Cryptonomicon

"How To Make A Good Script Great", "Slow Motion: Changing Men, Changing Masculinities", "Cryptonomicon", "1984", "Lord Of The Rings"

I opened this thread to post about Dungeon Crawler Carl. I just finished the fantastic Three Body Problem series, and reading something so pulpy in contrast feels like cheating, but it’s making me happy and that’s what I’m looking for anyways. Some other bits I’ve read recently that I’ve loved: - Ken Liu’s “The Paper Menagerie” is a beautiful short story by the Three Body Problem’s translator - Cryptonomicon feels like a great balance between heady reading (it goes into WWII-era crypto thinking) and pulpy humor. I loved reading it. - “Stoner” by John Williams (not the Stoner you think, and also not the John Williams you think) is kinda in a different direction, but it’s a really well paced and beautifully written book about a farmer’s son who falls in love with literature. It’s one of those books that’s hard to sell in a sentence, but is effortless to read and makes you think a lot in a non-engineering-brained way.

I consolidated the comments for my reference later. Someone else might also find it useful: # Fiction Books Recommended for Programmers (HN Thread 46128404) ## Adrian Tchaikovsky - *Children of Time* — Science Fiction (Evolution, Space Opera) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25499718-children-of-tim... (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25499718-children-of-time) ## Rick Cook — Wizardry Series - *Wizard’s Bane* — Fantasy, Programming/Magic Mashup https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/112616.Wizard_s_Bane - *Wizardry Series (overview)* https://www.goodreads.com/series/43084-wiz ## James P. Hogan - *Inherit the Stars* — Hard Science Fiction https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/743568.Inherit_the_Stars - *Code of the Lifemaker* — Sci-Fi, Artificial Life https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/296722.Code_of_the_Lifem... (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/296722.Code_of_the_Lifemaker) - *The Two Faces of Tomorrow* — AI, Hard Science Fiction https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/218017.The_Two_Faces_of_... (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/218017.The_Two_Faces_of_Tomorrow) ## D. F. Jones — Colossus Trilogy - *Colossus* — AI, Classic Sci-Fi Thriller…

Hichhikers guide to the galaxy is a must for everyone no matter what :) also Snow Crash or Cryptonomicon both by Neal Stephenson

Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson

Cypronomicon is a pretty fun read

The Count of Monte Cristo. I rarely get this absorbed by a book. It was a very satisfying read. Grapes of Wrath stayed with me for a very long time. The Jungle too. This is how you lose the time war. It was just damn unique and pleasant. Everyone who reads it loves it. Cryptonomicon, another very entertaining read that every geek loves.

1) Three-Body Problem series 2) Hyperion series (first two books especially) 3) Cryptonomicon 4) Cloud Atlas 5) Wandering Earth (collection of short stories)

I stopped halfway through and tried reading the sparknotes to see if anything exciting ends up happening but I ended up getting bored and let down just reading those highlights. That said, maybe I was expecting something very different. I enjoyed Snowcrash and I enjoyed various sections of Cryptonomicon’s prose, it was just sooooo boring in the end.

I read snowcrash as a teen but Cryptonomicon was my reintroduction to Neal Stevenson as an adult and it got me hooked.

Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life and Others is the best, single-author collection of short stories I've ever read. If you like that, you might also enjoy The Lifecycle of Software Objects, an absolutely heartbreaking novella about simulated children, and his follow-up collection Exhalation. Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game is fantastic, and it's follow-up, Speaker for the Dead is even better, and my favorite science fiction novel of all time. They won back to back Hugo and Nebula awards. Card is a polarizing figure for his outspoken political opinions, but if ever the art should be separated from the artist, it's Speaker, which is an incredible exploration of empathy and responsibility, in addition to being a gripping, action-packed, science-literate read. Many more in this series, if you get into it.…

Adam Hall's Quiller series. Good to revisit every few years and the mechanism of building to a crisis, then starting after the resolution and backing up is fun. Not for everyone though as it's cold war vintage spy stuff. Feels real though, not like Hollywood versin of Bond. Banks of course, Use of Weapons is great. Just hit 51 and finally reading Dune now, so keep that in mind, but would also suggest Cryptonomicon as i have started it several times, put it down and then come back and had to start again several times.... but i find it interesting enough to keep trying!

