Bronson, Po. (1997). The First $20 Millions is always the Hardest. Random House.
A hilarious fictional (?) story of stereotypical male geeks trying to build and market their own web computer. It made me want to scream at them "Get a life".

Brooks, Frederick. (1995).The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on software engineering. Addison-Wesley.
Software engineering. Light on the CS but certainly considered one of the must reads for all computer scientists. A terrific book. Extremely important to anyone in management, especially management of software development. Not easy reading! Originally published in 1975 - still relevant for the 20th anniversary edition.

Cherny, L. and Weise, E. (1996). Wired Women: Gender and new realities in cyberspace. Seal Press.
Do women act differently from men on the Net? Why do they get flamed and how do they react to the flaming? One of the best essays is about Systers. Other articles range from Usenet to hackers .

Constantine, L. (1995). On Peopleware. Prentice Hall.
A series of essays on the people aspect of computing, some dated, most recent. A lot of common sense on project management.

Hacker, S. (1989). Pleasure, Power and Technology: A sociological investigation of the attraction of technology. Unwin Hyman.
Continuation of the above arguments, including an admission that technology is seductive and fun.

Hafner, Katie and Markoff, John. (1991). Cyberpunk: Outlaws and hackers on the computer frontier. Simon & Schuster.
Three stories about people who break into computers (one each about Robert Morris, the East German spy case, and the guy who stole VMS sources from Digital). These are written with a good understanding of the hackers' mentality, so they offer a slightly different perspective. Focuses on the moral and ethical questions society faces as computers and networks become more prolific. The longest section talks about the Morris case.

Hofstadter, D. (1979). Godel, Escher, Bach: An internal golden braid. Basic Books.
Godel the mathematician, Escher the artist and Bach the composer. Why are those three in one book about computing? A classic. Part mythology, part mathematics, part musings on DNA and RNA. Explains recursion very well. Not easy reading but fascinating.

Lammers, Susan. (1986). Programmers at Work: Interviews with 19 programmers who shaped the computer industry. Microsoft Press.
Interview with "Top of the Pops" programmers such as Bill Gates, Gary Kildall (CP/M operating system), Bob Carr (chief scientist at Ashton Tate). How do they get started? Where do they get their software ideas, and why are they all men?

Levy, S. (1984). Hackers. Doubleday.
About the MIT hackers of the '60's and the cottage industries of the '70's. Great for some cultural background. It may be a little dated at this point, but provides a good overview of the culture, which in some instances is much more important than technical ability which comes with time. A good read! There is now an updated edition.

Lewis, Michael. (1999). The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story.W.W. Norton.
A biography of Jim Clark, a obsessive billionaire who went from university professor to web conceptual artist.

McCorduck, Pamela. (1991). Aaron's Code: Meta-art, artificial intelligence, and the work of Harold Cohen. Freeman.
Can computers create real art? Harold Cohen was a painter who discovered computing and built a software system that uses AI to make images. If you are an artist of any kind, highly recommended. Beautiful pictures. The book might be difficult to find.

Manes, S. and Andrews, P. (1994). Gates: How Microsoft's mogul reinvented an industry - and made himself the richest man in America. Touchstone/Simon and Schuster.
Can you have a biography of someone who is not yet forty years old? Find out how Gates made his fortune and what drives him. The title tells it all.

McNeill, D. and Frieberger. (1993). Fuzzy Logic: The revolutionary computer technology that is changing our world. Touchstone/Simon & Schuster.
What is fuzzy logic and how does it differ from ordinary probability? What can you do with it and why are the Japanese embracing it? A good, nontechnical book, though I could do without some of the gee-whiz approach.

Moody, Fred. (1995). i sing the body electronic. Penguin.
A mild mannered account of the design and development of a children's encyclopedia on CD-ROM at MicroSoft. A group of designers, educators and programmers were always trying to save the project.

Mungo, P. and Clough, B. (1992). Approaching Zero. Random House.
Hackers, phreakers, virus writers and all those cyberspace underworld types. How do they do it? Why do they do it? A fun book.

Negroponte, N. (1995). Being Digital. Knopf.
The effect of the digital age on societies from the director of the Media Lab. Media Lab? Look at Brand's book.

