Snow Crash

J.R.R. Tolkien: The lord of the Rings (lost count) Philip K. Dick: Ubik, Flow My Tears The Policeman Said, A Scanner Darkly, etc. too many to count (many more than twice) William Gibson: everything at least twice Neal Stephenson: Snow crash (three times, I think) Clifford D. Simak: City H. P. Lovecraft: everything at least twice. There is a French compilation of The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, The Silver Key, and Through the Gates of the Silver Key that I've read countless times. I've used two editions and I'm at my third. Maurice G. Dantec: Babylon Babies (three times) Possibly many others.

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

"Galatea 2.2" by (my all-time favorite author) Richard Powers "Off to Be the Wizard" by Scott Meyer "Daemon" by Daniel Suarez "The Adolescence of P1" (vintage) by Thomas Ryan "Snow Crash" by William Gibson "Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline "We are Legion [We are Bob]" by Dennis Taylor

Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson

* The Chronicles of Amber (10 volumes) * CODE - Microsoft Press * Snowcrash

Snow Crash

Perhaps a standard list but: Hyperion, Deepness in the Sky, Snow crash, Permutation City, Exhalation and other Ted Chiang

My absolute favorite is Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner, The Jagged Orbit was also excellent. Other than that, of course Snow Crash is a masterpiece, but I think my favorite Stephenson book is The Diamond Age. Another excellent one is Daemon by Daniel Suarez whose books are quite fascinating and look at generally pretty topical plotlines (I was just thinking I have to revisit his book Kill Decision about AI enabled killer drones).

I read Snow Crash growing up. It is a wonderful weird cyberpunk novel that (metaverse aside, unfortunately) turned out to be kind of Nostradamusly. Easy read. Higly recommended!

Neuromancer and Snow Crash

Neuromancer Snow Crash Blindsight (Just some fun fiction to bolster one's passion for their chosen profession. Obviously TAOCP, SICP, K&R, and other books in their ranks are better answers.)

Snow Crash, total 90s hacker all up in your metaverse's d-base type of book. Picked it up after learning it was a big influence to the early ID software guys (can definitely see how)

Snow Crash. I love the opening sequence with the Pizzanator. Also, the description of the Metaverse was a great concept. I’ve worn out one copy so far from reading it so much.

Couldn't agree more! That first chapter hooked me harder than anything I have ever read. It would hav been amazing had the entire book held to that pace, but I personally felt it got too bogged down at times in the more philosophical bits. Still a great book on balance, and deserves great credit for its exploration of the metaverse.

A protip for Snow Crash is that you can just skip ahead 5-10 pages whenever there's an info dump about Babylonian grammar or the history of herpes simplex. You'll miss a bit, but not much. However if the first chapter doesn't get your interest at least a little piqued you probably won't enjoy the rest of the book any more.

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 find myself re-listening to large portions of my audible library fairly often. I pick up so much more on additional read/listen-throughs. I listen to or read Snow Crash at least once a year. I just enjoy most everything about it. Anathem required a couple listens, and a third listen was just for comfort food. The Altered Carbon trilogy has depth and sublime world-building that I have now enjoyed at least a half dozen times. I second mentions of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (and will mention The Long, Dark Tea Time of the Soul as well). Ender’s Game is also comfort food for me. Breaking from the speculative fiction reco’s above... The Power of Vulnerability (Brené Brown) is more lecture series than audiobook, but as for non fiction I’ve recently given multiple listens to, that tops the list. I borrowed “Landline” from the local library, read it twice and then bought it so I could continue to read it when I want to. I think I was in just the right age group and life situation for this novel to hit home for me. Your mileage may vary, but IMO read it without knowing anything about it in advance if you’re going to read it. That means don’t read the back cover etc.…

Snowcrash Doorways in the Sand

Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson: I assume a HN classic. Good read nonetheless. Crazy imaginative. Prior experience with Stephenson is limited to Snowcrash, which I found to be quite good as well. Benjamin Franklin - Walter Isaacson: Biographies are immensely underrated. A good biography has had the effect of raising my own aspirations by orders of magnitude. Not sure what it is exactly about them. Being reminded that accomplished figures were humans first and foremost is always good. Either way, struck by the practicality of the man -- something I'm looking to emulate in my own life.

