Books for geeks

phobos

Right I was looking through the likes of www.thinkgeek.com and www.slashdot.org to see if I could find some interesting book reviews. I found a few, primarely based on open source development and robo sapians (don't ask). But does anybody know where I might find similar book reviews online, or has anybody read anything interesting lately on the subject of technology or cyberculture.

The reason I ask is because all I seem to be flicking through lately is programming manuals, and TBH I need a break. I want something that will inspire my thoughts, and make me go hmmmm.

Anybody?

;-phobos-)

davros

OK, this one definitely qualifies as a book for geeks: The Newtonian Casino. It's the true story of a group of students who try to beat the Las Vegas casinos using the Laws of Physics and a computer hidden in a shoe. They concentrate on the roulette wheel, predicting roughly where the ball will fall.

Very funny, exciting, lots of ups and downs.

phobos

Sounds good, would be definately the kind of novel I would be in to. But ATM I am trying to find books that inform me about things as opposed to telling me a story.

Books written by people like Stephen Hawking. I am hoping to get some books on cyber culture, open source development, cyborgs etc.

Any idea's. Try and give as much info as you can, prefferably an ISBN if you can get your hands on it.

Appreciate it

;-phobos-)

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

the universal history of numbers, Georges Ifrah great book, goes on about how we came about with numbers and counting and other mad stuff
good read for math geeks

universal history of numbers: the computer and the information revolution, georges ifrah sequel to the book above apparently.. first I've seen of it... must buy it soon

"the code book" by simoh singh is good too, bout cryptography and stuff I assume, i've only read about 30 pages

i've a few more maths books in Galway, but can't remember their titles right now, I'll post em when I'm up again.

phobos

I went in to Easons yesterday afternoon and found a copy of REBEL CODE - Linux and the Open Source Revolution

Tis the kind of thing I was looking for.

ISBN: 0140298045
SITE: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140298045/ref=ed_felist_1_4/026-4891756-2509267

;-phobos-)

shotamoose

If you're looking for fiction try Douglas Coupland's Microserfs. It's geek heaven, and a great book.

phobos

If you're looking for fiction try Douglas Coupland's Microserfs. It's geek heaven, and a great book.

Now that sounds like a good read

I read the synopsis on Amazon, and I bet I could find similarities between the main character and myself (Apart from the MS part, I've been working on Open Source stuff, lol)

;-phobos-)

Snaga

Im reading The Code Book by Simon Singh at the moment, its all about the history of encryption/decryption. It was very highly recommended by a friend and its lived up to it so far (Im half way through).

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1857028899/qid=1017618564/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_3_1/202-4243011-2827803

winegum

Christopher tolkeins books, if your a lotr geek its great to read all about Middle earth from a factual/boring perspective rather than his fathers entertaining / interesting way of doing it

phobos

Even though I thought LOTR to be a legendary flick (never read the book), I will admit fantasy is not something that I would lose any sleep over. I am more of a sci-fi person, with a very futuristic outlook, and always look towards the future, never the past.

The whole wizzards, gouls, goblins, trolls etc, just doesn't do it for me

Now if anyone knows any good books based on films like "Even Horrizon" for example, where the unexpected occurs in space exploration etc, that would definately be more appealing to someone like myself

;-phobos-)

plastic membrane

Try The Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. Its big, its epic, it spans about 500 years, and it kicks booty.

I think you'd love The Culture books by Iain M Banks too. Ill lean you a copy of a few.

As for geek books, no idea, im not a geek. Really, im not..

phobos

Only people like you and me who come up with stories such as "My Little Pony -[THE REVENGE]" and "Care Bears Go To NAM!!", couldn't avoid such a title.

Or in more recent times the tragic story of Timmy the little orphan who got lost on a drunken binge in the Dublin zoo. The motion picture is to be released soon!!

Also I was told recently by another geek, wouldn't it be funny if @ the end of the movie "Bloody Sunday", where everybody was grieving etc, the song "Zombie Nation" kicked in...........[(**imagine**)]

That made me laugh longer than it should have

;-phobos-)

plastic membrane

My own personal fave i came up with was "Mutiny On The Love Boat", a searing indictment of nauseating love and whipping the lower orders into submission.

Well, i thought it was funny...

Snaga

If your looking for Epic science fiction try the Hyperion Cantos....

Hyperion
Fall of Hyperion
Endymion
The Rise of Endymion

They should all be in easons and were the best couple of weeks reading Ive had (Followed very closely by the Mars trilogy already mentioned, another truly enjoyable series).