All the Ian M Banks Culture series. Neal Stephenson - Cryptonomicon

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, every three years or so.

William Gibson. The Bridge trilogy and the Sprawl trilogy, at a minimum. They still feel like maps to the future even now. You have to work at it, the map is not the territory after all, but the realisations about the impact of technology, progress, and the choices we make when we let society work a certain way have been profound, for me at least. Also The Peripheral, and Gibson’s essay in Wired about undersea cables, and... yeah. Having read Gibson feels like a superpower. As others have said: - The Hitch Hiker’s Guide - Stepehnson’s Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon, Seveneves, Anathem (aside: totally surprised how much love there is for Anathem, I remember it not being received very kindly at the time by people around me, though I liked it.) - The Culture series (special shout out to The Player of Games.)

Is Cryptonomicon even sci-fi? I mean, Stephenson is known for the genre, and certainly it will appeal to genre fans, but it's not actually set in the future... I totally second the recommendation, though.

Perhaps the most important book I've ever read is Difficult Conversations, by Douglas Stone. It's possible that my life is 10-20% easier since I read it, with zero hyperbole. It's not a breezy quick read, but my favourite sci-fi is always likely to be Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson.

Yeah, I would skip this and read Cryptonomicon again.

Cryptonomicon is one of my favorite books of all time (I'm probably due for a re-read at this point). I would also recommend "Seveneves", one of Neal Stephenson's most recent books. "Anathem" was also very enjoyable.

Isaac Asimov is one of the classics, of course. I'm particularly fond of the robot novels (all four of the Elijah Baley ones especially) and the entire Foundation series. Of course, you also can't miss the robot short stories. Oh, and The End of Eternity! At some point I found Charles Stross' Accelerando, which is freely available online (along with a bunch of other short stories), and found everything I've read (which is most of it at this point, I think) enjoyably fast-paced. In particular the Laundry series (of which I've bought every iteration as soon as they came out over the past few years) -- though arguably these maybe cross-over from SF into fantasy a bit -- and the Halting State trilogy.…

Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash were great. Others you might: - The Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang (superb short story that Arrival was based on) - The Three Body-Problem (Cixin Liu) - Dune (Frank Herbert) - The Parable of the Sower (Octavia Butler) - Lucifer's Hammer (Larry Niven) - The Kundalini Equation (Steven Barnes)

+1 Anything Gibson, especially Sprawl Trilogy Anything Stephenson, though I particularly liked Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon, and Snow Crash, In the beginning was the command line.. oh, I like everything by him. Seriously though, In the beginning was the command line and Cryptonomicon are basically an ode to 90s hacker culture, the true neckbeard type of CS. Love that aesthetic, culture and ethics.

The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood. An easily digestible summary of information and key figures in its history. Turing's Cathedral (or as my brothers call it: Von Neumann's Cathedral). An awesome account of the history of computation, and the obstacles that had to be overcome. Cryptonomicon. Hilarious The Strangest Man, by Graham Farmelo. A biography of delightfully awkward Paul Dirac. The Library of Babel, by Jorge Luis Borges. Thought provoking and profound.

Probably my favorite novel. And, unfortunately, more relevant than ever. A quote: If the entire world were to become a police state obsessed with recovering old secrets, then vast resources might be thrown at the problem of factoring large composite numbers.

Cryptonomicon, very dense almost requires a second reading to fully understand how everything ties together. Considering it was written in 1999 still feels very contemporary.

I'll second The Baroque Cycle (or Cryptonomicon: it doesn't matter which). But might I also suggest the works of Terry Pratchett, particularly Discworld? Sir Pterry's work is among the best I've ever read. If you're looking for something a bit fluffier than the above, then I would suggest The Dresden Files. Sure, it's mindless fluff, but man, it's good mindless fluff. The same applies to The Codex Alera (which apparently resulted from a bet that the author couldn't make a good book from an awful idea: the idea given was the lost roman legion crossed with Pokemon). I can also suggest Ready Player one in this category. Ready Player One is essentially geek culture (especially gaming culture) furiously... well, you know. Giving itself one. But it's a fun ride (unlike Armada. But that's another story).…

For a series of psychological reasons I try to avoid reading 1984. From what I have read so far, I would say that it's Cryptonomicon. But it's a good future, it's a very sad future. Not as sad as Huxley's or Orwell's but sad enough.

