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- hooptydo, on 10/11/2007, -0/+21The list:
I, Robot
Author: Isaac Asimov
Published: 1950
Neuromancer
Author: William Gibson
Published: 1984
Ringworld
Author: Larry Niven
Published: 1970
The Hacker Crackdown
Author: Bruce Sterling
Published: 1992
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Author: Douglas Adams
Published: 1979 - Neiby, on 10/11/2007, -3/+22Ender's Game.
- schlongmeister, on 10/11/2007, -2/+14Good list, but not complete without Robert Heinlein, Philip K. Dick or Frank Herbert.
- rrrrob, on 10/11/2007, -1/+12#6: Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. I was surprised not to see it.
- built2spill, on 10/11/2007, -1/+10Cryptonomicon didn't make it?
- mcm297, on 10/11/2007, -3/+11I was expecting a few O'Reilly books... JavaScript the Definitive Guide is a must read.
- Urusai, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8Real nerds (and who the hell transposed nerds and geeks, I wonder) don't need geeks to apprise them of what to read.
- Error601, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8I remember reading Ringworld the first time. My first thought was "wow this is badly written" but then couldn't put it down.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -2/+9Also try;
Hyperion, Dan Simmons.
Forge of God, Greg Bear.
The Mote in Gods Eye, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. - adml_shake, on 10/11/2007, -1/+8Yes, the person 2 comments above you.
- NerdyNinja, on 10/11/2007, -1/+8That's your idea of a bedtime story huh? Oof.
- jsd8cc, on 10/11/2007, -1/+7Or at the very least, Snowcrash...
Still a pretty good list. - nonsequitor, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5Stranger in a Strange Land and Dune are must reads for anyone who claims to be a geek. End of story.
- snurfle, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5End of Eternity
Foundation (series)
Rendezvous with Rama (none of the sequels, though!)
Wine of the Dreamers
Contact
(And if 'Mote in God's Eye' should be the list, then so should 'Lucifer's Hammer') - fadeout, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5A geek book list without any Tolkien or Philip K Dick? :)
- Zreitan, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4A bit hard to find but "A Canticle for Leibowitz" is some excellent SF from the 1950s
- drgnpaladin, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Dan Simmons is amazing. Ilium and Olympos are also very good
- PedleZelnip, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4I actually think Cryptonomicron is overrated, it's not a bad book per-se, but it's rather dense and difficult to get through.
- blinkfink182, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4I actually just read that for I think the 5th time. Every single time I read that book I love it more and more and for new reasons. As I get older I get more out of the book. That whole series (up to Children of the Mind at least, I didn't care for that one too much) was very good.
- troglodytejb, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Agreed on Dan Simmons... I eagerly await more from him, because Hyperion was EXACTLY the blend of creativity, mythology, and general badass-ness that I love. Plus, he doesn't resort to deus ex machina endings like some modern space opera writers (I'm looking at you, Peter F. Hamilton...).
Niven is my all-time favorite SF writer - skav, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Hofstader just wrote a new one called "I am a strange loop" which he considers a followup to G.E.B. Worth reading.
http://www.amazon.com/Am-Strange-Loop-Douglas-Hofstadter/dp/0465030785/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-4344903-7249415?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1183664107&sr=8-1 - orcist, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3The Hyperion quadrilogy is amazing.
- troglodytejb, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Mote in God's Eye is Niven's best, in my opinion- not that I'd deny any other Niven books from making any sci-fi list, since I still think he's among the greatest living sci-fi authors...
Contact has one section that sticks in my mind as one of the coolest ideas I've ever read- what if pi started repeating the digits 1 and 0, for a billion digits, several billion digits in? A message from God? A message of awesome, for sure.
Haven't read wine of the dreamers, but great adds otherwise. - snurfle, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Hitchhiker's Guide already IS five books!
- mroboy, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4Ah good ol Wil. I'll never forget the time he was at ren faire and got so drunk he tried to screw a tree.
