Geek Books as Holiday Gifts

Sybelius writes "Wired News is running a story that recommends a half dozen good books as holiday gifts. It's a much more inspired list than the one recently offered by Amazon. According to the reviewer, the books chosen are ones that 'any techno-loving, systems-tinkering, hardware-hacking person would love, but that even those who can't program the clock on their VCR will find quite readable.' Do Slashdot readers have any other recommendations for titles that fit this requirement?"

Comments

Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice in C

[glrotate]

Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice in C

by James D. Foley, Andries van Dam

Get a geek interested in graphics and learn from the classic.

Re:Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice in C

[fireboy1919]

I wasn't aware that there was anyone who actually felt that three dimensional discrete calculus and C programming are both less difficult to understand than a VCR.

Go you!

But if you're going there, why not go ahead and get the master work on algorithms, Numerical Recipes, which is now available in C,C++, and Fortran versions. This, just like your suggestion, is hardcore programmers brainfood, not fluff.

For softer stuff, may I suggest O'Reilly books about scripting languages? It doesn't really matter which one. Pick one. Ruby, perl, python, etc. They give a good introduction to modern programming libraries, while not getting the newbie bogged down in having to write algorithms that are more complicated than they can deal with.

Re:Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice in C

[forkazoo]

I haven't been able to figure out how to set the clock in my car, or set any presets. I don't have a VCR, so I can't compare precisely the difficulty involved, but I'm sure it's similar. That said, I agree with the GP that's an excellent book. I might also suggest Shirley's Fundamentals of Computer Graphics, and Savachenko's 3D Graphics Programming, which I picked out of a bargain bin and was quite pleased with for the discount price.

That said, anybody have a good link to instructions on how to program the radio in my '02 Saturn?

Re:Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice in C

[SILIZIUMM]

Try reading the book that came with your car, mabye ?

Re:Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice in C

[fbform]

why not go ahead and get the master work on algorithms, Numerical Recipes, which is now available in C,C++, and Fortran versions. This, just like your suggestion, is hardcore programmers brainfood, not fluff.

I don't know if that was supposed to be funny. If you were serious, I'd like to strongly dissuade you from using NR in production code. Don't get me wrong - NR is an excellent teaching aid and it's excellent for getting the concept. It's a very good book to read in an advanced undergrad course on numerical techniques, but please don't use it in production code. For one thing, the C version is a bad hack of the Fortran version, which means that all subscripts run from 1 to N, instead of 0 to N-1, and all arrays are one element longer than they need to be, with the array[0] element not being used. For another, some chapters leave a lot to be desired. In my personal experience, the functions to solve partial differential equations were badly designed (they assume you have Dirichlet boundary conditions throughout, without allowance for Neumann or mixed).

You should read reviews like this one before you advocate NR.

Summary: NR discusses the algorithms well, and it's written in an eminently readable style. Its code however is not production grade, and should not be used if you have any better libraries.

Re:Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice in C

[fireboy1919]

I don't think we were discussing what books you should pull code from, were we? That's not the subject on the door, anyway.

You are inferring that because I said that there are versions of this book in C,C++, and Fortran that I meant that you should use the code from the book. I did not say this. What I said was that it's a good book to learn from, as you have agreed.
There were a lot of times looking through the book that I remember thinking "why did they do it that way? It's certainly convoluted."

You're wrong about the waste of memory, though. Go look again. Whenever they do new/malloc operations, they assign the pointer to an address that is one less than the address given so that the allocated array runs from 1 to n (accessing 0 would be illegal). While this is not convention, it is reasonable. This part adds fairly negligable expense, assuming you can remember that this is what they're doing. Optimizing compilers don't have any problem with this kind of range stuff, either, since the result is still linear, so this will most likely result in no difference at all.

I've used the same trick myself (making bigger images that have legal coordinates such as (-3,-10) ) with image mosiacs so I didn't have to translate the coordinate system.

Still, a lot of the algorithms themselves (not the code, usually) are useful exactly the way they are without variation even in production environments (the ubiquitous one that springs to mind is the Gaussian method with pivoting). You just have to keep in mind that the book is thirty years old, and you're going to be doing things the way that they've always been done, which is not necessarily the best way. You can write something using the Numerical Recipe, profile, and then get a different method than the recipe if that's what's sucking your cycles.

Re:Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice in C

[forkazoo]

None did. I got the car used, and it didn't have the original manuals. :)

Books? That's so 2003!

[ErikTheRed]

Give them a subscription to Safari.

Re:Books? That's so 2003!

[wk633]

or ACM (www.acm.org) which includes a pretty good online libary. Not as complete as Safari, but a pretty good deal for $99/year.

Re:Books? That's so 2003!

[blackcoot]

for what i do, having access to the acm library is far more useful than safari (but then i'm a research scientist, your mileage may vary ;-))

Re:Books? That's so 2003!

[Fahrenheit 450]

Yeah, that would be great if O'Reilly hadn't started resting on their laurels and let their collection stagnate.

Oh look honey... another 400 "Hacks" books. Oooohhh... "Grits 'n' Gravy Hacks"! And "1974 Ford Pinto Hacks"!

Referrer flood

[emcron]

Let the flood of amazon.com referrer links begin! :-) -- Gotta love it when people try to make $0.83 off slashdot

Re:Referrer flood

[davesplace1]

Very funny, $0.83 cents a book can add up with a big crowd like SlashDot. Rumor has it that most SlashDoters can even read.

Re:Referrer flood

[Archon-X]

Perhaps maybe then you'd prefer Adult DVD Link, why not.

Re:Books are for gays

[Godman]

Hmmm, its getting to the point now where the first post on any given slashdot story is automatically modded -1.

Harry Potter

[Zordas]

The Harry Potter series is excelent for kids (Adults too).

