Lavinia

If you're into social issues, Ursula Le Guin wrote several novels that combine sci-fi with social and political philosophy in a package that feels somewhat non-fiction-y. My favorite are The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed. Meanwhile, a more recent novel of hers, Lavinia, is a fascinating reinterpretation of ancient Roman epic fantasy. Margaret Atwood is another author who doesn't get mentioned a lot around here but whose works of SF(she prefers "speculative fiction" to "sci-fi") I've enjoyed a lot. Her MaddAddam trilogy is weird but entertaining. You'll probably either love it or hate it. Many of her other works focus on issues of sex and gender in various past and future settings, some fictional, some historical. Of course, I as well as a lot of other commenters in this thread are assuming that you'll be into sci-fi and fantasy, because that's what most computer geeks like. But even if you aren't a sci-fi fan, Le Guin and Atwood aren't typical sci-fi, so you might find them interesting anyhow.