That's a very broad question, so I read your comments to get a feel from where you might be coming from and/or going to and where you and I might overlap: * Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Antifragile, things that gain from disorder http://www.amazon.com/Antifragile-Things-That-Disorder-Incer... (http://www.amazon.com/Antifragile-Things-That-Disorder-Incerto/dp/0812979680/) * Jared Diamond. The World until yesterday, what can we learn from traditional societies http://www.amazon.com/World-Until-Yesterday-Traditional-Soci... (http://www.amazon.com/World-Until-Yesterday-Traditional-Societies/dp/0143124404) * Frans de Waal. The Bonobo and the Atheist: In Search of Humanism Among the Primates http://www.amazon.com/Bonobo-Atheist-Search-Humanism-Primate... (http://www.amazon.com/Bonobo-Atheist-Search-Humanism-Primates/dp/0393347796/) * John Higgs. The KLF: Chaos, Magic... http://www.amazon.com/KLF-Chaos-Magic-Music-Money-ebook/dp/B... (http://www.amazon.com/KLF-Chaos-Magic-Music-Money-ebook/dp/B00ABFHOS0/)…

Been a big Stephenson fan since Cryptonomicon. Enjoyed the Baroque Trilogy, Anathem & Reamde, but non of them are as good as Cryptonomicon. It's a bit like be an Umberto Eco fan - nothing since Name of the Rose has been quite as good. Or Wes Anderson for that matter; there's been good stuff, but nothing's touched the heights of Royal Tenenbaums.

I'm going through the audiobook of Cryptonomicon, its my first Neal Stephenson book and I am quite enjoying it.

The Selfish Gene - Dawkins, The Red Queen - Ridley I've read these books midway through high school, already interested in biology and medicine. The depth and complexity of how life forms handle evolutionary pressure is mind blowing. Why you favor relatives over strangers, the competition between mother and child, progress through collaboration of genes etc. You see the world completely differently (after reading many more books on geology, genetics, anthropology, anatomy, cellular biology etc) afterwards. For a novel: Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, Truely changed how I look at computers and encryption as a not mathematically inclined reader. Building a computer out of church pipe organ components etc.

The two books I've read by Stephenson and really enjoyed. Never really got into the Baroque cycle because it's so long winded, but that should also be good.

Anything by Iain M. Banks. Start with "The Player of Games" and "Consider Phlebas". Anything by Vernor S. Vinge especially "Zones of Thought" series. "Daemon", "Freedom(tm)", "Kill Decision" and "Influx" by Daniel Suarez. "The Martian" by Andy Weir. Anything by Neal Stephenson, especially "Reamde: A Novel" and "Cryptonomicon". Anything by Hannu Rajaniemi, especially "The Fractal Prince".

All-time favorite: Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson Recent favorite: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Stand on Zanzibar, Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, Childhood's End, A Cantilce for St Leibowitz, The Stars My Destination, Midnight At The Well of Souls, Nine Princes in Amber, Halting State, Strnger In A Strange Land, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress.

Cryptonomicon, it's by FAR the best I've read! EDIT: Come to think of it, I don't know is in the right category as Sci/fi. Well if not cryptonomicon, then SnowCrash probably :-P

I advise reading good fiction, especially "hard sci-fi", to get your mind in a good place for the startup scene. Like most people on HN probably would, I recommend reading Neil Stephenson's books, especially Cryptonomicon, The Diamond Age and Snowcrash (in order descending order of subjective of relevance).

Cryptonomicon(no snark intended)? I read that book this year too and it was definitely a great read. It's aged really well.

