Recommended Reading
When I was a student, one of my professors gave me a list of books that he said all students in science
should read. That was over 20 years ago, and I have read all the books on that list, and quite a few more.
To continue in that tradition, I created this list in 2000 in response to regular requests from students
that have asked me for recommending reading material during summer, winter and spring breaks. I have not
yet added many of the books that I have read since I first created the list. The list was last updated
02/06/05 with a few items I read during the 2004 winter break. I will attempt to add some of the more
interesting books I read between 2000 and 2004.
General Articles
- The Creative Life: Science vs Art, an interview with Greg Chaitin, October 2000.
- Slamming [Bill] Gates, The New Republic, by David Shenk, January 26, 1998.
- Key Technologies for the 21st Century, Scientific American, September 1995
- Julian Schwinger, by Jeremy Bernstein, The American Scholar, Spring 1995
- Dissing the Middle Class, by Gorman Beauchamp, The American Scholar, Summer 1995
Books on Computer Science
- My Recommended Reading List on Theory of Programming Languages, by Greg Lavender
- Computability and Complexity: From a Programming Perspective, by Neil D. Jones
- Explorations in Quantum Computing, by Colin P. Williams and Scott H. Clearwater
- The Computer Science and Engineering Handbook, edited by Allen B. Tucker, Jr.
- Foundations of Programming Languages, by John C. Mitchell
- On Concurrent Programming, by Fred B. Schneider
- Algorithmic Information Theory, by Gregory J. Chaitin
- Information, Randomness and Incompleteness, by Gregory J. Chaitin
- Information and Randomness: An Algorithmic Perspective, by Cristian Calude
- Cornerstones of Undecidability, by Grzegorz Rozenberg and Arto Salomma
- The Structure of Typed Programming Languages, by David A. Schmidt
- Type Theory and Functional Programming, by Simon Thompson
- Compiling with Continuations, by Andrew W. Appel
Books on Mathematics and Logic
- Engines of Logic, by Martin Davis
- The Cambridge Quintet, by John Casti
- Godel: A Life of Logic, The Mind, and Mathematics, by John Casti
- In the Light of Logic, by Soloman Feferman
- New Directions in the Philosophy of Mathematics, by Thomas Tymoczko
- The Limits of Mathematics, by Gregory J. Chaitin
- The Unknowable, by Gregory J. Chaitin
- Lambda Calculi, by Chris Hankin
- Practical Foundations of Mathematics, by Paul Taylor
- Handbook of Logic in Computer Science, Vols 1-3, edited by Samson Abramsky and Dov Gabbay
Books on Practical Programming
- Advanced Compiler Design & Implementation, by Steven S. Muchnick
- Elements of ML Programming, 2nd Edition, by Jeffrey D. Ullman
- Modern Compiler Implementation in {Java,ML,C}: Basic Techniques, by Andrew Appel
- Tcl and the Tk Toolkit, by John Ousterhout
- Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software, by Erich Gamma, et al.
- STL Reference and Tutorial, by David R. Musser and Atul Saini
- Graphic File Formats, by C. Wayne Brown and Barry J. Shepherd
Books on Networking, Cryptography, and the Internet
- IPv6: The New Internet Protocol, 2nd Edition, by Christian Huitema
- Secure Electronic Commerce: Building the Infrastructure for Digital Signatures and Encryption, by Warwick Ford and Michael S. Baum
- Computer Networks: A Systems Approach , by Larry Peterson and Bruce Davie
- Gigabit Networking, by Craig Partridge
- Fiber Optic Networks, by Paul E. Green, Jr.
