One of my favorite non-fiction books is Tracy Kidder’s “The Soul of a New Machine,” and I am always on the lookout for similar books about computing. Another book I enjoyed was “Showstopper!” by G. Pascal Zachary about programming Windows NT.
Can anyone recommend some more books like these? Thanks in advance!
It’s not really about programming, but you’d probably enjoy Kevin Mitnick’s autobiography Ghost in the Wires. It’s a pretty engrossing and entertaining account of his hacker exploits (although his ego gets in the way more than occasionally).
Cliff Stoll’s The Cuckoo’s Egg. Like Soul of a New Machine it is about a very long obsolete version of technology, but it is a wonderfully enjoyable story.
On the Edge: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore by Brian Bagnall is a fascinating book about a company that had a lot of important firsts in computer history, but is too often ignored by computer history websites.
And the MV800 was not yet obsolete when Soul of a New Machine was first published in 1981.
I need to read that, as I was an Amiga fan back in the day.
I meant both are still enjoyable in spite of the fact that the tech is now obsolete.
“I’m going to a commune in Vermont and will deal with no unit of time shorter than a season.”
The Cuckoo’s Egg is great. It is very dated, but a lot of fun to read. (Although the epilogue is rather sad.) Another good one is Accidental Empires by Robert X Cringely. Also Hackers by Steven Levy.
Another one you might like is The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story by Michael Lewis. He’s an entertaining writer but generally writes on financial stories.
“Where Wizards Stay Up Late” by Katie Hafner. It’s about the early days of the internet.
Actually, while they aren’t typically about computing, I’d recommend everything by Michael Lewis. I’ve read several of his books and have been greatly engrossed by every one of them. They all have the same “style” as Soul of a New Machine.
J.
I know. I liked Liar’s Poker (where I first learned about collateralized mortgage obligations, by the way) and then started to look for anything else he’s written. He wrote long articles for Vanity Fair on things like how Greece got so screwed up or how Iceland got so screwed up. He does a really good job of explaining complex financial issues.
And after reading The Soul of a New Machine, I read other stuff by Tracy Kidder.
Basically, if I find a non-fiction writer I like, I’ll search out other stuff by the same author.
Here’s what Amazon says that people who bought this book also bought:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Soul-A-New-Machine/sim/0316491977/1/ref=pd_sxp_tp
See anything interesting there?
Dealers of Lightning, about what was basically the invention of the whole modern personal computing paradigm at Xerox PARC. I Googled the link and it was interesting that the description read “…in the spirit of The Soul of a New Machine…” but actually it was the first thing that came to mind because of my personal association with Xerox PARC. I’ve read both books and they are both terrific. What the world needs is similar books about some of the innovations at DEC, but I don’t think any have ever been written, certainly not of that caliber, though there are many fascinating internal records.
I’ll second “Hackers” by Steven Levy. For my money it was a much better read than “Soul of A New Machine.”
try the Eudaemonic Pie.
A fascinating story of a few friends from grad school who decided to play roulette in Las Vegas and prove Einstein wrong.(Einstein once said that the only way to beat the laws of statistics and make a profit at roulette was to steal money off the table)
They set out–in the 1970’s-- to :
The book is written in a wonderful style- making the English language dance, while also being an easy-to-read story of adventure, high-tech wizadry, mathematic theory, and highly educated people with soaring imagination and social idealism.