[edit] The author is Dan Simmons [/edit]

Kolodny

Originally posted by Snaga
If your looking for Epic science fiction try the Hyperion Cantos....

Hyperion
Fall of Hyperion
Endymion
The Rise of Endymion

They should all be in easons and were the best couple of weeks reading Ive had (Followed very closely by the Mars trilogy already mentioned, another truly enjoyable series).

[edit] The author is Dan Simmons [/edit]

Agreed.

Speaking of epic sci-fi I just finished The Forge of God by Greg Bear and would highly recommend it.

plastic membrane

Originally posted by Snaga
If your looking for Epic science fiction try the Hyperion Cantos....

Hyperion
Fall of Hyperion
Endymion
The Rise of Endymion

They should all be in easons and were the best couple of weeks reading Ive had (Followed very closely by the Mars trilogy already mentioned, another truly enjoyable series).

[edit] The author is Dan Simmons [/edit]

Left them out, my bad. They are the best space opera around. That whole line about a book being unputdownable is used too much, but in the case of Hyperion, its so, so true.

Enygma

Anything by Neal Stephenson is good, the guys a pretty good coder too

Microserfs is a great book. I practically know it off by heart, you used to be able to get an audio clip of Chandler from Friends (his real name escapes me right now for some reason) reading from it off the coupland.com website. Apparently it was like "five minutes before he got famous"

What I like to do when I get a little itchy for a book is head into waterstones and check out the popular science sections. There are some great books on number theory that can really get the head going.

Also that book by the girl who did the encryption project for the Young Scientist, "In Code", that's quite good.

Get New Scientist magazine too.

Kolodny

Originally posted by Enygma
Anything by Neal Stephenson is good, the guys a pretty good coder too

Ah... Crytonomicon.

Trojan

Weston, you looking for some hardcore sf?

Try Asimovs Foundation series, A. C. Clarke (anything, but Rama series is somewhere to start), or Greg Bear (anything). Also philosophical sf types would be the likes of Orson Scott Card.

Or for some slightly less hc, go for Piers Anthony (sf/fantasy), e.g. Mode series or Adept series.

Or 3.5k pages of a space opera, The Nights Dawn trilogy by Philip whatshisname is a great read.

I've the ones I mention above, give me a shout if you wanna borrow something.

Al.

phobos

Cheers mate, I'm actually reading Code Rebels ATM, but I might take you up on that offer in the future sometime. For now let us take the focus off me, and keep providing book titiles/ISBNs/Links etc for all the other potentially interested folks.

I'll continue with the following link:
http://www.defcon.org/book-list.html

[edit]
And I just noticed this one too
http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/supergeek/story/0,24330,3321810,00.html

I can't give reviews of anything you might find behind those links, because I haven't read any of them, but there definately on topic titles to say the least.
[/edit]

;-phobos-)

Clintons Cat

if you like hard sci fi this guy is meant to be pretty good Peter F. Hamilton

Trojan

Originally posted by Clintons Cat
if you like hard sci fi this guy is meant to be pretty good Peter F. Hamilton

Yeah, that's the guy who wrote Nights Dawn trilogy, plus some other post-greenhouse effect world stuff with yer wan Jane.

Very, very good.

Not exactly classed as hard-core sf though.

Al.

pugwall

You might like to check out 'Fermat's Last Theorem' by Simon Singh. Its the story of a riddle that confounded the world's greatest minds for 358 years. Its a great story and you don't even have to be a geek to read it.

MiCr0

Originally posted by Snaga
Im reading The Code Book by Simon Singh at the moment, its all about the history of encryption/decryption. It was very highly recommended by a friend and its lived up to it so far (Im half way through).

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1857028899/qid=1017618564/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_3_1/202-4243011-2827803

great book
defn read this!

i even did a project on the contents of the book

bonkey

Yeah - Singh's two books (Code Book & Fermat's Last Theorem) are excellent. In a similar vein would be some of the writings of Dava Sobel, notably Longitude and Galileo's Daighter.

Hamilton's Nights Dawn trilogy is pretty good, but I felt the middle book really let it down. For reasonable sci-fi mixed with space opera, I'd rather go for Donaldson's Gap series, although I'll readily admit that book 1 is pretty weak, but thankfully short.

I'd also recommend Otherland by Tad Williams and some of Greg Bear's work - Forge of God/ Anvil of the Stars make a good pair (Anvil being the sequel), although I prefrered Eon and its successors (which I cant remember the names of, and am too lazy to hunt for).

In the serious line, I would have to say "The Elegant Universe" by Brian Greene - which is similar in style to Hawkings' writings, but deals with an introduction to the world of String Theory.

jc