Recently finished this, I enjoyed it a lot but I admit it's not... quite what I expected with the heavy religious aspect of the book. Deliberately irreverent, almost tongue-in-cheek (Hiro Protaganist...). Neal Stephenson had an incredible eye wrt the capabilities limitations of software, especially if you view it through the lens of 1992

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, SF from 1992. Goodreads entry here [1] [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40651883-snow-crash

Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson "Wait a minute--this Snow Crash thing, is it a virus, a drug, or a religion?" "What's the difference?" This was the original definition of a "meme" as coined by Richard Dawkins: instead of humans choosing what to think, what if ideas self-replicate using human minds as hosts? Religions, languages, agriculture, chemistry, the word "like", uptalk, literally any thought or behavior pattern can be framed this way. See also: https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/12/17/the-toxoplasma-of-rage... (https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/12/17/the-toxoplasma-of-rage/)

Martin Eden by Jack London. Really stressed why education actually matters. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. Same.

"Daemon" or "Kill Decision" by Daniel Suarez "Snow Crash" by Neil Stephenson

Seveneves. The first sentence is, "The moon blew up suddenly and without warning." Everything is near-future sci-fi and as grounded and accurate as possible. If you liked The Martian, this will scratch the same itch. Snow Crash is great too. Probably a bit problematic now, but fantastic world building. A bit more gritty and dystopia though. Both are by Neal Stephenson.

Asimov's original "Foundation" - it's effectively a collection of 4,5 short stories. I recommend to remain at a discreet distance from the rest of the series. While good within the universe, they are ... different. "Ender's Game" and "Speaker for the Dead" by O.S.Card. (Do not touch Xenocide without a hazmat suit. And if you do, burn it before reading.) "Snow Crash" by Neil Stephenson. "Rendez-vouz with Rama" by Arthur C. Clarke. If you're up for some thought-provoking stuff, "Stranger in a Strange Land" by Heinlein. Not the easiest read but your carve-out basically rules out "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress". "Embassytown" by China Mieville. EDIT: I forgot "Hyperion" by Dan Simmons.

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.

Read "Neuromancer" by William Gibson, also "Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson. Both offer something beyond just being Sci-Fi.

For me it is Zodiac, Snow Crash and Diamond Age.

Snow Crash - Convincing possible future dominated by media, corporations, computers, and drugs. The Origin of Consciousness and the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind - Fascinating delve into, among other things, why Homer is boring but gets better, prehistoric art in early human cultures, schizophrenia, and perception and the points it breaks down. (I work in VR games so take with a grain of salt)

This year I read 31 books. Only 8 were non-fiction. I'm hoping to finish another 2 before the year ends. My top 3 were. 1. The Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson. This series did a good job of balancing big and little picture, while givings us a neat form of magic to learn about. 2. Stock Market Cash Flow from the RDPD series. In 2016 I had read several books on fundamental(or value) investing, and this book helped me bust out of the thinking that, that style is the only way to look at, and earn in the stock market. 3. Snow Crash. This book was just fun. The characters were enjoyable to watch, and there was some clever stuff in this book.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Foundation series. Snow Crash. 2001: A space odyssey. Why? All are so much fun to read over and over again.

* Johnny Got His Gun, by Dalton Trumbo. Powerful anti-war story. * Vagabonding, by Rolf Potts. Shaped my views on hard work and travel. * 1984, by George Orwell. Brilliant and terrifying. * The Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle. Overcoming mental pain through consciousness. * Planetwalker, by John Francis. Inspired me to walk and put myself into things more. * Pure enjoyment: Snow Crash (Neal Stephenson), Ready Player One (Ernest Cline), Watchmen (Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons), Red Rising trilogy (Pierce Brown). Honorable mention: The Water Knife (Paolo Bacigalupi).

Getting More - Stuart Diamond. I still think this is the best book on the art of negotiation. Getting Things Done - David Allen. If you have adult ADHD like me, and you haven't read this, it's the first system that's really worked for productivity for me. Man's Search for Meaning - Victor Frankl. Living Buddha, Living Christ - Thich Nhat Hanh. Cosmos - Carl Sagan. The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. LeGuin. The One who Walks Away from Omelas - U.K. LeGuin. Wild Seed - Octavia Butler. The Heike Monogatari - (tr. Helen Craig McCullough) “The sound of the Gion Shoja temple bells echoes the impermanence of all things; the color of the sala flowers reveals the truth that to flourish is to fall. The proud do not endure, like a passing dream on a night in spring; the mighty fall at last, to be no more than dust before the wind.” If you need a comparison. this is the Japanese historical equivalent of Game of Thrones combined with a bit of MacBeth. The rise and fall of two shogunate families, and an analysis of the tragic flaws of character that brought their fall about. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo. Small Gods - Terry Pratchett. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad.…

I started reading sci-fi(mostly hard-sf) after I read the commonwealth saga, 'Pandora's star' and 'Judas unchained'. It was just really entertaining and unlike anything I've read. Also really recommend 'Snow crash'. Also adding a couple fantasy recommendations: Lies of Locke lamora, and any basically any novel by Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn: the final empire, Warbreaker, The way of kings etc.)

