NEWS: Wil Wheaton's Geek in Review: Five Books Every Geek Should Read

Why all fiction? Missing Godel, Escxher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid. Brilliant musings of the abstraction of self-reference. I actually held Godel's proof in my head all at once for about three seconds before my head exploded. Loved the translation of Jabberwock into German. You want the geeky, Hofstader's got your geeky right here.

word.

that book is pretty goddamn geeky.

some day i'll finish it.

The Hacker Crackdown is nonfiction.

I was only skimming, but did Arthur C. clarke completely not make the cut? He seems like such as obvious choice.
And I'd like to throw out that host of Sumero-Alien theorists such as Zecharia Sitchin and Erich Von Danicken. Or is that too esoteric for this kind of list? It's definitely geeky enough.

Von Daniken? Seriously? If being a charlatan and writing a pseudoscience text full of half-baked ancient astronaut theories is considered "geeky", then by all means he can climb up into our little treehouse of respectability.

The man isn't as full as shit as L. Ron Hubbard, but he definitely stinks of something foul.

I think it is a decent starting place for someone who says they aren't into Heinlein as it doesn't bombard you with all that. So you get his style without having to take his sometimes bizarre politics and philosophy with it. For the same reason I think "Citizen of the Galaxy" might be a good place to start as well.

Emperor_Norton said:

Speaking of Hubbard, what about Battlefield Earth. Skip the movie of course. But anyone who can burn up 800+ pages, and start a crack pot religion might deserve some props. Also he wrote a series I read two decades ago about the conquest of Earth, I forget the name, any help here?

I believe it was called Cruise and Travolta Spread the Gospel. Could be wrong, though.

Stranger in a Strange Land : Robert Heinlein
Dayworld: Philip Jose Farmer
Snow Crash: Neil Stephenson
The Lathe of Heaven and The Left Hand of Darkness: Ursula K. Le Guin


I'd like to thank Wil for mentioning Neuromancer, as I have been thinking about picking it up to read and now I will for sure.

HAHA I must have scrolled past this first time through. God the movie was hilarious. I still laugh so hard when all the people who are blind start falling off the train all over each other hahaha!!

i love neuromancer! is the difference engine worth a read?

The Door into Summer would make a fantastic movie in todays world, even the nudity they could do in an Austin Powers kinda way, I thought it was quite modern for an early work, except for the niece loving....