Isaac Asimov's robot series (start with "I, Robot" and "The Caves of Steel") is good, as is his Foundation series. Ender's Game is also good; I've heard other people complain about the other novels in that universe (Speaker for the Dead and sequels, Ender's Shadow and sequels), but I liked them fine. Cryptonomicon is rich, fascinating, and entertaining. Dune is rich and pretty fascinating. Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land" and "Time Enough for Love" are somewhat scandalous, but I thoroughly enjoyed them. Outside science fiction: P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster novels, as well as what of his other books I've read, are hilarious and brilliant; I would suggest "Right Ho, Jeeves" as a starting point.

As has already been mentioned elsewhere in this thread, most of Neil Stephenson's work is just great. Cryptonomicon is my favorite, but The Baroque Cycle (three books) is very good as well. If you're into crime/mystery fiction, the recently deceased Elmore Leonard was one of the best. A few of his books have been made into movies (Get Shorty, Jackie Brown, The Big Bounce) with mixed results, but I do I highly recommend reading the books, which are numerous. For a different sort of fiction, James Clavell's Shogun, Taipan, and Noble House are great. In fact, Noble House very well be my favorite book. It's a long (~1400 page) book about business dealings, political intrigue, and more. All set in the context of 1963 Hong Kong. Those who like a touch of historical fiction could take a look at Conn Uggulden. One of his series, The Conqueror, which is about the rise and fall of the Mongol empire is pretty interesting. The books are a light read, and not particularly complicated, but it's entertaining and has some neat historical bits.

Catch 22 One Hundred Years of Solitude The Infinite Jest Cryptonomicon

Couldn't agree more about Cryptonomicon.

I've been chewing through some Neil Stephenson books lately. I think a lot of his earlier work was somewhat prescient (in terms of general themes) and some of his newer work bring up some interesting societal points especially about the role of government with regards to technology. Another theme that I feel is particularly relevant lately is the bifurcation of the technically skilled (or even aware) and the technically unskilled. He puts up an interesting split in Anathema which wittingly or not might well represent a lot of the current hacker/tech-elite discussion in society at large. Anathema is well worth a read and Cryptonomicon is just plain fun (perhaps more relevant lately than it was in its own time).

If the OP is looking for a page turner, then Stephenson's Snow Crash is another great recommendation. Anathem was slower to me, and Reamde was good. But if I was to pick up Stephenson's stuff again I go to Snow Crash, then Cryptonomicon as my one, two.

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, while maybe not the "best" book ever written, is highly entertaining...

Some authors and a rec or two for each. DFW - Infinite Jest Pynchon - Really anything, but in particular Against the Day, V, and Gravity's Rainbow. Rushdie - Shame and Satanic Verses, a lot of good other ones. Neal Stephenson - Cryptonomicon Gaddis - JR, hence my name. Heller - Catch-22

India specific : India after Gandhi, India Unbound Computer Science : GEB( still reading), Mahout in Action General : Cryptonomicon

Neil Stephenson's Cryptonomicon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptonomicon) is not only great science fiction, it'll also teach you a bit about math, integration properties, cryptography and even Perl!

Both Neuromancer and Cryptonomicon are about "social, cultural and economic dynamics", and they are very good books to boot. Try as I might, I can't remember any mocking of Turing in the Cryptonomicon. I'm quite confident Neal Stephenson is not a homophobe.

Hmm... Favorite is hard. Maybe Cryptonomicon Because it was funny, meditative, and the research into WWII crypto was interesting. Or Maybe Stranger in a Strange Land, for the insights into correct action, the nature of humor, love, and understanding, and for giving us 'grok'. Or Maybe the Illuminatus Trilogy, for crazy awesomeness insight into the 1970's. I've loaned out all three, and I couldn't consider a book a favorite unless I'd tried to get people to read it.

I would say “self-congratulatory” rather than “hipstery” — I’m reading this right now too, and although I find it fascinating (like I find reading about any cryptography fascinating), it often feels impenetrable without a cause to be, other than “aren’t these characters all such geniuses, I bet you can barely keep up.” Also, I get http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Shaftos_Gone_to_Sea stuck in my head for hours afterwords each time.

I had the endurance to read through Cryptonomicon, it was long but still enjoyable. Then I bought all three volumes of the Baroque Cycle, but gave up halfway through volume 1 and sold them. It was just too much.

