Tariq Ali is an aspiring web developer dedicated to producing interesting applications and websites for businesses. Before entering into web development, Tariq served as a journalist, real estate a...
Player Piano, by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is a sci-fi dystopian novel about automation and the existential angst associated with it, from the perspective of engineers. I like this book the most, because this is the novel that I wanted to write...a story about how people deal with increasing amounts of automation in their day-to-day life.
Galápagos, by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is a novel about humanity slowly recovering from a dystopian 1980s. While it is technically a happier story, the plot has humanity reach near-extinction levels and slowly mutate into an unrecognizable form.
Slaughterhouse-Five and Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. both deals with total warfare. Slaughterhouse-Five focuses on predestination issues while Cat's Cradle satirizes the arms race associated with the Cold War.
Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad is a novel about imperialism, colonialism, and civilization (of the lack thereof), set in the Congo Free State.
There's probably other non-programming books out there that are useful, but I haven't read them yet. For example, somebody recommended The Sirens of Titan (by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.) as a better novel than Player Piano, but I haven't read The Sirens of Titan, so I can't say whether I like it or not.
The "Mistborn" trilogy by Brandon Sanderson is probably my favorite fiction. Incredible worldbuilding with an epic, unpredictable plot. Yet everything makes logical sense and the "magic" systems are well defined and explained. The first book has been described as "Ocean's Eleven meets Lord of the Rings". The first book is called "The Final Empire", or sometimes just "Mistborn".
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams of course. From the first to the sixth and seventh book of the four parted trilogy of five. It's about life the universe and everything. You'll figure it all out while reading. I would suggest these books to everyone.
Then there is the trilogy consisting of Epic, Saga, and Edda, written by Conor Kostick. It's pretty much about people who crash landed on a foreign planet who've built a society forbidding violence in any way. They achieve this by handling any conflicts within Epic, a video game.
"Audition" by Michael Shurtleff, "The famed broadway and hollywood casting director reveals everything an actor needs to know to get the part".
So right now you must be asking yourself "Why should I read a book about how to succeed in an audition for a play when I'm a programmer?"
This is a fanstastic book about theater and so about human relationships. At first level you'll be surprised how an audition is close to an interview and how Shurtleff advices can be useful for us all. Next you'll see relations, intentions and stories in a all new way.
Since I read this book, I can't stop recommending it...
"Sleights of Mind". As an amateur magician with a fascination in psychology and perception, this book hit all my high notes. The authors talk about various phenomena of perception such as attention, depth perception, etc in the context of some classic magical effects, including, yes, telling the secrets of those effects. All this with a through narrative of the authors preparing to audition for membership in The Magic Castle.
Two books who really help me until today are How to talk to children so they listen and how to listen so they talk and Non-violent Communication. The first one is valid even for dealing with grown-up people. The second one is really helping me to be less damaging to others and myself.
Another non-fiction book is Vital Dust, about the history of life. I'm afraid it may be a bit outdated today but it gives a great panoramic view. The first volume of History of Private Life is amazing (but I cannot bear the other ones).
In fiction, two books I really like are One Hundred Years of Solitude and Creation (by Gore Vidal). The first one is a really pleasurable book. I used to arrive late at home after working and studying in college, and by 11 PM I would read "one or two pages." In general I went to bed by 4 AM having to wake up at 6 AM... The second one was really instructive and entertaining.
I like poetry, and my favorite long poem is Paradise Lost. There is an obscure Brazilian one, Anchieta or Gospel in the Junge, that I really like. I kinda liked the Divine Comedy and the Lusiads, but they are harder to read. (I would prefer Fernando Pessoa's Message over Lusiads any time!) Aeneid was good, too, but I barely read the first forty verses. (Curiously, I never liked Iliad and Odyssey...)
But the book I really, really love is _Grande Sertão: Veredas (or The Devil to Pay in the Backlands in English.) It is very idiosyncratic and relies heavily in rural Brazilian Portuguese dialects, so I cannot really recommend the translation. (They say it is a great translation, but I feel it would be like translating "Ulysses" from James Joyce. It sounds like impossible :) ). I don't think it is a book most people would like, so that's why I've put it at last, but it is undoubtedly my favorite. It is the only voluminous book I've read twice, and will read for the third time.
(The truth however is that I've read most of those books in my teen years and early twenties; those days I only read about tech most of the time.)