Re:Harry Potter

[miyako]

Actually, I'd second this. I spent a lot of time resisting the pressure to read the Harry Potter books, but I finally broke down and borrowed the first book from a friend of mine, and I have to say that now I have the entire series of books, and found them all to be quite enjoyable.
While the reading level of the books is certainly going to be low, and not present much of a challenge to adult readers, JK Rowling manages to do an amazing job of creating a great story and an immersive world with the limited complexity of the language that she uses. In fact, this is one of the nice things about this series, it's a very easy and at the same time engrossing read, so I can get through a book relatively fast. There is also a lot of very subtle humor in the books, especially the laters ones once the series was proving popular to adults as well as kids, that is clearly targeted at an older audience.
These books are especially good for people with kids, because it is one of the few book series that the parents and the kids can equally enjoy.

Re:Harry Potter

[pjt33]

That's how Saten wins - one sole at a time.

Who's this Saten person - some guy with a foot fetish?

Re:Harry Potter

[bint]

I "broke down" and read the first book, but gave up after that. Not that it was particularly bad, just it felt very much like a book for children, which wasn't much of surprise. There are so many better writers and books and I just didn't think the books were worth the time. I'd prefer fantasy written by Tolkien, Donaldson and Hobb. Much better written *and* with good stories.

IMO, of course.

The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide

[JNighthawk]

All of my friends have always told me that the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is an awesome book, but I've always had other things on my reading list already. I'm finally done reading the Wheel of Time series and everything by Raymond E. Feist, so I asked for The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide for Christmas. I wonder now, if after hearing "The meaning of life is 42." a million times I'll think it's still funny when reading the books.

Re:The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide

[JNighthawk]

Heh. The sad part is I never found it funny in real life either.

Re:The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide

[fishmasta]

But the meaning of life isn't 42. 42 is the answer to the question of life, the universe, and everything.

Re:The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide

[Geoffreyerffoeg]

I'm finally done reading the Wheel of Time series

You are never done reading WoT. I'm assuming you're done with the 10 books + 1 prequel that are out. As far as I know, Robert Jordan plans to write at least 2 more books and 2 more prequels. He hadn't earlier mentioned the third prequel, so you never know if he'll add more to his schedule. He might even do another 15 books on some other story arc: Hawkwing's exploits, Lews Therin's story, another Age he hasn't mentioned...there's a lot to be explored.

Read and find out, I guess.

Re:The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide

[davesplace1]

Yes you will still think its funny after reading the book. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy would make a great gift. Thanks for solving my gift giving problems this year :)

Re:The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide

[Jardine]

You are never done reading WoT. I'm assuming you're done with the 10 books + 1 prequel that are out. As far as I know, Robert Jordan plans to write at least 2 more books and 2 more prequels.

Robert Jordan will keep writing WoT books until he dies, leaving everyone hanging on a cliffhanger ending from the last book he's written.

Re:The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide

[Geoffreyerffoeg]

I can't believe people are still giving that guy money.

Me neither. I just checked out the 9th book from the public library. Other than the researchers, who'd want to read these books more than once? Reading the sequels is enough repetition....

(The library's purchases don't count.)

Re:The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide

[bfields]

I wonder now, if after hearing "The meaning of life is 42." a million times I'll think it's still funny when reading the books.

It's not a lot more than a long series of one-liners, but I still think it's very funny. (Though the "42" thing is one of the few that never struck me as that funny, and I'm mystified as to why it gets repeated so much.)

--Bruce Fields

Re:The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide

[DirePickle]

I believe Robert Jordan's own words were somewhere along the lines of, "As long as it keeps making money, I'll keep writing the WoT."

Re:The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide

[goon america]

Yes, but what is the question that 42 is the answer to?

Re:The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide

[doublebackslash]

I am getting more books the x-mass than any other present, I think. Many of which are the bofh books. Google for it, the colum is at the reg. H2G2 is GREAT. the best book(s?) I've ever read. I too own the Ultimate Hitch Hiker's Guide, and though the end... NM, read it. Also get some Mark Knophler under your belt, it will make one scene in So Long and Thanks for all the Fish a ot more touching. "The record got to the good bit." Douglas Adams not only was a great writer, but the best satirist that this world has been blessed with enduring.
--
"In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."

Re:The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide

[moranar]

Yes, yes it is. I still re-read it whenever I have time (I have the omnibus edition comprising the five books).

Re:The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide

[Xiaran]

Whats six by nine?

Re:The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide

[Kevin DeGraaf]

Sorry, this is way offtopic, but I don't see any other way to get a message to you (Geoffreyerffoeg).

Please email me, via the contact form on my website, if you get a chance.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

[bigberk]

Douglas Adams' classic geek book, I'm buying it for a geek girl. I found that Chapters (Canada) sells the entire trilogy in 4 parts for $6 or so. Yeah, I'm a cheap geek. I've already received the shipment, it really is the whole damn set of books for $6.

Re:Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

[fireboy1919]

If you've got someone who has already read Adam's extremely small collection of works (including HHGTG and the Dirk Gently books, his "we picked up all the clippings of stuff he wrote and put it into a book," and "Starship Titanic" based on his video game), then they might also like Terry Pratchett's books.

He tells a ripping good yarn, almost all parodies, usually insightful, and always funny. His most famous series is the Discworld books, of which there are 30 or so.

Reading through these books my favorite author slowly switched from Douglas to Pratchett. The humor style is almost the same, but Pratchett's a little more optimistic about the nature of life, which I find refreshing.

Re:Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

[miu]

I second Pratchett, at his best he is incredible. If buying for a gift I'd suggest staying away from the earliest stuff (which can be so dark and sarcastic they are not enjoyable for many people) and his very latest stuff (which suffers from sickening amounts of American style sentimentality). Good books to start with are probably "Guards, Guards" (Ankh-Morpak night watch), "Soul Music" (Death and his relatives), and "Maskerade" (Lancre witches).

Re:Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

[Chess_the_cat]

She can't be that big of a geek if she didn't already own them. BTW, the reason that set is so cheap is because it's missing the fifth volume: Mostly Harmless.