- counterplex, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Dune is one book I encourage everyone to read. It even has appeal for people who claim to dislike science fiction.
- nrwilk, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid should have been on there.
- carbonetc, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3I saw some sort of definitive "top 10 science fiction books ever" list somewhere (probably on Digg), and Stephenson was one of the few people if not the only person to have two books on the list. Snow Crash and Diamond Age. Diamond Age would be my pick. For me it had everything Snow Crash was missing.
- VaporBro, on 10/26/2007, -0/+3I would have to say House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski is my geek book. Damn good.
http://www.amazon.com/House-Leaves-Mark-Z-Danielewski/dp/0375703764 - erniecamacho, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Here is a pretty good list: http://www.list3n.com/list.php?list=52
- KMye, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Good call; The Mote in God's Eye is just as good if not better than Ringworld.
- JamesWilson, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Hackers (about old school MIT hackers)
- humperdeath, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Definately Ender's Game is a top pick. Though it's been around a while, I only recently finished it. I'll be looking forward to reading the rest of this series. When's the movie coming out? It woiuld be another great trilogy for Mr Peter Jackson!
- JamesWilson, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Loved that book!
- vroom101, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3A book on my very short list of most-favorite-books-of-all-time is "The Soul of a New Machine" by Tracy Kidder. Give a loud shoutout when the full text of this inspirational book is freely available on the WWW.
More info . . .
1. Wired magazine article: "O, Engineers!" by Evan Ratliff
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.12/soul_pr.html
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.12/soul.html
2. Wikipedia: The Soul of a New Machine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Soul_of_a_New_Machine - adml_shake, on 10/11/2007, -2/+4http://www.amazon.com/Zombie-Survival-Guide-Complete-Protection/dp/customer-reviews/1400049628
is a book everyone should read. I keep a copy with me wherever I go. Just in case. - NesloTterrag, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I totally second that. Snowcrash was AWESOME. I can't even count the times I've re-read that book.
- mandarin, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Do you have to post this article in the suicidegirls site? Crappy site.
- pauleric, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3I was not expecting a few O'Reilly books since Wil Wheaton is an actor. I don't see how liking scifi or playing a socially challenged teenager on a soap-opera-ish reincarnation of Star Trek makes you a 'geek'.
- onemadfool, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2What? No Illuminatus! Trilogy????
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Illuminatus!_Trilogy
OR
Foucault's Pendulum????
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foucault%27s_Pendulum_%28book%29 - Zero82z, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2It's missing Arthur C. Clarke. Any true geek is seriously missing out if they haven't read at least one of his novels.
- reddfox321, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2No Dune? That list is the mind killer...
- Senseless, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Though the HHGTTG book is incredible and truly deserves to be an alter of geek worship, I have to say that the original HHGTTG BBC Radio production is incredible. It was written by Douglas Adams and so preserves his humor (which the AWFUL movie version completely failed to do!), and the voice acting and sound effects are amazing as well. I have listened to the series many times. You can find it floating around the net or I believe it may be available for purchase on the net as well.
- KMye, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Childhood's End
- fiver22, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I really like Wil's reviews but I was saddened that he didn't mention "1984", or "Watership Down".
- smackhero, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2if you don't grok a Stranger in a Strange Land, then you can't call yourself a geek ;-p
- roodammy44, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2***** Yeah. Alfred Bester is awesome.
I wanna teleport everywhere ;-) - Gramage, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2And who the ***** are you? Exactly.
- smackhero, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2well, o'reilly books are references. they're must-reads depending on your field of expertise. so you can't really expect him to list Programming Perl, or MySQL & mSQL as a must-read for _everyone_. they're good books, but definitely not for everyone or even every geek. there are geeks other than computer geeks you know.
- prator, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2If you think Cryptonomicon is dense, try Quicksilver. It's taken me three tries just to get through the first of three "books" in the first Quicksilver book.
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