- Applied Cryptography, 2nd Edition, 5th Printing, by Bruce Schneier
- Network Security, By Charlie Kaufman, Radia Perlman, and Mike Speciner
- The Early History of Data Networks, by Gerard J. Holzmann and Bjorn Pehrson
Books on Science, History of Science, and Philosophy of Science
- Feynman's Rainbow, by Leonard Mlodinow
- Infinity and the Mind, by Rudy Rucker
- Investigations, by Stuart Kauffman
- Travels to the Nanoworld: Miniature Machinery in Nature and Technology, by Michael Gross
- The Fabric of Reality: The Science of Parallel Universes, by David Deutsch
- Before the Beginning: Our Universe and Others, by Martin Rees
- What Will be: How the New World of Information Will Change Our Lives,, by Michael Dertouzous (Director of the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science)
- The Symbolic Species: The co-evolution of language and the brain, by Terrence W. Deacon
- How the Mind Works, by Steven Pinker
- The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory, by David J. Chalmers
- Hidden Order: How Adaptation Builds Complexity, by John H. Holland
- Origins of Order, by Stuart Kauffman
- How is Quantum Field Theory Possible?, by Sunny Auyang
- The Quark and the Jaguar, by Murray Gell-Mann
- Shadows of the Mind, by Roger Penrose
- Invention: The Care and Feeding of Ideas, by Norbert Weiner
- The Selfish Gene, by Richard Dawkins
Books on Economics, Markets, Politics, The Media, and Social Issues
- Imperfect Garden: The Legacy of Humanism, by Tzvetan Todorov
- Hope and Memory: Lessons from the Twentieth Century, by Tzvetan Todorov
- The Mystery of Capitalism, by Hernando de Soto
- Open Society: Reforming Global Capitalism, by George Soros
- One Market Under God: Extreme Capitalism, Market Populism, and the End of Economic Democracy, by Thomas Frank
- Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy, by Carl Shapiro and Hal R. Varian
- The Accidental Theorist, by Paul Krugman
- Disclosing New Worlds: Entrepreneurship, Democratic Action, and the Cultivation of Solidarity, by Charles Spinosa, Fernando Flores, and Hubert Dreyfus
- Amusing ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, by Neil Postman
- Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology, by Neil Postman
- Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television, by Jerry Mander
- Commodify your Dissent, by Thomas Frank and Matt Weiland
- Drawing Life: Surviving the Unabomber, by David Gelernter
- The Culture of Contentment, by John Kenneth Galbraith
- The Next American Nation, by Michael Lind
- The Next Century, by David Halberstam
- The Politics of Rich and Poor: Wealth and the American Electorate in the Reagan Aftermath, by Kevin Phillips
- Manufacturing Consent, by Edward S. Hermann and Noam Chomsky
- The Chomsky Reader, by Noam Chomsky
- How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter, by Sherwin B. Nuland
Books on History of Civilization
- Radical Enlightenment, by Jonathan Israel
- Enlightenment Contested, by Jonathan Israel
- Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey, Spencer Wells
- Darwin's Cathedral: Evolution, Religion and the Nature of Society, by David Sloan Wilson
- Aristotle's Children, by Richard E. Rubenstein
- Humankind: A Brief History, by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto
- NonZero: The Logic of Human Destiny, by Robert Wright
- The Moral Animal, by Robert Wright
- The Science of Good & Evil, by Michael Shermer
- Guns, Germs & Steel, by Jared Diamond
- An End to Suffering, by Pankaj Mishra
- War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning, by Chris Hedges
Books on Philosophy, Psychology & Religion
- The Great Transformation, by Karen Armstrong
- The Courtier and the Heretic: Leibniz, Spinoza and the Fate of God in the Modern World, by Matthew Stewart
- Modern Man in Search of a Soul, by Carl Jung
- On This Journey We Call Our Life, by James Hollis
- Creating a Life: Finding Your Individual Path, by James Hollis
- The Middle Passage: From Misery to Meaning in Midlife, by James Hollis
- Making Sense of it All: Pascal and the Meaning of Life, by Thomas V. Morris
- The Stoic Art of Living, by Thomas V. Morris
- Fire in the Belly, by Sam Keen
- The Soul's Code: In Search of Character and Calling, by James Hillman
- The Road Less Traveled, by M. Scott Peck
- Toward a Psychology of Being, by Abraham Maslow
- To Have or To Be, by Erich Fromm
- The Monk and the Philosopher, by Jean-Francois Revel & Matthieu Ricard
- Buddhist Thought, by Paul Williams
(Auto-)Biography
- Napolean, by Frank McLynn
- Some Interesting Memories: A Paradoxical Life, by Raymond Smullyan
- Alfred Tarski: Life and Logic, by Anita Feferman
- My Life as a Quant: Reflections on Physics and Finance, by Emanuel Derman
- Marshall McLuhan: The Medium and the Messenger, by Philip Marchand
- Geons, Black Holes, and Quantum Foam: A Life in Physics, by John Archibald Wheeler
- Alan Turing: The Enigma, by Andrew Hodges
- Bertrand Russell: The Spirit of Solitude 1872-1921, by Ray Monk
- Infinite Potential: The Life and Times of David Bohm, by F. David Peat
- John von Neumann, by Norman McRae
- Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman, by James Gleick
- Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio, by Tom Lewis
- Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton, by Edward Rice
Fiction
- Boredom, by Alberto Moravia
- Player Piano, by Kurt Vonnegut
- The Last Temptation of Christ, by Nikos Kazantzakis
- Labyrinths, by Jorge Luis Borges
- Collected Fictions, by Jorge Luis Borges
- The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco
- Darwin's Radio, by Greg Bear
- Darwin's Children, by Greg Bear
- Gravity's Rainbow, by Thomas Pynchon
Poetry
- The Inferno, by Dante Alighieri. Translation by Robert & Jean Hollander
- Ahead of All Parting: The Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke, Rainer Maria Rilke
- The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake, William Blake
- Selected Poems, Jorge Luis Borges