Re:Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

[parlyboy]

BTW, the reason that set is so cheap is because it's missing the fifth volume: Mostly Harmless.

Most of us would pay more to pretend that Mostly Harmless was not part of the "trilogy"...

Re:Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

[belg4mit]

Actually you left out a few. I've not yet managed to find The Meaning of Liff and its sequel but I hear its good. Last Chance to See is still in print (or was recently) and is a really excellent work.

Re:Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

[fluffybacon]

Mort?? For anyone who likes dark and sarcastic I'd recommend Robert Rankin.

Re:Books are for gays

[cbrocious]

Thank you sir. If it weren't for non-readers like yourselves (or "non-gays" from your post) we wouldn't have people to pump our gas, wash our windows, and do other trivial but neccesary jobs. I salute you.

Code

[IceFox]

I recently picked up "Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software" by Charles Petzold amazon link. It was a very enjoyable read that tells the history of computers came to be. Not the last 20 years history, but most of the book is from 1600-1960's with a little bit out the modern computer. Very enjoyable read. Inspired me to make my own relays out of wire and a two bit adder. :)

-Benjamin Meyer

Classics of CS

[nkh]

The Art of Computer Programming (Donald Knuth) and the dragon book on compilers of course (I'm reading the first and I will buy the second in a few days). If you don't like mathematics, a good book on functional programming will make your brain all warm inside!

Re:Classics of CS

[PostItNote]

A new edition of the dragon book is coming out in about a year. It's starting to show its age, my compilers prof says that there aren't any good, current books, and that if you want a good compilers book you should wait until the next edition of the dragon book.

TAOCP is still great, however.

Re:Classics of CS

[pdiaz]

Agreed with the dragon book:Don't buy it now. It's quite old now and as the parent says, a new edition is due "early"

About TAOCP...it's a though book. And it fits in the definition of "classic" (a book that everyone talks about but very few have read ;-). I find the "Introduction to Algorithms" (sec. ed), by Cormen et al much more comprehensive and easy to read. Also, "Algorithms in C", by Sedgewick, is another fine book. And of course, one of my favourites: "Programming Pearls", by Jon Bentley (take the updated second edition)

Re:Classics of CS

[PostItNote]

Agreed about TAOCP. It's a tough read. I don't find Cormen (The Big White (now greenish) Book of Algorithms)that easy to read. Oddly enough, Garey and Johnson (A Guide to the Theory of NP-Completeness) is totally readable.

Different strokes for different folks.

Another book to check out is the Feynamn Lectures on Computation. Full of neat ideas explained in his inimitable style.

Re:Classics of CS

[DavidNWelton]

Yeah, they're amazon links, but what the heck, they asked for it. Here's my list, which has some classics, and some practical stuff.

• About Face 2.0
• Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment
• Algorithms in C
• The C Programming Language : ANSI C Version
• C++ Programming Language 3RD Edition Special Edition
• Expert C Programming : Deep C Secrets
• Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software
• Learning Python
• Linkers & Loaders
• Linux Device Drivers
• Operating Systems : Design and Implementation
• Practical Programming in Tcl & Tk, 4th Edition
• The Practice of Programming
• Programming With Posix Threads
• Python Essential Reference 2ND Edition
• Running Linux
• The Scheme Programming Language : ANSI Scheme
• Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs
• Unix for the Impatient
• Unix Network Programming, Volume 1, 2nd Edition.
• Unix Network Programming, Volume 2, 2nd Edition.

As an added bonus, here are two that will open your horizons a bit:

• Crossing the Chasm
• Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy

What I don't like about Safari

[baywulf]

If you surf too fast through a book they will warn you that a bot may be reading the webpages and they may cancel your account if it happens too often.

Off the top of my Brain..

[Anonymous Coward]

Anything by Terry Pratchett!

His Discworld Series, or the Book Good Omens.

Schaum's Outline Series

[kurtb149]

Any of the Schaum's Outline Series books. The are inexpensive and teach the subject in the best way possible: require the student to solve problems.

Forget tinkering

[EEBaum]

Get them a good piece of geek fiction. Hitchhiker's Guide, LOTR, Asimov, Arthur C Clarke, etc.

A Short History of Nearly Everything

[plumpy]

I'd highly recommend Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything. I found it because it was one of Powell's "favorite new titles of the season".

It covers (briefly) the history of the earth, the universe, Physics and Chemistry. If you know your science, you probably won't learn a lot from it, but the fun part is the way he covers the personalities behind all the discoveries. I'd say at least 2/3 of the book is brief biographies of hundreds of people you probably haven't heard of.

The writing style is very casual, easy to understand even for non-science nerds, and (most surprisingly) pretty funny. It's not very expensive either. I'd reccomend this book to just about anyone with a casual interest in science (even if that interest is so casual that they haven't sought out science books before).

Re:A Short History of Nearly Everything

[Xeo 024]

I second that recommendation.

It truly is a great book, I haven't had a chance to finish it yet, but it'll definitely keep you hooked.

Re:A Short History of Nearly Everything

[tartarugo]

I love Bryson's books - I think I've bought most of them. I really was looking forward to reading SHoNE, but was greatly disappointed.

Although it purports to be a condensed history of science, it's actually highly focused on geology to the detriment of other arguably more influential branches of science. The book is sprinkled with anecdotes surrounding the protagonists of some major discoveries. However, Bryson falls short when he tries to explain the concepts and ideas that have shaken and shaped scientific thought. Being a physicist by training, I was thorougly unimpressed by his explanation of relativity and quantum mechanics.

Perhaps if the book was named something like "The men that shaped science", I might be less disappointed, but I think that it is undeniable that this not one of Bryson's most compelling works.

poetry?

[chocolatetrumpet]

I know this is off the beaten path, but...

any poetry by Octavio Paz, translated into your native language if you don't speak Spanish.

I just love his stuff.

