I thought we should start a Tek Syndicate recommended reading list. I was hoping to keep this list as mostly non-fiction. So give us your recommendations!
The only real tecky book I've read is The Singularity Is Near by Ray Kurzweil. All about the singularity and such, quite interesting.
Non fiction? Anything by Carl Sagan. Brian Greene also does a great job of explaining complex ideas to the reader. Hawking has a few good books as well. Same goes for Neil deGrasse Tyson. If you want to dip into biology, Dawkins books are well written, if somewhat antagonistic (though, less so than he tends to be in person IMO). Or you could go to the source and read something by Darwin. That should be a good start.
Isaac Asimov! Logan and Wendell refer to his Foundation series quite a bit. I tried reading the first one, but found I didn't make enough time for it and thus didn't get very far in to it. I can assure you, though, that what I did read was inspiring and scary how similar it is with today's scenarios. They aren't non-fictions, but they probably will be...
Asimov is great, though definitely fiction lol.
Well I know you wanted non-fiction books but I really love Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami. Another good book by him is The Wind Up Bird Chronicle.
The Cathederal and the Bazaar, Eric S. Raymond. Thanks to @Jeol. How did I forget to list this one?!
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
1984, George Orwell
Any Stephen King is entertaining
A Song of Ice and Fire, George R.R. Martin Read all of them. You will not regret it.
Fingerprints of the Gods, Graham Hancock Reading it now. Super interesting
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Robert A. Heinlein
The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric S. Raymond. It should almost be required reading - has good history of the free software movement and open source, some of the philosophical implications and benefits, and how to contribute to the OSS community through principal.
I know this is not cultured literature, but I'm a huge Star Wars expanded universe nerd. Here's what I consider the best SW novels:
The Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn
- Heir to the Empire
- Dark Force Rising
- The Last Command
The Darth Bane Trilogy by Drew Karpyshyn
- Path of Destruction
- Rule of Two
- Dynasty of Evil
Outbound Flight by Timothy Zahn
I, Jedi by Michael A. Stackpole
Shadows of the Empire by Steve Perry
Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter by Michael Reaves
Darth Plagueis by James Luceno
If anyone is interested in SW novels, shoot me a PM :D
Edit: oh non-fiction woops.
'Altered Carbon' and 'The Girl with All the Gifts' are two of my recent favourites (fiction).
'Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future' was also great.
Cathedral and The Bazaar:
Hear it from the man himself.
One more:
The Linux Command Line, William E. Shotts, Jr.
You kind of have to read this to have a good grasp of the Foundation series. Not all of it is good per say.
The Robot series:
The Caves of Steel. 1954. ISBN 0-553-29340-0. (first Elijah Baley SF-crime novel)
The Naked Sun. 1957. ISBN 0-553-29339-7. (second Elijah Baley SF-crime novel)
The Robots of Dawn. 1983. ISBN 0-553-29949-2. (third Elijah Baley SF-crime novel)
Robots and Empire. 1985. ISBN 978-0-586-06200-5. (sequel to the Elijah Baley trilogy)
Galactic Empire novels:
The Currents of Space. 1952. ISBN 0-553-29341-9. (Republic of Trantor still expanding)
The Stars, Like Dust. 1951. ISBN 0-553-29343-5. (long before the Empire)
Pebble in the Sky. 1950. ISBN 0-553-29342-7. (early Galactic Empire)
Foundation prequels:
Prelude to Foundation. 1988. ISBN 0-553-27839-8. (occurs before Foundation)
Forward the Foundation. 1993. ISBN 0-553-40488-1. (occurs after Prelude to Foundation and before Foundation)
Original Foundation trilogy:
Foundation. 1951. ISBN 0-553-29335-4.
Foundation and Empire. 1952. ISBN 0-553-29337-0., Published with the title 'The Man Who Upset the Universe' as a 35c Ace paperback, D-125, in about 1952
Second Foundation. 1953. ISBN 0-553-29336-2.
Extended Foundation series:
Foundation's Edge. 1982. ISBN 0-553-29338-9.
Foundation and Earth. 1986. ISBN 0-553-58757-9. (last of the Foundation series)Jack L. Chalker Wellworld series. I just realized i had the wrong author for Dancers in the Afterglow. (Facepalm ) It was not Clark.
Carlos Castaneda books,
always liked em,
but they are fantasy,
but have good interesting other points of view and thought and perception
https://moonmetaphysics.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/carlos-castaneda-all-books-in-one.pdf
I'd recommend books by James Gleick. He's written several books thar serve as a great introduction to otherwise complex areas, such as information theory and chaos theory. He has a way of introducing these subjects in an easy way.
Terry Pratchet: Discwolrd series, Dodger was really good too. Most people know what this is, magic fantasy 39 book series based around the disc world, a flat disc on the backs of four great elephants walking on the back of a giant space traversing turtle. Really good reading, funny and engaging with great use of language.
Cherie Priest: Boneshaker, I have bought the second one but not yet read it. Set in an alternate past of Seattle were a gold rush hit. Follows the story of the wife and child of the dead inventor of the Boneshaker, who turned Seattle into an undead wasteland by releasing unknown blight gas into the city.
Ben Goldacre: Bad Science. All about the Hacks Quacks and Uncomfortable facts about alternative medicine and the down right stupid thing that they push on people and that they believe because it is wrapped up in "sciencey" sounding words.
Jyouji Hayashi: Ourboros Wave. A connection of short stories translated from Japanese about the future were we have limitless energy but also massive conflict between the terrane and the off worlders who have changed their thought process and live a very different life. Lots of thought pieces in it and I figure a lot of the Tek readers would like it. Highly recommended.
Tank Girl: graphic novels various artists, rude, crude, funny and varied in story style and approach.
Richard Dawkins: The God Delusion. Most should be able to work out what this is about. Also check out The Selfish Gene.
Douglas Adams: The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. And the other books too. Great and wacky space adventure between unlikely peoples.
Alex Boese: Elephants on Acid. A collection of bizzare experiments, makes for light interesting reading. Kind of thing you can pick up and put down when ever and just read a few pieces.
Chew: Graphic Novels/Comic books. I buy the compilation volumes. About a detective who can get psychic impressions from food. Anything he eats will give him the entire history of that item. He does not like eating as a result but makes a great detective. How was he killed? Eat his finger and find out.
Edit: none of this spoils the story of any of these, just give some insight into the settings.
@Ethereal
Non-Fiction Recommendations:
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter
What it deals with (Without Spoiling it): Cognitive Science
Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold
What it deals with (Without Spoiling it): It's a fun read about technology.
If you like Horror - Suspense all of Stephan Kings early writings are well worth the read.
But my absolute favorite author of all time is Robert Heinlein
Well there are so many books to read but here i go:
- brave new world (aldous Huxley)
- 1984
- iWoz
- I for one love classic novels so: The wines of grasp, anything from steinbeck, hemingway, dostoievsky, camus
- Hawking's books are pretty good to
Good choices in the other comments and ao many more that it is impossible to remember them all