Ask HN: What are some good, lightweight reads on computing?

[johnmarinelli]

I know there's plenty of quality technical books, but I'm looking for the kind of book that I can read a few pages of on the morning bus ride. The first book that comes to mind is "The Universal History of Computing: From the Abacus to the Quantum Computer" by Georges Ifrah (although I haven't read it). I feel that a combination of technical books and light reads would make me a more well-rounded programmer, and I feel like my knowledge of computing out of the context of the 21st century is pretty limited. If you have any entertaining and/or lightweight books on computing or branches of computing, I'd love to hear about them. I'd also be interested in documentaries or movies too.

[gary__]

The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder, the classic book following the development of a new minicomputer in the late 70s.

http://www.amazon.com/Soul-New-Machine-Tracy-Kidder/dp/03164...

Stealing The Network: How to Own the Box. This is a collection of fictional accounts of "hacking" written by hackers. Real world techniques are described though its in lightweight detail, the aim of the book is more to give an insight into how an attacker thinks. It's quite an enjoyable read too.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stealing-Network-How-Own-Cyber-Ficti...

Kingpin: How One Hacker Took Over the Billion-Dollar Cybercrime Underground by Kevin Poulsen. This one's a true story.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kingpin-Hacker-Billion-Dollar-Cyberc...

Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software By Charles Petzold. I still have to read this one, but I expect it would fit in with what you're after quite well.

http://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-Softwa...

[tjr]

It's increasingly outdated as an actually useful resource, but The Hacker's Dictionary has long been one of my favorites, and should still be fun and educational from a historical perspective:

http://www.amazon.com/New-Hackers-Dictionary-3rd/dp/02626809...

Available online also as The Jargon File:

http://www.catb.org/jargon/

[qaiserhabib]

I'm sorry why would you want to do that? I mean what are you trying to learn specifically? If you're trying to learn coding then you should probably start with simpler easy stuff like HTML then Javascript then Java/C++...

Otherwise most books about "computing" in general are more outdated since this field evolves so fast.

-A software engineer with 5+ years experience

[johnmarinelli]

I already know how to program, and thought it'd be interesting to explore other forms of media that are related to programming/computing in general that aren't necessarily technical.

[jozi9]

I'm going to get Think Complexity from Allen B. Downey.

http://www.amazon.com/Think-Complexity-Science-Computational...

Or:

http://www.amazon.com/Nine-Algorithms-That-Changed-Future-eb...

[pjungwir]

Code by Charles Petzold will feel a bit slow at the beginning but gets pretty fun once he gets to circuits and builds up a whole functioning computer.

Hackers by Steven Levy is a great history of the 50s to 80s. Very focused on the personalities of the non-establishment people who made things happen.

Go To by Steve Lohr is also a history and super boring. Give it a pass.

The Mythical Man-Month by Frederick Brooks--if you haven't read this yet, it's pretty light, and it's amazing how contemporary it feels.

Programmers at Work by Susan Lammers: interviews of lots of famous computer pioneers. Very interesting to think about the remarks that appear again and again.

Smart and Gets Things Done by Joel Spolsky will make you feel good about yourself. :-)

The Mac is Not a Typewriter by Robin Williams is a nice bite-sized lesson on type.

The original Human Interface Guidelines by Apple is a pretty interesting look back into what motivated them in those days, especially if you do any iOS development.

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Tufte is not something you can carry on a bus but a pretty fun read.

Ghost in the Wires by Kevin Mitnick is like a novel. I'm not sure I believe it all, but it's interesting.

The Elements of Style by Strunk & White is tiny and will improve your writing a lot.

Clear and Simple as the Truth by Thomas & Turner is good after you've digested Strunk & White a bit.

Time Management for System Administrators by Limoncelli might give you some things to think about.

Expert C Programming: Deep C Secrets by Peter van der Linden is technical but super amusing and helpful if you've done any C before.

Programming Collective Intelligence by Toby Segaran is a light overview of various machine learning techniques. Enough to make you sound like you know what you're talking about. :-)

Release It! by Michael Nygard and Scalable Internet Architectures by Theo Schlossnagle have good lessons on building reliable systems. The latter is more technical, even offering code for some things; the former, more high-level.

Effective Java by Bloch has good tips if you do any Java. After 10+ years I still remember his idea that inheritance is a "scarce resource" and should be used sparingly. The discussion of `equals()` might convince you to switch to Ruby. :-)

How about math? Get any collection of essays by Martin Gardner. The Colossal Book of Mathematics is more a bedside/restroom book than one for a bus, but they also publish many thin collections like Hexaflexagons, Probability Paradoxes, and the Tower of Hanoi.

Javascript: The Good Parts by Crockford is tiny and a classic.