Here's a sample:

Between going and staying the day wavers,
in love with its own transparency.
The circular afternoon is now a bay
where the world in stillness rocks.

All is visible and all elusive,
all is near and can't be touched.

Paper, book, pencil, glass,
rest in the shade of their names.

Time throbbing in my temples repeats
the same unchanging syllable of blood.

The light turns the indifferent wall
into a ghostly theater of reflections.

I find myself in the middle of an eye,
watching myself in its blank stare.

The moment scatters. Motionless,
I stay and go: I am a pause.

Translated by Eliot Weinberger

Two classic accessible books

[Anonymous Coward]

Cuckoo's Egg
Takedown

CSS Zen Garden

[Khuffie]

I'd highly recommend CSS Zen Garden, from the makers of csszengarden. It's not out yet, but I'd recommend it to any webdesigner out there.

Just a Geek

[brasten]

Wil Wheaton... Great gift for geeks and non-geeks...

Re:Just a Geek

[WizardRahl]

a good stud for your pet klingons

Re:Just a Geek

[brasten]

I got rid of my pet Klingons... Too much territory marking... yuck.

Re:Just a Geek

[E-Rock-23]

I'll second that :D

Eric S. Raymond

[Chonine]

I've been reading a lot of Eric S. Raymond's content off of his web site lately, and a lot of it is very interesting. The Art of Unix Programming or The Cathedral and the Bazaar would be a great gift.

Oreilly's Mind Hacks

[phoxix]

Pretty good book, I ended up getting a copy for a fellow geek friend.

It took me a while to find a copy in NYC, but I finally found a store that had it.

Clinky Link

Better idea

[Turn-X Alphonse]

ASK!

Theres no "Perfect book", you need to know peoples intrests and it's not difficult to just ask what they'd like. It says you buying something they don't want, then they will do the same for you and you both get what you want and theres none of that "Oh yea I love it.. cough fire lighter", type of thing.

Art of Machinima

[gToon]

Paul Marino's excellent book on making machinima would be a good Christmas gift for the geeks among us. Not only to you get a superb overview of machinima and it's history, you also get step by step tutorials and all of the programs you need to make your own films on the included CD. I'ts also got a funny, laid-back style that will make you laugh while you are trying to figure out the tutorials. *****

books

[Phil246]

C++ for dummies
Java for dummies
* for dummies ...

Re:books

[mongoose(!no)]

WildCard for dummies? Do you mean grep for Dummies? I think /. readers are a bit above the For Dummies series, they aren't the greatest books to learn a computer language from, the best way is tutorials from the internet. A good one is http://www.hetland.org/python/instant-hacking.php for python. Get them a book about the history of computers or some thing about theory on encryption.

Re:books

[Phil246]

was more referring to the entire " for dummies " range :)
Personally i found them handy in getting to grips with something totally new

Re:Books are for gays

[zlyoga]

yea because all that reading of books makes them happy:)

How could they have missed it?

[koreaman]

The freely available online Unix System 7 Manual!

What's a VCR?

[Anonymous Coward]

I read about them once, but not sure what they are for....

Re:What's a VCR?

[robfoo]

The VCR was an early predecessor of the DVD player. Lower in quality, and only programmable by a select few..
You can find a picture here

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

I know an ideal book...

[Psychotext]

...but it's not out yet. It's called "101 ways to get laid".

:)

Re:I know an ideal book...

[Garabito]

You don't need a book for that. Just this FAQ

It's really worth reading. Most of it is useful, except for some NLP crap that I consider to be BS.

But just reading the FAQ or the newsgroup posts won't get you laid. You have to start putting those techniques in practice; which could be intimidating or be seen as difficult to introverted or shy people (which I think most /.ers are at some degree)

Re:I know an ideal book...

[orthogonal]

...but it's not out yet. It's called "101 ways to get laid".

I'd settle for one.

Ok, but that one'll cost you $101 dollars.

First, look in the phone book under "Escorts, blind and unable to smell Dorito dust...."

Re:I know an ideal book...

[Psychotext]

Good one. You know, if the geeks put in half as much effort to learning the opposite sex as they do learning the latest and greatest programming language I reckon they'd probably do fine! ;)

Personally

[MrHanky]

I want The LaTeX Companion by Frank Mittelbach, Michel Goossens et al. LaTeX is a seriously cool piece of software for text publishing -- and far from easy to use, if you want to exploit its full potential (it's not difficult to produce simple but good looking documents, that's almost automagic). From what I've heard, this book is among the best on the subject. Too bad the title makes it sound like a condom.

So Santa, if you read this: Please, please, please!

Re:Personally

[WillAdams]

Agreed. (But I bought it for myself as a late birthday present before it came out and had to wait an extra week or two for Amazon to ship it).

However, please bear in mind that TLC2e is more of a reference text than a beginner's manual / guide --- it's indispensable for understanding LaTeX's error messages and fairly good for understanding an overview of LaTeX (esp. as an overview of what's on CTAN with the new material in this edition), but to learn it you may want another text (and to understand the internals you'll want to typeset (or download) a copy of the literate source for LaTeX: The Program.

On the bright side, if you wait a little bit you should get a second printing which has a _lot_ of errata fixed (see http://www.latex-project.org for the list).

William

Re:Personally

[jayed_99]

You might want to start off with Guide to LaTeX by Helmut Lopka and Patrick Daly. It's got the same publisher (Addison-Wesley) and is a book about using LaTeX. The LaTeX companion (from what I gathered by perusing it in the bookstore earlier tonight) is more about packages that provide additional functionality to the base system.

I've only had a chance to scan through bits and pieces since I brought it home, but Guide to LaTeX seems to be an excellent book that is a great starting place for learning about LaTeX.

If I had more disposable income I would have bought both of them. I've already seen places in the Guide that refer to the Companion.

Re:Personally

[jayed_99]

Guide to LaTeX is the "beginner's manual / guide" in the series. (I hesitate to call two books a series, but, hey). I just bought it tonight, and it looks great.