Cryptonomicon benefits a lot from being a theoretical comp-sci and/or crypto nerd.

Cryptonomicon? The only book I ever read to say "I beat you massive book!" and not for enjoyment. In the end it was a decent romp.

http://textiplication.com/2009/07/13/hackers-and-hacking-in-... (http://textiplication.com/2009/07/13/hackers-and-hacking-in-science-fiction/) has many of the recommendations I'd make. I especially recommend Cryptonomicon if you want some pseudocode. I'll add a few newer books: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ready_Player_One http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daemon_%28technothriller_series%29 However, have you considered some free nonfiction? http://www.mit.edu/hacker/hacker.html The Hacker Crackdown http://hermetic.com/bey/taz3.html#labelTAZ Temporary Autonomous Zones You might also like scifi short stories: http://www.flurb.net/

Cryptonomicon, so far love it Interesting that most seem to read two books at the same time. Usually I read one fiction and one non-fiction, but this time really enjoying to focus on only one book

Vernor Vinge --- A Fire Upon the Deep. (Also worth seeking out is the hugely influential novella "True Names", but you'd probably have to dig it out of a library someplace.) Neal Stephenson --- Cryptonomicon. (Present day setting, but with an SF sensibility; ties into his literally epic Baroque Cycle.) Charles Stross --- Halting State. (Investigation of an MMORPG bank breakin spills out into real-world skulduggery.) And an oddball that folks here may not have encountered: Mary Gentle --- Ash, A Secret History. (Starts off with interleaved narratives of a Joan of Arc figure in a strangely different medieval Europe, and a present-day Ph.D. researcher who's investigating her, and finding out that his sources literally don't say the same thing day to day. Then it gets... weirder. Quirky, brilliant, and kind of hard to find in the U.S.)

Also his "Cryptonomicon", a phenomenal novel.

Read the Cryptonomicon. It's an awesome work of fiction, and it involves lots of geek interests. Alternative suggestions are Microserfs and JPod.

... with an added emphasis on "Cryptonomicon". :)

RiderOfGiraffes also suggested Snow Crash; both would be excellent choices. I'd add to this Cryptonomicon, which is an interesting story, interesting thematic matter (relevant to software folks, and presented intelligently), and just full of different ways of looking at things (the scene that describes the Hindenburg disaster, or eating Captain Crunch cereal, were both perfectly clear, yet told in ways that took me some time to sync with what they were actually referring to. Also consider most anything from Vernor Vinge. Some of my favorites from him are A Deepness in the Sky, Rainbows End, and A Fire Upon the Deep. Since he's a Comp Sci professor, he handles technology issues (and especially computer-related stuff) very realistically. And if you're looking back into the classics, consider Larry Niven's "Known Space" books, particularly Ringworld.

Non-fiction - 'The Selfish Gene' - Richard Dawkins Grokking the concept changed the way I thought about life forever. - 'Quantum Reality' - Nick Herbert One of the best introductory level books on quantum physics mysteries. No nonsense. - Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig The book that introduced me to Kant, Hume and philosophy of science. Just for that, I'm forever indebted to it. Some favorite fiction books - - Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson Loved 'Snowcrash' too. - 'The Moon is a Harsh Mistress' - Robert Heinlein - Anything by Kurt Vonnegut, Milan Kundera, Somerset Maugham

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

I recently read _Cryptonomicon_ after having put it down last year. It was fun, and overall it was definitely worth it. I'm reading his _Snow Crash_ now. It was published in 1992, before the Web, and it predicts a time close to present day. It's interesting to see what he got right, and what he got wrong. It's also a fun read if you are generous with the disbelief suspension.

Another great hacker fiction read: Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

I find that reading fiction on vacation really stimulates my programming brain. There's a lot to be said for letting your mind roam free for a bit. I believe PG talks about the value of letting your mind roam in one of his essays (or possibly Hackers and Painters). In particular, I've found Neal Stephenson's books to be great for this purpose. If you haven't read Cryptonomicon, Snow Crash, or Diamond Age, I would suggest reading one of them. It will satisfy your need for some "geek" content on vacation, without being all business.