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/)…

Do audio books count? If so my favorites from this year would be Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson, and Armada by Ernest Cline. Books I actually read which were good: The Informationist by Taylor Stevens Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

I read The Martian, Snow Crash, and Ready Player One over the course of a month or two. All three of those books have their flaws but I enjoy the style and page turning nature of them a lot.

I liked "snow crash" and "the diamond age", but found "cryptonomicon" hard to get through, even though it's super popular among geeks. I think even if I ever get to the end of this one, I won't be reading anything from him for a while though.

Hey, I'd say Snow Crash (for history in geekery). The Ender series. Some of Neil Gaiman (I do love TPratchett, though not on this list) .. At the moment I'm a lot into short stories, and that'd mean Ted Chiang of course, and Greg Evan, as well as some of Vinge Vernor.

Snow Crash Childhood's End

Lord of the Light Dune Neuromancer Hyperion Snow Crash Use of Weapons Pandora's Star / Judas Unchained

When I read your comment I'm strongly reminded of myself ten years ago. I held almost exactly the same view on hard scifi, and was similarly obsessed with Arthur C Clarke. But I've since loosened my definition of scifi for a couple of reasons: a) I now think of scifi as any work intended to do more than tell a story or explore a world. Focussing on just hard scifi causes great works of social and sociology fiction like The Dispossessed to be left without a clear pigeonhole. Which is a great pity, IMO. Perhaps the biggest chunk that gets miscategorized is cyberpunk; works like Snow Crash and Hardwired are clearly about more than whether the ending is happy or sad, or whether the hero gets the girl. Doesn't seem right to categorize them as fantasy. Better to narrow Arthur C Clarke into the sub-category of hard scifi. Loosening my uptight definition caused me to better appreciate Snow Crash in particular on a second reading a decade later. It's aged wonderfully. You could even imagine a book with fantasy 'props' that feels scifi-like. I haven't seen it yet, but I have no doubt it can be done. (Any recommendations from others?)…

Top 3 for me, would be 1. Ender's Game 2. 2001 Space Odyssey - I sit down with Arthur for Tea at his home in Colombo, Sri Lanka - He gave me a copy of his article in which he first described telecommunication via satellites 3. Snow Crash

Snow Crash edit : and Ambient, by Jack Womack

Favorite fantasy book far and away is "The Way of Kings" (a random Sanderson), favorite sci-fi book is Snowcrash (Neal Stephenson)

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.

Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, Dune, Foundation series, Martian Chronicles & Illustrated Man, Ender's Game, Accelerando, Hyperion, The Forever War, Player of Games, Snow Crash

A single book? Impossible. I don't think I could even name my favorite Zelazny or PKD. Many of the works of both are in the running. As is "Dune", for sure. Possibly "Snow Crash". "Protector" might not quite make the cut, but comes somewhat close - from my recollection it was my favorite Niven (not counting short stories)... I'm currently finally getting around to "The Mote In God's Eye". Further back, "Foundation" was pretty amazing, and I've a bit of a soft spot for "Childhood's End". Bester's "The Demolished Man" is well worth a read, but I think also doesn't quite make the cut.

The Mysterious Island - Jules Verne Neuromancer - William Gibson Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell Perdido Street Station - China Mieville Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card Foundation series - Asimov among others...

I really enjoyed reading Snowcrash. It's no literary magic but it's a fun read.

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

'Snow Crash' by Neal Stephenson: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Crash

I loved Snowcrash! For more science fiction, I personally like Michael Crichton.

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).

"Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson

I too just finished Ready Player One. Such a great read. I tend to lean on Good Reads lately for recommendations. But picked up Atopia Chronicles (http://amzn.com/B00DUK1RKY) after browsing popular sci-fi on amazon's best-sellers list. It has great similarities to Ready Player One - virtual presences, future VR challenges, etc. but a very different kind of book (split into multiple story lines, not one continuous story). But that said, if you've not read Snow Crash then drop everything and read that next!

Personal favorites: "Flowers for Algernon", "Snow Crash" and "Schild's Ladder" #YMMV

What did you like about it? I'd suggest Tad Williams' Otherland, Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age & Snow Crash, and Gibson's Pattern Recognition purely based on subject matter (gamey-cyberpunk-ARG-AI), but none is quite as lighthearted in terms of nodding towards videogame culture.