Re:Personally

[WillAdams]

Correct, but to nitpick there's also the LaTeX Graphics Companion (not recently updated) and the LaTeX Web Companion in the series.

William
(who really should buy the rest of the books in the series)

Re:Personally

[MrHanky]

Thanks. Yes, Guide to LaTeX seems to be a better starting point, but I've used LaTeX for a while now (written a ~120 page thesis), so I figured I needed more of a reference book. But then again, there are lots of things in LaTeX that I don't understand, but that I can get to work anyway, somehow. It's not unlikely that I need better understanding of the basics.

What about the classics?

[meganthom]

Asimov (maybe I Robot would be a good choice with the crappy movie out), Stephenson, Gibson, Nevin, etc.

I just started reading Ringworld, and I absolutely love it.

For the physicist/chemist/engineer in your life, I'd recommend the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. It's a great reference, and a book we would rarely buy for ourselves...

Re:What about the classics?

[d3m057h3n35]

I went with Stephenson's Quicksilver for my brother, who is less into scifi and more into fantasy, historical fiction, etc., and Heinlein's immortal classic The Moon is a Harsh Mistress for a friend with one eye always on the stars. I hope they'll be enjoyable for them, they certainly were for me.

Re:What about the classics?

[m50d]

OT but why do you say the movie was crappy? It wasn't as deep as it could have been, but it was better than most action films I've seen. The vertical spinning thing was such a logical evolution I was amazed the Wachowskis (sp?) didn't do it in one of their sequels, but instead they did the awful "now it's slow - now it isn't" thing in the hundred Smiths fight. Maybe we can claim I Robot as Matrix 3, it's far superior to the sequels we did get.

Re:What about the classics?

[dasunt]

Agreed.

"I, Robot" the movie had one main problem for non-Asimov fans -- the blatent advertisements at the beginning.

For Asimov fans, it an additional problems. There is a corruption of the Susan Calvin character -- in the books and the movie, she seems to be socially non-aware, but for different reasons. In the books, she appears to have rejected spending time to learning the nuances of human interaction, instead, focusing on robots. In the movie, she appears to be more clueless about human interaction.

That being said, its not a bad movie, and is probably the closest that Hollywood would get to spirit of Asimov's work.

It has an impossible murder in the beginning, which is very Asmovian ("Tales of the Black Widowers", anyone?). The solution to the murder requires an understanding of the SF setting (see "The Caves of Steel" and "The Naked Sun", amoung others). Robots can and have disregarded the three laws (such as Cutie (QT-1) in "Reason" and others) or have formulated rather harsh and drastic solutions when faced with protecting humanity (the Zeroth Law in "Robots and Empire"). It even has the main character who suffers from a "Frankenstein complex" and later learns to deal with it.

Sure, it isn't based on a specific story, and it doesn't seem to fit into the chronology of Asimov's universe, but it is the closest mainstream movie that we'll see of Asimov's work.

I think that a major problem with geeks' perception of the movie is that it was sold as an action adventure movie. Thus we go out and highlight the flaws in "I, Robot" while ignoring surfboarding elves and dwarf tossing in a certain other movie.

In short, we want to hate "I, Robot".

Bastard Operator from Hell

[IO ERROR]

If I were going to give anyone a book, it would be from the Bastard Operator from Hell series. The poor clueless users who can't even program their VCR need to know what they're in for if they cross one of us....

Brian Greene

[Anonymous Coward]

Not sure if this qualifies as a GEEK book per se, but Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos are excellent qualitative descriptions of modern physics. You won't be able to solve any physics problems after reading them but pretty much anyone can at least gain some insight into how physicists think the world works.

A little heavy on the analogies (IMO) but overall I'd say Greene is more eloquent and clear than Hawking.

For Geeks to be:

[eskayp]

Point & Click Linux, by Roblimo
-- includes Simply Mepis CD
-- includes DVD video of GUI rudiments
-- 270 pages of Mepis usability HowTo

Bought my gift copy @ Walmart.com
for a budding noob at work.
Tested it myself, liked what I found.
Next year I buy him beer!

Looks like an effective way to turn MS
prisoners into Open Source advocates.
The book -- not the beer!
Well maybe that too.

Some the cool books on my shelf...

[JoeCommodore]

Here are some that grace my bookshelf, some may be way out of date. But in genral they are all interesting.

Computer history & Culture:

Hackers - Steve Levey (an all time favorite!)

Fire in the Valley - Frieberger & Swaine (also a favorite)

Hacker's Dictionary - Eric s. Raymond (give to your techno-poser friends)

Computer - a history of the information machine - Campbell-Kelly and Asprey

Digital Deli: The Comprehensive, User-Lovable Menu of Computer Lore, Culture, Lifestyles and Fancy - Lunch Group, Steve Ditlea (late 70s - 80s computer Lore)

the Compleat Computer - Van Tassel (60s - early 70's computer lore!)

Tabletop Fare:

High Score! Illustrated History of Video Games - Osborne Books

Arcade Treasures - Bill Kurtz (hard to gdet but a good one for arcade buffs)

Computers - Ain illustrated History - Christian Wurster

Cookbooks:

Giga Bites - the official guide to hacker cuisine - Jenz Johnson (hacker oriented recipies)

Quick Bytes: Computer Lover's Cookbook - Diane Pfifer (more traditional recipies with computerish sounding names)

Alternative Reading (when you are in tech overload):

The Big Book of [Urban Ledgends|Hoaxes|Vice|Loosers|Conspiracy| etc.] - Paradox Press (these are comic anthologies covering various fringe subjects, very fun!)

the Book of Zines, readings from the fringe - Chip Rowe (zines are limited-run home-made magazines, zine anthologies pluck out some of the more interesting/juicy bits).

