Programmer. They aren't even similar.
the graduating student who has performed best in a particular subject area is given a book prize
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 or Gödel, Escher, Bach.
Since the student is graduating, how about How Would You Move Mount Fuji?, 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, 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, Volume 2, or Volume 1, by Donald Knuth. Or if the student is an Open Source or Free Software zealot, then The Cathedral and the Bazaar may be an obvious choice.
well, it might be a little far afield, but guns, germs and steel 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
- The Selfish Gene
- Vehicles: Experiments in Synthetic Psychology
- Chimpanzee Politics
- Getting to Yes
- In a Different Voice
- The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind
- Consilience: The Unity of Human Knowledge
- The World's Religions
- Life 102: What To Do When Your Guru Sues You
- Zen Flesh, Zen Bones
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.
If you want to help that computer science student to survive the real world, at least let him read about the things nobody accepts but all know in ther heart before being hit with it.
On the same vein: give him a coupon for 'The Dealine' by Tom deMarco, only to be cashed in after he has failed his first project through management interference. He won't believe the things PHBs do beforehand anyway.
I would assume that your school trains him in all the technical knowledge he can get. Give him something for all the other skills he's going to need.
Your mileage may vary... A Practical Guide to Feature-Driven Development by Stephen Palmer and John Felsing Reading _and_ using this one right now - has changed my whole approach to software development and delivery Code Complete by Steve McConnell A common sense approach to software development - a bit dated nowadays and too rigid for real use, but excellent tips and tricks throughout - not language specific Designing With Web Standards by Jeffrey Zeldman An excellent introduction into modern web markup, how to write markup once that will work everywhere - has literally changed my daily toil.
The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois is an incredible book. I'm currently an entering freshman in the College of Engineering at UC Berkeley, and sadly enough, this book may be the reason! I've always had a passion for invention, for creation...and I do believe that this book helped to formulate that passion. It features numerous practical inventions, such as tables that come out of the floor, beds that make themselves...it just goes on and on. It's a brilliant and imaginative book, and because CS is all about creation, I'd definitely recommend it. ...and I'm not the only person who thinks that this dinky little children's book is incredible. It was the winner of the 1948 Newbery Medal.
"Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world." -Archimedes
One of my professors loaned me his copy of The Shockwave Rider in 1982. I don't know if this book changed my life, but it certainly made me think about how computers could (and should) be used. Written in 1975, John Brunner guessed wrong about the details of the technology, but scored a direct hit on the results of technology on society, and what it will mean for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in the 21st century. This book was out of print for years, and it took me more than a decade of scowering used book stores to find a copy for myself -- I now have several copies so that I can lend them to others.
Buy it from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
We call it art because we have names for the things we understand.
From what I have on my bookshelf, books I have kept through many, many moves.
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
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on