Too many to mention, here are a few, The "No Asshole Rule" by Robert Sutton, the Freakonomics series of books by Stephen Levitt, Team of Rivals and The Bully Pulpit by Doris Kearns Goodwin, The Foundation and Robot series by Asimov, Anything by J.K. Rowlings, Anything Tolkien, The Marshmallow Test by Walter Mischel, King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild which should be followed by The Story of Uranium by Tom Zollner since they historically complement one another, "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond and The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver.
'Managing humans' by Michael Lopp (rands) is currently on my kindle - so far it's a fantastic read and I'd recommend it to anyone who is keen on people leadership in the tech industry.
I always recommend 'the clean coder' and 'clean code' by Robert C. Martin (though he's often referred to as just 'Uncle Bob') to any programmer that's about to start their first job. I'd add that these books are an equally valuable read for veteran programmers. At my former workplace we kept copies that people could borrow when they joined our team.
In addition, if you're new to the industry and are starting your first job or maybe just starting your first project you'd almost certainly benefit from reading a project management fundamentals book, such as 'Fundamentals of Project Management : Tools and Techniques' by Rory Burke.
Having some knowledge of how projects work and the language that's used going into your role is much easier than figuring things out afterwards.
If you'd prefer to read a more complete book on project management then PMBOK is the big ugly book for you!
Spaniard, manager by day, dev by night. node.js express alexa jquery html5 css but can also do java php, and if you really insist I'll dust off my C LISP Prolog ML Miranda and even assembly.
Makers. Pirate Cinema. Little Brother. Homeland. All by Cory Doctorow.
Cryptonomicon. Age of Diamond. Snow Crash. Seveneves - all by Neal Stephenson.
I also read "non-geeky stuff", especially poetry, but in my mother's tongue, Spanish. My favourite poets: Jaime Sabines (from Mexico) and Mario Benedetti (from Uruguay).
the discworld novels, the Dragonlance series (first 6 books) and Harry Potter:3 cuz it's my childhood :)
Discworld is a comic fantasy book series written by the English author Terry Pratchett, set on the fictional Discworld, a flat disc balanced on the backs of four elephants which in turn stand on the back of a giant turtle,
the Dragonlance is the classic Dungeons and Dragons Plot , a group of people rescue the world ;) what i like the most about this books is that the fighting is "realistic" not like Lord of the Rings if the protagonist has to fight more than 2 enemies is already quite hard.
for all the fantasy fans i can recommend both of this book series.
Top comments (40)
Player Piano, by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is a sci-fi dystopian novel about automation and the existential angst associated with it, from the perspective of engineers. I like this book the most, because this is the novel that I wanted to write...a story about how people deal with increasing amounts of automation in their day-to-day life.
Galápagos, by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is a novel about humanity slowly recovering from a dystopian 1980s. While it is technically a happier story, the plot has humanity reach near-extinction levels and slowly mutate into an unrecognizable form.
Slaughterhouse-Five and Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. both deals with total warfare. Slaughterhouse-Five focuses on predestination issues while Cat's Cradle satirizes the arms race associated with the Cold War.
Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad is a novel about imperialism, colonialism, and civilization (of the lack thereof), set in the Congo Free State.
There's probably other non-programming books out there that are useful, but I haven't read them yet. For example, somebody recommended The Sirens of Titan (by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.) as a better novel than Player Piano, but I haven't read The Sirens of Titan, so I can't say whether I like it or not.
The "Mistborn" trilogy by Brandon Sanderson is probably my favorite fiction. Incredible worldbuilding with an epic, unpredictable plot. Yet everything makes logical sense and the "magic" systems are well defined and explained. The first book has been described as "Ocean's Eleven meets Lord of the Rings". The first book is called "The Final Empire", or sometimes just "Mistborn".
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams of course. From the first to the sixth and seventh book of the four parted trilogy of five. It's about life the universe and everything. You'll figure it all out while reading. I would suggest these books to everyone.
Then there is the trilogy consisting of Epic, Saga, and Edda, written by Conor Kostick. It's pretty much about people who crash landed on a foreign planet who've built a society forbidding violence in any way. They achieve this by handling any conflicts within Epic, a video game.
"Audition" by Michael Shurtleff, "The famed broadway and hollywood casting director reveals everything an actor needs to know to get the part".
So right now you must be asking yourself "Why should I read a book about how to succeed in an audition for a play when I'm a programmer?"
This is a fanstastic book about theater and so about human relationships. At first level you'll be surprised how an audition is close to an interview and how Shurtleff advices can be useful for us all. Next you'll see relations, intentions and stories in a all new way.
Since I read this book, I can't stop recommending it...
Cool! Never would have thought to read Audition. I wish it was available on Audible.
