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Top 20 Geek Novels
Malacca writes "The Guardian's computer editor Jack Schofield has posted a list of the Top 20 Geek Novels in English since 1932. The polling method is unscientific, but it throws up some interesting choices. Definitions of 'Geek Novels' aside, the usual suspects like Neal Stephenson and William Gibson feature, but Terry Pratchett's 'The Colour of Magic' at #9? Neil Gaiman's "American Gods" at #17?" What would you put on that list?
I'm glad someone mentioned "Good Omens". For anyone who has heard of Neil Gaiman OR Terry Pratchett and hasn't read this book: you're really missing something. It happens that my favorite author for a while was Pratchett, and a good friend of mine was into Gaiman... we recommended the book to each other with serendipitous timing, and it's been a favorite ever since. Highly recommended.
While I love all the discworld books, "Going Postal" would definately be the one that I think belongs on this list. It even has a bunch of hackers named the GNU(which is still a recursive acronym), talks about packet space and involves a very low tech spoofing exploit.
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I think they polled a not-so-well read segment of the geek population. Anyone who loved 1984 and H2G2 (which made spots 2 and 1 on the list) should have also read Vonnegut's The Sirens of Titan. It fills the space inbetween those two seemingly disconnected books we love so much; in many ways it is the literary bridge from 1984 to H2G2, and one of the greatest works of modern fiction on its own. A fan of either (or both) would see the connections readily, and appreciate it, and it certainly belongs in that list with them.
11*43+456^2
"Bruce Schneier invented a crypto system based on playing cards for the novel."
Ah, yes, Solitaire. Not that I really believe you're going to use it, but FYI, it's broken.
It's not by chance, either. Paul Crowley, the guy who broke Solitaire, also tried to invent a strong manual encryption algorithm and failed.
Not that I'm in the league of those guys, but I've been working on the problem myself and it's not easy.
Boffin
"The word appeared during World War II, where it was applied with some affection to the people who invented radar, early digital computers, the atomic bomb, and other technologies that gave the Allies an advantage over the Axis during the war."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boffin
I've always prefered and will continue to use Boffin. It's a good word that encapsulates all the good of geek and nerd, is a bit more academic. It also has none of the baggage, except perhaps for absent mindedness.
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Colm
He is fairly open about being gay. He won a court case against the british newspaper which made the pedophilia allegations against him.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Another geeky author I can recommend is Jasper Fforde. The Well of Lost Plots, the penultimate book in the series that started with The Well of Lost Plots would appeal to many Slashdot readers (read the earlier ones first though) dealing, as it does, with the topic of DRM. Set in the book world, the world inside fiction, Thusday Next, litterary detective, discovers that the next version of the book OS (an upgrade from the old 8-plot system to a new, improved, 32-plot system with all sorts of extra features) contains a system which prevents a book from being read more than three times. It's full of references to classic literature and more geeky references (a large number of comments about old versions of the book OS, for example, held for old versions of MS DOS). A good read for anyone, and the book to use to explain DRM to your less technically inclined friends.
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