Watchmen

Comics! I recently finished Wanted (which made for a shitty movie, but a decent comic) and Watchmen (I despair I hadn't gotten around to it sooner). Now I'm planning to read V for Vendetta, The Killing Joke, Batman: Year One, and some more. I've finally come around to comics as an art form, and I couldn't be happier!

* 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).

Watchmen (Alan Moore) Origins of Form (Christopher Williams) Starship & The Canoe (Kenneth Brower) The Size of Lumber (Nicholson Baker) Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (Shunryu Suzuki) Deschooling Society (Ivan Illich) Moby Dick (Herman Melville) Bolo'Bolo (P.M.) Le Ton beau de Marot (Douglas Hofstadter) Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth (James Lovelock) Mouse or Rat: Translation as Negotiation (Umberto Eco) Neuromancer (William Gibson) The Intelligent Investor (Benjamin Graham) Don Quixote (Miguel Cervantes)

The Watchmen, although technically a comic book Alan Moore tackles a lot of complex existential issues. Also, The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus. How does one find meaning in life in a meaningless world? www.goodreads.com has a lot of great reviews/suggestions as well

Not one book, but two graphic novels. "Watchmen" and "V for Vendetta", Alan Moore's perspective is such a great perspective. Alan Moore tackles important philosophical questions in a really accessible medium. Alan Moore is a realist with very dramatic inclinations and all hackers will appreciate the references in his works. He combines the pretentious with the subtle in a way that will blow your mind. It's not very time-consuming to read through a graphic novel, but after reading them you will spend a lot of time processing the content in your mind, until you reread the graphic novels by Alan Moore.