Book Recommendations (beyond Project Practice)

On this page I've put together a list of books that aren't directly connected to software development. I have tried to include books that I feel are special, in the sense that they are truely convincing or exceptionally well-written.

• Clay Shirky: "Here Comes Everybody — The Power of Organizing Without Organizations" (2008).

  This book gives an impressive account of how the Internet changes our society, to the better or, in a few cases, to the worse. Plenty of examples are given of how Web 2.0 changes and improves the collaboration between people.

• Chris Anderson: "The Long Tail — Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More" (2006).

  Since the Internet has become available as a digital distribution channel, physical limitations play a smaller role for the distribution of certain goods. The book shows how the Internet has lead to a greater diversity on the market, especially with regard to books and music, giving niche products a chance they otherwise wouldn't have.

• James Surowiecki: "The Wisdom of Crowds" (2004).

  This book uses a plethora of examples to demonstrate how under certain conditions groups of people (sometimes laypeople) can come to better decisions than individual experts.

• Simon Singh: "The Code Book" (1999).

  This book is subtitled: the science of secrecy from ancient Egypt to quantum cryptography. It includes an excellent presentation of the concepts behind PGP. Very well written, as can be expected from a book by Simon Singh.

• Stewart Brand: "The Clock of the Long Now" (1999).

  A book on the history of knowledge and the importance of long-term thinking. Quite unusual, but full of surprising insights.

• Steven Pinker: "How The Mind Works" (1997).

  Cognitive psychology isn't an easy topic. This book, however, presents a lot of insight on how humans think and act in a comprehensible way.

• Simon Singh: "Fermat's Last Theorem" (1997).

  This book tells the story of a mathematical proof. One of those books you just can't put aside until you've finished it!

• Gero von Randow: "Das Ziegenproblem" (German language only) (1995).

  A game show participant has to choose one of three doors. The prize is a car that is behind one door, while there are goats behind the other doors. The player makes a choice, but the door isn't opened yet. Instead the game show host opens one of the other doors — one behind which there is a goat. Now two doors remain, one with the car, one with a goat. The host asks the player whether they'd like to revise the decision. Should the player do this? The book answers this questions and demonstrates with many other examples what tricks our intuition plays on us as far as calculating probabilities is concerned.

• Jürgen Gulbins, Christine Kahrmann: "Mut zur Typographie" (German language only) (1992).

  If you aren't quite sure that typography matters, this book can convince you that it does. The level of detail is remarkable, yet even a quick read will give you numerous insights.

• Douglas Hofstadter: "Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid" (1979).

  Still the classic in the literature on computer science. The book demonstrates the asthetics of logic like none other. More than 20 years old by now, but still fascinating.

Copyright Andreas Rüping, 2009. I cannot accept responsibility for materials on other web sites to which external links from my web site may point. The owners of those sites hold the sole responsibility for their content.

Imprint: Dr. Andreas Rüping, Sodenkamp 21 A, 22337 Hamburg, Germany, Tax Id 26/225/34412 (Tax office Hamburg-Nord)