ZINES! vols. I and II - V.Vale or V/Search

Temp Slave - Jeff Kelly (Great for the out of work or recent graduate! from the Zone of the same name))

Thrift Score - Al Hoff (the guide to being an informed thrifter, from the Zine of the same name)

For Movie Fans:

Golden Movie Retriever - Gale Group (love the genre lists in the back)

the Phsychotronic Video Guide - Michael J Weldon (a good Fringe cinema Guide)

Nightmare of Ecstasy: Life and Art of Edward D. Wood - Rudolph Grey (about Ed Wood, the most notable hacker of the film industry, his work may not be pretty, but he did it.)

Some Fiction:

Colossus, Fall of Colossus, and Colossus & the Crab - D.F. Jones (one of the better computer ruling the world tales).

Wizard's Bane - Rick Cook (Sword and Sorcery Fantasy with a computer hacker bent, entertaining)

Microserfs ~ Douglas Coupland (a semi-fictional view of the Microsoft Culture)

Totally Retro:

Basic Computer Games (series) - David H. Ahl - (Lots of simple terminal-based BASIC games, maybe give to the PHP/Perl programmer looking to put something fun on thier site)

Starship Simulation - Roger Garrett (a bold multi-computer Star Trek like, simulation concept written in pseudocode)

What do you do after you hit RETURN - or the P.C.C.'s First Book of Computer Games - People's Computer Company (retro Whole Earth Catalog meets BASIC Computer Games tabletop fare!)

Re:Some the cool books on my shelf...

[MourningBlade]

I'm happy to see someone refer to Microserfs! That's an incredible book.

I keep trying to get friends to read it, it's quite short - but for some reason they avoid it like the plague. Even when I tell them it wasn't written by Microsoft.

Re:Some the cool books on my shelf...

[Psychotext]

Can't comment on most of those, but I've read "High Score!" and it really was excellent.

Re: Some the cool books on my shelf...

[gidds]

Hacker's Dictionary - Eric s. Raymond (give to your techno-poser friends)

Merely a snapshot of the continually-evolving Jargon File.

The Big Book of [Urban Ledgends|Hoaxes|Vice|Loosers|Conspiracy| etc.]

Again, more up-to-date stuff can be found at Snopes, The Straight Dope, The Urban Legends Research Centre, Hoaxkill, The Museum of Hoaxes, &c.

Nothing wrong with dead-tree books, of course, but nice to know of alternatives.

The Making of the Atomic Bomb

[Scott Ransom]

by Richard Rhodes is one of (if not the ) best book that I have ever read. It has something for everyone, but it is especially suitable for geeks as it details the development of quantum mechanics and atomic physics, before diving into one of the most amazing engineering projects ever undertaken by mankind.

And it is written incredibly well also.

Highly recommended.

Re:The Making of the Atomic Bomb

[tooba]

Let me add a hearty hear hear. The Making of the Atomic Bomb is easily the most interesting history/physics/engineering book I have ever read. The way the author describes the discoveries made by the pioneers of nuclear physics is simply riveting. It even inspired me to take a nuclear engineering course as one of my electives next semester.

made $50 last time

[ylikone]

I have now made a bit over $50 from a slashdot post from the amazon top-ten book thread. But I was lucky, as my post was close to the top and got moderated +5 early on. It's the first time I've made money from posting.

Duh

[ylikone]

Yeah, Harry Potter books were big... BACK IN 2001! The new hotness is the "Series of Unfortunate Events" kids books.

Re:Duh

[Class Act Dynamo]

I just saw the movie with Jim Carrey. It certainly was entertaining, but it could have been better. Are the books better? Also, I just read the Potter books last week. I enjoyed them and see why the caught the interest of children and adults alike.

Too much fiction for me

[krumms]

As it happens, Ash is an enthusiastic quantum-computing amateur ... a retired British physicist who turns out to be more than 4 billion years old ... Ash modifies his quantum computer into a time machine and teleportation device.

With the help of his new girlfriend, Melody ...

Okay, I can believe a basement quantum-computing whiz kid, the 4 billion year old physicist and time travel, but a girlfriend? Pull the other one!

Griffiths!

[TheManFromMars]

Geek books you say? Well look no further than Introduction to Quantum Mechanics and Introduction to Electrodynamics, both authored by David Griffiths. If you are feeling particularly ambitious there is always the phone book.

The forgotten title....

[BorisSkratchunkov]

Zork I: The Forces of Krill

childrens propaganda

[ylikone]

Nice to the see that the Christmas spirit is alive with you helping out at the shelter by reading extremist right-wing wacko books to the little abused children. You'll have them full of greed and ignorance in no time! Good luck! GO AMERICA!

A better geek computer book list!

[ylikone]

Here is a better top-ten list of recent geek computer books.

Transmission

[divvy]

I would recommend Transmission by Hari Kunzru. It is the story of a virus writer, who unleashes a virus called Leela.exe -named after his favourite bollywood actress, and the actress herself who basks in the new found international glory as the namesake of the virus. Pretty interesting story of body shopping in U.S. and kitchy culture of bollywood.

Anything by V. S. Ramachandran

[FleaPlus]

I recommend any book by V. S. Ramachandran. Really, anything written by him is a joy to read and packed with knowledge. His latest book is "A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness," which examines such interesting phenomena as phantom limbs, patients who insist that their poodles or mothers are imposters, synesthetes who see colors in numbers or flavors in sounds, and the root of consciousness in the human brain.

Games, Linus, & Crypto

[McSnickered]

The 3 most enjoyable books I've read in the last five years are:

1. Masters of Doom - the story of John Carmack & John Romero's creation of the game Doom. From their teenage years to their ultimate breakup (sniff).

2. Just For Fun by Linus Torvalds - Just a very interesting autobiography about a normal guy who creates a software revolution.

3. The Code Book - gives a history of cryptography with a lot of great info about modern public-key cryptography. Really fun book.

List of Books for Software Development

[under_score]

NOTE: blatant self promotion.

I maintain a list of books and other resources for all sorts of people who work in the software development field including of course, programmers, managers, executives, testers, etc.

