dredmorbius

Steve McConnel's Code Complete

Mortimer Adler's How to Read a Book concludes with a list of 137 classics.

perhaps Kernighan and Pike's The Unix Programming Environment

Steve Keen offers a fairly compelling criticism in Debunking Economics.

were a profound introduction to the history of technology, science, ideas, and philosophy.

Charle's Perrow has several excellent books including Normal Accidents and Organizing America.

impressed upon me more than any other just how much petroleum specifically changed and transformed the modern world.

I've yet to read it in full.

Heilbroner's The Worldly Philosophers is a classic

also encapsulates much the strength of the Unix toolset.

An Inquiry to the Nature and Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith (1776)

Reading him in his own words, yourself, is strongly recommended.

A Short History of Progress, by Ronald Wright (2004)