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. http://www.amazon.com/Cryptonomicon-Neal-Stephenson/dp/00605... (http://www.amazon.com/Cryptonomicon-Neal-Stephenson/dp/0060512806/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241940820&sr=8-1)

One could ad Neal Stephenson books in general. Especially Snow Crash. Jointly, with Cryptonomicon, one of the best books I've ever read! In Snow Crash, the author envisioned stuf like Google Earth or Second Life, only in a much more advanced way. The book was written in 1992 :-)

+1 or Cryptonomicon. Although I don't call it SciFi. Nerd Fiction?!

Cryptonomicon is great if you haven't read it. I think it's a canonical piece of scifi. It's two generations of nerds from a family. One is a WW2 codebreaker, and his grandson is a startup tech guy. The book tells the story by switching between 1940s and 1990s. Lots of historical people, alternate timeline stuff. Lots of interesting ideas about economics and information. A great read.

Ender's Game: Inspired my company: www.endergen.com. Who's goal it is make systems of play that augment intelligence as well as hopefully laterally solve world problems as you use them. Frakenstein: For the morality that you must take responsibility for the consequences of your inventions. Cryptonomicon: Inspired most of the work on endergen(See Ender's Game Above). Introduced me to the concepts of privacy/security implemented in technical form and the conflict between the two.

His Baroque Trilogy I found to be the most inspiring read in the last few years - while it's easy to argue that it isn't strictly science fiction. Since it sets up characters who appear in Cryptonomicon, I feel I can get away with it. What the trilogy has in common with inspiring sci-fi is that it changes the way I look at the present - drastically. His characters are present for the beginnings of what we call science, the current economy and also on slave and pirate ships. He has brilliant physicists who are also alchemists and at war with themselves over not being able to resolve their own contradictions. (Newton) It's fiction about the history of science - and it's weirder and whackier and grander than anything else I've ever read. (Take THAT Tolstoy!( (you hack!) Of course, I'll also second Snowcrash as a must-read. Same with Cryptonomicon.

i can't narrow this down to one. some of these are already named: Cryptonomicon, Snow Crash, "The Last Question", Ender's Game/Shadow, Dune, Slaughterhouse 5, Ringworld

No hacker site would be complete without mention of Cryptonomicon. That being said, I always liked the epics in the style of Poul Anderson, Robert Heinlein, and the like.

- Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson - Copywriting (Teach Yourself series), by J. Jonathan Gabay - The Paradox of Choice, by Barry Schwartz

Fiction: - The Time Machine (still holds up very well, and seems strangely eerie and prescient in places)... (H. G. Wells) - Dune (Frank Herbert) - The Hobbit (and LotR) (Tolkien) - Neuromancer (William Gibson) - Idoru, All Tomorrow's Parties (I picked up Idoru first, so I haven't yet read Virtual Light) (also Gibson) - The Difference Engine (Gibson, Sterling) - Snow Crash (Neal Stephenson) - Cryptonomicon (" ") - Circuit of Heaven, End of Days (Dennis Danvers) - All of the "Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser" stories and novels. (Fritz Leiber) - The Earthsea trilogy (Ursula K. LeGuin) - 'salem's Lot (Stephen King) - Stranger in a Strange Land (Heinlein) - Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Twain) - the Coldfire trilogy (C. S. Friedman) - various Cory Doctorow short stories - Kamikaze L'Amour (Richard Kadrey) - Lightpaths (Howard V. Hendrix) - A Canticle For Leibowitz (Walter M. Miller, Jr.) - Moonwar, Venus (Ben Bova) - the Stainless Steel Rat series (Harry Harrison) - Treasure Island (Robert Louis Stevenson) - Ringworld (Larry Niven) - Cthon (Piers Anthony) -- Trippiness level approaching Philip Jose Farmer ;-) - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series (Douglas Adams)…

The Evolution of Cooperation - Robert Axelrod Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell - Susanna Clark Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace The Informant - Kurt Eichenwald The Visual Display of Quantitative Information - Edward Tufte Liar's Poker - Michael Lewis

All of William Gibson and all of Neal Stephenson (especially Cryptonomicon and Baroque cycle series)