What are the best tech related books that you would recommend?

[GreatWhiteWine]

Hello everyone!

 

I am looking for my next books to read and I thought that maybe one of you will have something for me.

I've just finished "Chip war" by Chris Miller and loved it, I also really liked "Liftoff" by Eric Berger, "Sandworm" by Andy Greenberg and of course one of my favorite is "The Martian" by Andy Weir.

 

Would you have any suggestion based on this small list? Is their an existing list that get updated regularly on this forum?

 

Have a nice day!

 

Erwin

 

[RevTadd]

The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder is an outstanding book. It's about a non-fiction book a team of computer engineers at Data General in the late 70s. Data General had been a leader in computers during the 16-bit era, but had fallen behind during the transition to 32-bit and the book is about a team who were effectively tasked with betting the company on developing a new computer to put them back on top. The best thing about the book is that the author was actually a journalist who had spent the year working in Data General's office and living with the team, so the book has a feel to it almost like your reading a documentary.

[Nalyk]

The expanse is fantastic. Begins with leviathan wakes.

Neuromancer.

Do androids dream of electric sheep is worth reading just for the first few.chapters alone. Because of the mind f#ck the mood organ elicits. 

Andy weir's hail Mary project is just as good as the martian.

Starship troopers is actually a pretty good book as well if you can get past how in love the author is with fascism. 

 

If looking for fantasy:

Brandon Sanderson's mistborn series and The stormlight archive are quite good as well.  Though if you want something smaller start with mistborn.

 

The name of the wind is also fantastic. 

 

[GreatWhiteWine]

9 minutes ago, Nalyk said:

The expanse is fantastic. Begins with leviathan wakes.

Neuromancer.

Do androids dream of electric sheep is worth reading just for the first few.chapters alone. Because of the mind f#ck the mood organ elicits. 

Andy weir's hail Mary project is just as good as the martian.

Starship troopers is actually a pretty good book as well if you can get past how in love the author is with fascism. 

 

If looking for fantasy:

Brandon Sanderson's mistborn series and The stormlight archive are quite good as well.  Though if you want something smaller start with mistborn.

 

The name of the wind is also fantastic. 

 

I finished the tome 8 of "The Expanse" a few weeks ago and I agree with you it's fantastic, I will start the tome 9 soon for sure.

I've also read "Project Hail Mary" a few months ago and really liked it.

 

Thank you very much for the other titles!

[GreatWhiteWine]

19 minutes ago, RevTadd said:

The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder is an outstanding book. It's about a non-fiction book a team of computer engineers at Data General in the late 70s. Data General had been a leader in computers during the 16-bit era, but had fallen behind during the transition to 32-bit and the book is about a team who were effectively tasked with betting the company on developing a new computer to put them back on top. The best thing about the book is that the author was actually a journalist who had spent the year working in Data General's office and living with the team, so the book has a feel to it almost like your reading a documentary.

The way you are talking about it is the best argument for it, thanks for the suggestion! 

[Yummychickenblue]

free software, free society by richard stallma

free software and the political philosophy of the cyborg world by chopper & dexter

algorithms of oppression by safyia noble

 

 

 

fiction:

red team blues by cory doctorow

 

 

 

[Silverflame]

Fiction: all of the Becky Chambers books!

• The Wayfarers is her first universe, set in a future with multi-species interstellar travel. There’s a decent amount of “science” to its sci-fi genre (some suspension-of-disbelief, but still), the characters are extremely well-written and nuanced, and the worldbuilding is very immersive. 2nd book, A Closed and Common Orbit, is more tech-/AI-exploratory, but they’re all excellent imo (and the 2nd is sort of a sequel to the 1st, so minor spoilers if you start there; otherwise they’re all independent).
• The “Monk and Robot” series is also interesting. Set in a future, on a different planet, where robots became sentient and humans redesigned society to be greener and leave the robots in peace. They’re novellas however, so shorter stories, but still excellent!

 

Non-fiction:

• I quite enjoyed “Coders” by Clive Thompson. It’s a neat exploration of various fields of computer science and software engineering, along with a bit of history on terms, programming cultures/philosophies, etc. It’s also very accessible.
• The “Open Circuits” book by Schlaepfer and Oskay is beautiful, but more pictures with short explanations than a book. Fascinating if you’re curious about how PCBs and their components work.
• And if you’re a cryptocurrency/blockchain sceptic, David Gerard’s “Attack of the 50 foot blockchain” is an entertaining read.

[GreatWhiteWine]

21 hours ago, Silverflame said:

Fiction: all of the Becky Chambers books!

• The Wayfarers is her first universe, set in a future with multi-species interstellar travel. There’s a decent amount of “science” to its sci-fi genre (some suspension-of-disbelief, but still), the characters are extremely well-written and nuanced, and the worldbuilding is very immersive. 2nd book, A Closed and Common Orbit, is more tech-/AI-exploratory, but they’re all excellent imo (and the 2nd is sort of a sequel to the 1st, so minor spoilers if you start there; otherwise they’re all independent).
• The “Monk and Robot” series is also interesting. Set in a future, on a different planet, where robots became sentient and humans redesigned society to be greener and leave the robots in peace. They’re novellas however, so shorter stories, but still excellent!

 

Non-fiction:

• I quite enjoyed “Coders” by Clive Thompson. It’s a neat exploration of various fields of computer science and software engineering, along with a bit of history on terms, programming cultures/philosophies, etc. It’s also very accessible.
• The “Open Circuits” book by Schlaepfer and Oskay is beautiful, but more pictures with short explanations than a book. Fascinating if you’re curious about how PCBs and their components work.
• And if you’re a cryptocurrency/blockchain sceptic, David Gerard’s “Attack of the 50 foot blockchain” is an entertaining read.

Thank you very much! I don't know a single book from your list.

[Blue4130]

Microserfs by Douglas Coupland.