+1 Snow Crash The interesting part about Snow Crash is that I feel that the dialogue between Hiro (the protagonist in the story) and the Librarian (an artificial intelligence in the metaverse but more advanced than either Siri or Google Now) amount to what may be the future of Google/Wikipedia/Research in the form of Q&A search queries. His questions are usually ones which attempt to draw new insight from historical documents, but are asked in a way in which the Librarian can answer them as though a computer can, but does not immediately draw conclusions. I can easily see that in 10-20 years, research/Q&A/Google could perform many of those same functions without biasing the user with any particular conclusions (because it can't).

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.

Slaughterhouse 5, Snowcrash, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

another vote for Snow Crash

Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson

Snow Crash, cyberpunk fun.

Neuromancer and Snow Crash always inspired me.

I'm surprised _Snow Crash_ (or other Neal Stephenson stuff) hasn't come up yet. It's a bit dated, as it envisions what teh internets will be like from a 1992 perspective, but still a very enjoyable/amusing read. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Crash

Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson.

Snow Crash is great. Generally I'd recommend some "classics", just to see who treaded some ground first, i.e. who gets copied by everyone. Isaac Asimov - Foundation (and the rest of the trilogy) Robert A. Heinlein - Stranger in a Strange Land / Starship Troopers / The Moon is a Harsh Mistress Alfred Bester - The Demolished Man / The Stars My Destination Jack Vance - The Dying Earth Philip K. Dick - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep / The Man in the High Castle Larry Niven - Ringworld etc. etc. A list of Hugo Award winners[1] might come in helpful. Another advantage of having read "the greats" is that if some critic says that new author X writes "in the style of Y" you have a slightly better idea if you might like it. Tastes vary, of course. Personally I never got what's supposed to be so great about Ender's Game. Teen Mary Sue geek power fantasy with questionable morals. Then again, lots of people said similar things about Heinlein… [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award_for_Best_Novel

Snow Crash and The Diamond Age are good books, especially for just starting to read again. Ubik is my favorite PKD book followed closely by Electric Sheep. The His Dark Materials isn't really sci-fi so much as fantasy but it is quite a good read (though if you didn't have a kindle it might be embarrassing buying them from the young adult section, they are quite adult though). I think a huge thing missing from your list is the Foundation series from Asimov (I recommend going in order of publishing, start with Foundation move onto Foundation and Empire then Second Foundation and more if you are into it). My 2 cents.

Snow crash was great as well. Also the "Daemon" series by Daniel Suarez is great along the same lines as snow crash.

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.

Anything by Terry Pratchett. There are a lot of books, and you might want to check this: http://www.lspace.org/books/reading-order-guides/the-discwor... (http://www.lspace.org/books/reading-order-guides/the-discworld-reading-order-guide-20.jpg) I personally loved "Guards! Guards!" and would recommend it. Also enjoyed "The player of Games" by Iain M Banks. Consider also "Snow Crash"

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

Snow Crash and In the Beginning was the Command Line by Neal Stephenson both introduced me to tech culture in different ways with the same result: it got me more excited about tech than anything else and made me realize that I had to work in tech, and also filled me with respect for what hackers do and regret that I was never going to be a good hacker.

I'm a big fan of Sci-Fi because I feel it makes people think about what they want the future to be, as well as avoiding the re-hashing of historical and current events that many fiction books set in the present do. With that in mind a list of great books to read: The Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson Gridlinked - Neal Asher Neuromancer - William Gibson The Reality Dysfunction - Peter F. Hamilton The Dreaming Void - Peter F. Hamilton Fallen Dragon - Peter F. Hamilton Altered Carbon - Richard Morgan Market Forces - Richard Morgan Blindsight - Peter Watts The Electric Church - Jeff Somers Tunnel in the Sky - Robert A. Heinlein The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein 1984 - George Orwell

None of Stephenson's books really have much of an ending (or in some cases much of a coherent plot)... the closest I can think of (in the way of endings) is Snow Crash. But he writes with wonderful detail and humor, and seems really great at writing believable near-term futures, which I imagine are much harder than writing about the distant future (where everything can be fantastical).

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.

I was going to suggest "Snow Crash" as well, so I'll just second it. Very cool book.

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.

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. People's History of the United States: Highlights from the 20th century - Howard Zinn 2. Snow Crash - Neil Stephenson 3. jPod - Douglas Coupland 4. the world is flat 2.0

Snowcrash...

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 find Stephenson to be somewhat hard to read due to his peculiar use of present tense. His Snow Crash novel is an absolute must read in a cyberpunk genre. It is really vivid, bizarre and quite believable version of a near future. Only if he'd opted for using past tense .. :)

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

SNOWCRASH for heavens sake.

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)…

Snow Crash (Neil Stephenson) The Bible (Various chaps)