Norman, D. (1988). The Psychology of Everyday Things. Basic Books.
Called "The Design of Everyday Things" in the paperback version. Not particularly about computer science but about human-centered design and is a must-read for any designer or engineer. The author is a cognitive psychologist at UCSD. It's the greatest computer-human interface book I've ever read even though it's mostly about interfaces to things that are not computers, like doors and other everyday objects. After a while, you start examining the design of everything.

Ritchin, F. (1990). In our Own Image: The coming revolution in photography. Aperture.
One of the first books to consider how computers are changing the way we see the world. If you are interested in the merging of art, photography and computing, this is the book to start with.

Roberts, Steve. (1988). Computing Across America. Learned Information.
Is it a travel book, a book about the Internet, a road book? Here is a guy who lives on his bike, a nomad rather than a homeless person. He connects with the world on the Internet of course. In addition to reading the book, you can reach him on: WORDY@UCSD.EDU

Spender, Dale. (1995). Nattering on the Net: Women, power and cyberspace. Spinifex.
Are books dead? If so, why is Spender writing one? She starts out with a history of reading and books and shows why the same arguments against the Internet were used when books and reading became commonplace.

Stoll, Cliff (1995). Silicon Snake Oil. Doubleday.
What? Cliff Stoll has doubts about the information highway? Not really. He just does not think that people ought to spend all their free time on the Internet. They ought to "get a life." A real touchy-feely book with some good points. A breeeze to read.

Stoll, Cliff. (1989). The Cuckoo's Egg. Doubleday.
Fascinating account of how a sysop tracked down a spy snooping on the Internet. Must be read by system administrators or anyone who likes espionage novels. Shows how a dedicated individual can really get into his work. He was interviewed on TV a couple of time. Couldn't put the book down when I started it. A good read! You can reach him on: ASTRO@CFA268.HARVARD.EDU

Turkle, Sherry. (1995). Life on the Screen. Simon and Schuster.
How people navigate through simulated worlds and enter into dialogues with computers. The author of "The Second Self" has written another best-seller about the impact of computers on our psychological lives.

Turkle, Sherry. (1984). The Second Self: Computers and the human spirit. Simon & Schuster.
An MIT psychologist's study of people and computers with reflections on learning, "soft" and "hard" programming styles, Piaget and children's ideas about life, hackers, and computers as learning tools. It has a sociological bent and discusses some of the 'life' issues of computers and the world. Highly recommended. The seminal work, as far as I am concerned. This is the equivalent of "The Second Sex" (Simone de Beauvoir) or "The Feminist Mystique" for women in computing, but the book is not just about women. I wish that I could have written it. She can be reached on: STURKLE@ATHENA.MIT.EDU

Ullman, Ellen. (1997). Close to the Machine: Technophilia and its Discontent. City Lights.
Tales of an aging software engineer, and female to boot. Ms. Ullman runs her own consulting business and builds a team of young men for each new computing job. She, herself, is still very close to the machine but wonders for how long. She weaves a wonderful, personal story of computing, family and sex, all of which take up her time. To those who say, "Get off the machine and get a life", she would probably answer "This is my life".

Vitanza, Victor. (1996). CyberReader. Allyn and Bacon.
A collection of essays on cyberspace. Censorship, MUD groups, cyberpunks and women on the internet are discussed by computer scientists, sociologists and politicians.

Weizenbaum, J. (1976). Computer Power and Human Reason. W. H. Freeman and Company.
It's about use and abuse of computers. It is probably the first book by a computer scientist on the limitations of what computers can do and what they should not be doing. One of its themes is what computer should be used for. For example, assuming a computer could be programmed to be a judge, would you want such a judge? It is well written. A classic!

Yourdon, E. (1992). Decline and Fall of the American Programmer. Prentice-Hall.
U.S. programmers are on the same, slippery slope as U.S. auto workers, according to system development expert, Edward Yourdon. He stresses people-oriented skills such as project leadership. He also claims that many programmers "haven't read a real book since Huckleberry Finn", something I intent to change in this class.

Zuboff, Shoshana. (1988). In the Age of the Smart Machine: The future of work and power. Basic Books.
The effects of computerization in the workplace. How does a computer affect traditional crafts and human judgment? Does it enrich the job or just routinize it? Lots of interview data and great observations.