Software Resources

The list is heavily weighted towards Agile software development.

Godel, Escher, Bach

[saddino]

IMHO, there is no better geek book. Sure, it's dated. And sure, it's hefty. But no one has ever so fully embraced the ideas of recursive logic and number theory in sample, in writing and in wit. It's a treasure -- and if you're a geek and haven't read it (or tried to read it) then you don't know what being a geek is.

On Amazon of course. 777 pages of awesome stuff.

Passion sells..

[digital.prion]

Give them the Picture book versi0n of the "Kama Sutra" and a box of "Go Lucky".

.. What the hell.. just send em and email with this as the "Happy Wishes" link: http://users.forthnet.gr/ath/nektar/kma/main.htm .btw .. does this count as pr0n?

Find the Bug

[AdamBa]

Allow me to recommend a great book for any programmer: Find the Bug . The book has the source code to 50 short programs, each with one single bug hidden within; the challenge for the reader is to find that bug. This combines the problem-solving challenges of a Martin Gardner book with real training in debugging and code reading. Great stuff for propellerheads, and best of all the book provides enough information about the languages used (C, Python, Java, Perl, and assembler) that programmers of all stripes can play along, no matter what their previous experience.

Yeah, I know, it was written by me, but I really think it is a great geek gift.

Failing that, let me recommend the Demon Princes books by Jack Vance (volume 1 and volume 2). The best SF I know. "...the kind of quick, paradox-savoring intelligence -- the capacity, present even among men of power, to forget caution in the love of ironic wit and abstract thought" - Adam Gopnik.

As a self-taught coder, I highly recommend

[jayed_99]

Mastering Algorithms with C

Lacking a computer science degree, I didn't understand a lot of basic algorithms as well as I should -- some I didn't understand at all. I just used what worked even if something else might have worked better.

Mastering Alorithms with C went a *looong* way toward teaching me the pros and cons of various sorts, trees, graphs and queues. (There's also nice sections on compression and encryption).

The explanations are very thorough. It helps to have at least a minimal understanding of C, but you can get a lot out of the book without it. Lots of pretty pictures and diagrams for the visually inclined.

If you don't have a formal education in computer science, I recommend that you run out and buy this book right now -- you'll be doing yourself a huge favor.

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors

[ImaLamer]

"Shadows" is a great book written by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan that takes you all through evolution and not only answers questions but makes the reader more interesting in asking a few of their own. Asks big questions like "Who are we?" and "Where did we come from?"
Amazon Link to purchase (I don't get paid for this)

Amazon Review

From Publishers Weekly
In a leisurely, lyrical meditation on the roughly four-million-year span since life dawned on Earth, Sagan and Druyan ( Comet ) argue that territoriality, xenophobia, ethnocentrism, occasional outbreeding and a preference for small, semi-isolated groups are elements in a survival strategy common to many species, including Homo sapiens. Yet society's problems, they assert, increasingly demand global solutions and require a dramatic, strategic shift which the authors optimistically believe humankind is capable of achieving. This engaging, humane odyssey offers a stunning refutation of the behavioristic worldview with its mechanistic notion that animals (except for humans) lack conscious awareness. Writing with awe and a command of their material, the husband-wife team cover well-trod terrain while they discuss the evolution of Earth's atmosphere and life forms, the genetic code, the advantages of sexual reproduction. The last third of the book, dealing with chimpanzees, baboons and apes, is the most interesting. Sagan and Druyan find chimps' social life "hauntingly familiar" with its hierarchy, combat, suppression of females and chimps' remarkable ability to communicate through symbols. First serial to Parade.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Then when you got that down read The Lucifer Principle by Howard Bloom which explores human nature and it's effect on history...

From Publishers Weekly
The "Lucifer Principle" is freelance journalist Bloom's theory that evil-which manifests in violence, destructiveness and war-is woven into our biological fabric. A corollary is that evil is a by-product of nature's strategy to move the world to greater heights of organization and power as national or religious groups follow ideologies that trigger lofty ideals as well as base cruelty. In an ambitious, often provocative study, Bloom applies the ideas of sociobiology, ethology and the "killer ape" school of anthropology to the broad canvas of history, with examples ranging from Oliver Cromwell's reputed pleasure in killing and raping to Mao Tse-tung's bloody Cultural Revolution, India's caste system and Islamic fundamentalist expansion. Bloom says Americans suffer "perceptual shutdown" that blinds them to the United States' downward slide in the pecking order of nations. His use of concepts like pecking order, memes (self-replicating clusters of ideas), the "neural net" or group mind of the social "superorganism" seem more like metaphors than explanatory tools.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Offtopic?

[ylikone]

How the hell is this offtopic? It is a link to a post about 3 good computer books! How much more ontopic can I get? Geesh!

food for geeks

[belmolis]

Well, in my experience geeks like Chinese food, so I suggest The Eater's Guide to Chinese Characters by the late James McCawley, a linguist and connaisseur of Chinese food. It teaches you to read Chinese menus. Long out of print, it was reprinted last year. You can get it from the publisher (link above) or Barnes and Noble.

Amazon's book selection...

[yooHoo202]

Amazon's selects aren't that great. I was loooking at their site earlier today and their "best new movies" was a pretty lackluster list.

This gift-finder is a bit more personal - but I'll still procrastinate until Christmas Eve.

Bring on the crowds...

Interconnections, 2nd Edition, by Radia Perlman

[anti-NAT]

Classic book on networking. I wish it had been the first or second book I'd bought on networking, not the 20th or so.

Re:Interconnections, 2nd Edition, by Radia Perlman

[anti-NAT]

Great interview with Radia about the book at The Poetry of Protocols : Radia Perlman Discusses Interconnections.

My next order...

[Kris_J]

I've got an order in at the local bookstore at the moment. When I pick it up, my next set of books will be:

• Jennifer Government
• Everyone in Silico
• Pattern Recognition
• The Savage Girl
• PopCo

These are from a list in the latest Adbusters. I usually get my fiction suggestions from Cory Doctrow's bOINGbOING. So Yesterday was the best recent suggestion.