At least it's available on Kindle. On Audible it would be such a hard work to do but for sure it can be awesome :)
"Sleights of Mind". As an amateur magician with a fascination in psychology and perception, this book hit all my high notes. The authors talk about various phenomena of perception such as attention, depth perception, etc in the context of some classic magical effects, including, yes, telling the secrets of those effects. All this with a through narrative of the authors preparing to audition for membership in The Magic Castle.
Two books who really help me until today are How to talk to children so they listen and how to listen so they talk and Non-violent Communication. The first one is valid even for dealing with grown-up people. The second one is really helping me to be less damaging to others and myself.
Another non-fiction book is Vital Dust, about the history of life. I'm afraid it may be a bit outdated today but it gives a great panoramic view. The first volume of History of Private Life is amazing (but I cannot bear the other ones).
In fiction, two books I really like are One Hundred Years of Solitude and Creation (by Gore Vidal). The first one is a really pleasurable book. I used to arrive late at home after working and studying in college, and by 11 PM I would read "one or two pages." In general I went to bed by 4 AM having to wake up at 6 AM... The second one was really instructive and entertaining.
I like poetry, and my favorite long poem is Paradise Lost. There is an obscure Brazilian one, Anchieta or Gospel in the Junge, that I really like. I kinda liked the Divine Comedy and the Lusiads, but they are harder to read. (I would prefer Fernando Pessoa's Message over Lusiads any time!) Aeneid was good, too, but I barely read the first forty verses. (Curiously, I never liked Iliad and Odyssey...)
But the book I really, really love is _Grande Sertão: Veredas (or The Devil to Pay in the Backlands in English.) It is very idiosyncratic and relies heavily in rural Brazilian Portuguese dialects, so I cannot really recommend the translation. (They say it is a great translation, but I feel it would be like translating "Ulysses" from James Joyce. It sounds like impossible :) ). I don't think it is a book most people would like, so that's why I've put it at last, but it is undoubtedly my favorite. It is the only voluminous book I've read twice, and will read for the third time.
(The truth however is that I've read most of those books in my teen years and early twenties; those days I only read about tech most of the time.)
Too many to mention, here are a few, The "No Asshole Rule" by Robert Sutton, the Freakonomics series of books by Stephen Levitt, Team of Rivals and The Bully Pulpit by Doris Kearns Goodwin, The Foundation and Robot series by Asimov, Anything by J.K. Rowlings, Anything Tolkien, The Marshmallow Test by Walter Mischel, King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild which should be followed by The Story of Uranium by Tom Zollner since they historically complement one another, "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond and The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver.
'Managing humans' by Michael Lopp (rands) is currently on my kindle - so far it's a fantastic read and I'd recommend it to anyone who is keen on people leadership in the tech industry.
I always recommend 'the clean coder' and 'clean code' by Robert C. Martin (though he's often referred to as just 'Uncle Bob') to any programmer that's about to start their first job. I'd add that these books are an equally valuable read for veteran programmers. At my former workplace we kept copies that people could borrow when they joined our team.
In addition, if you're new to the industry and are starting your first job or maybe just starting your first project you'd almost certainly benefit from reading a project management fundamentals book, such as 'Fundamentals of Project Management : Tools and Techniques' by Rory Burke.
Having some knowledge of how projects work and the language that's used going into your role is much easier than figuring things out afterwards.
If you'd prefer to read a more complete book on project management then PMBOK is the big ugly book for you!
Makers. Pirate Cinema. Little Brother. Homeland. All by Cory Doctorow.
Cryptonomicon. Age of Diamond. Snow Crash. Seveneves - all by Neal Stephenson.
I also read "non-geeky stuff", especially poetry, but in my mother's tongue, Spanish. My favourite poets: Jaime Sabines (from Mexico) and Mario Benedetti (from Uruguay).
the discworld novels, the Dragonlance series (first 6 books) and Harry Potter:3 cuz it's my childhood :)
Discworld is a comic fantasy book series written by the English author Terry Pratchett, set on the fictional Discworld, a flat disc balanced on the backs of four elephants which in turn stand on the back of a giant turtle,
the Dragonlance is the classic Dungeons and Dragons Plot , a group of people rescue the world ;) what i like the most about this books is that the fighting is "realistic" not like Lord of the Rings if the protagonist has to fight more than 2 enemies is already quite hard.
for all the fantasy fans i can recommend both of this book series.
OHHHH and what i forgot all the H. P. Lovecraft books but just as Audio-books while i'm at work or in the car
vote Cthulhu why chose the lesser evil :P
"that is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange æons, even death may die."