Books as Holidayt Gifts!? beware...

[Savatte]

I gave my little brother gift certificate to waldenbooks for christmas last year, even though I knew he wanted a some videogame for his game cube. Now, not only does he think I'm geeky, but he resents me for my lame gift. Don't let this happen to you! Don't slide down to a lowre rung on the social ladder!

May as well plug away...

[mbrother]

Hard science fiction, adventure, physics, astronomy, biology, artificial intelligence, and more good stuff like that. The hardcover has been available for a year, and the paperback will be out in a couple of weeks (right AFTER Christmas). I'm actually going to release Star Dragon in its entirety electronically at the end of the month as well. For more information and reviews (which were amazingly good), see my novel webpage. Thanks for checking it out!

You don't have to be a geek to appreciate Bryson..

[OldJohnno]

I enjoyed his travel books - "Down Under" in particular often shows off his somewhat quirky humour...

The Night is Large by M.G.

[shadowmatter]

"The Night is Large" by Martin Gardner is a diamond in the rough. I haven't heard it mentioned in any geek circles, but it's definitely for people who like to know a little bit about everything, or simply muse about it -- qualities I find pretty much everywhere in geeks.

The book is a collection of Martin Gardner's essays from Scientific American and the New Yorker spanning the following topics: Physical Science, Social Science, Pseudoscience, Mathematics, The Arts, Philosophy, and Religion.

Now I know some geeks may turn their noses up at quite a few of those topics -- but Gardner hardly makes any of them boring. He has such insight, such sharp focus on every topic -- no matter how wide-ranging it may be -- he can make you feel downright ignorant. But this only compels you to read more. You feel like you're reading from a true renaissance man.

That, and the cover art is great. Search for it on Amazon.

- sm

a couple from my own list

[blackcoot]

first off, don't buy geek books as gifts unless you're /certain/ they will be well received. kinda like buying a set of pans for your mother.

anyhoo, on my list:

"information theory and statistics" by kullback
"fundamentals of digital image processing" by a.k. jain
"digital video processing" by a.m. tekalp
"calculus: early transcendental functions" by larson, hostetler, & edwards
"principles of data mining" by d. hand, h. mannila, & p. smyth
"elements of statistical learning" by t. hastie, et. al

of course, that may well be a bit much for most ;-)

Jakob Nieson

[PinkTrousersScientis]

"Designing Usability" is great. Anybody who uses the Internet can relate to it.

Also any of the Steven McConnell's books are good. I have almost all of them.:)

Re:buy them mein kampf -- kill the jews

[tomjen]

I have read that book. It sucks. Also you can it read to you online. Best way to falll asleep i have ever tried.

A few I can recommend

[bob]

Any of these will change the way you look at the world:

• The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History, by John M. Barry
• The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance, by Henry Petroski
• The Evolution of Useful Things

Codewise?

[Fahrenheit 450]

What I'm looking for is a CS (not necessarily just programming) equivalent to Shirley O. Corriher's excellent Cookwise or Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for the Food: Food + Heat = Cooking, a couple of books that teach you about the chemistry of cooking at a very accessible level, in order to teach you how cooking works so you can successfully modify or create your own recipes, and not just giving you a list of recipes to follow.

I suppose that SICP is sort of close, but it's not nearly as accessible as Cookwise (and much more boring)

Feynman Lectures on Physics

[Lawrence_Bird]

classic 3 volume set that any science/math geek should have.

Fiction books for the hacker in all of us

[Techno-Hat]

Here are a few fiction books for the hackers in all of us. These are reprints of classic series books dealing with inventors and the neat gadgets they used.

Purple House Press has all three of The Mad Scientist's Club books reprinted, with the 4th (previously unpublished) available next year. No geek is truly complete without have read these.

http://www.purplehousepress.com/msc.htm

Let's not forget Tom Swift. The first 25 volumes of the Tom Swift Sr. series are available as free e-texts from Project Gutenberg. The hard to find Tom Swift and His Giant Telescope has been reprinted and can be purchased here.

http://www.cafepress.com/wogglebug

Does anybody know of any other classic series books being reprinted with inventions/hacking as the central theme?

books?

[areve]

Do any of these books have pdf format so i can read them on my TFT?

It is touching that you recommend this.

[jotaeleemeese]

Since Octavio Paz is one of the pillars of modern literature, in par with any wirter you can think about of the XXth century.

Unfortunately poetry is hellishly difficult to translate, but better that than nothing.

Fractal Geometry of Nature

[kezze]

The Fractal Geometry of Nature by Benoit B. Mandelbrot is definately worth reading.
Your way of looking at things will change, so read carefully!

Re:HELP ME FIND AN OLD BASIC BOOK FOR XMAS!

[JoeCommodore]

Small paperback book on BASIC? Kind of sounds like a TAB book to me, maybe "A to Z book of BASIC Games", or something of that sort?

Not familiar with the cover art so I can't help much further. though as another tip, eBay is a great place to start, search for BASIC GAME* and you will find a few books listed.

Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

[cinemabaroque]

by Haruki Murakami, modern Japanese author. Very amazing, spectacularly existential, well translated to boot. Please read it, give it to others, you'll have a blast. (oh yeah, all of his books are good too, if you like vonnegut then you might get a kick out of his sense of reality)

WHEW!

[lbmouse]

When I first quickly scanned the headline, I thought it said "Greek Boys as Holiday Gifts".

Affective Computing

[FrenchyinCT]

I'm reading Dr. Rosalind Picard's "Affective Computing" regarding the research she's done at MIT on the role emotions can play in robotics. Geeky stuff, but good for the feminist geek in your list who will admire a chickie-boo scientist who went against the grain of male-dominated uber-right-brained computer scientists and did the research anyway.

Chix r00l!!!