unmissable great stuff worth reading passes the time waste of time unfinishable
1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6

unmissable 1

• Milton Abramowitz, Irene A. Stegun • Handbook of Mathematical Functions • H. W. Fowler, Sir Ernest Gowers • A Dictionary of Modern English Usage • Sir Ernest Gowers, Sir Bruce Fraser • The Complete Plain Words • Douglas R. Hofstadter • Godel, Escher, Bach • Stuart A. Kauffman • Investigations • Edward R. Tufte • Envisioning Information • Edward R. Tufte • The Visual Display of Quantitative Information

unmissable 1.5

• Leonard Bernstein • The Unanswered Question • John Clute, John Grant • The Encyclopedia of Fantasy • John Clute, Peter Nicholls • The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction • Daniel C. Dennett • Consciousness Explained • Daniel C. Dennett • Darwin's Dangerous Idea • Stephen Jay Gould • Wonderful Life • I. S. Gradshteyn, I. M. Ryzhik • Table of Integrals, Series and Products • Brian Greene • The Elegant Universe • Douglas R. Hofstadter • Le Ton beau de Marot • Douglas R. Hofstadter, Daniel C. Dennett • The Mind's I • George Lakoff • Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things • David Langford • The Silence of the Langford • Benoit B. Mandelbrot • The Fractal Geometry of Nature • Marvin L. Minsky • The Society of Mind • Hans Moravec • Mind Children • Donald A. Norman • The Psychology of Everyday Things • Heinz-Otto Peitgen, Hartmut Jurgens, Dietmar Saupe • Fractals for the Classroom Part 1 • Heinz-Otto Peitgen, Hartmut Jurgens, Dietmar Saupe • Fractals for the Classroom Part 2 • Edward R. Tufte • Visual Explanations • Joseph M. Williams • Style • Hans Christian von Bayer • QBism

great stuff 2

• Robert P. Abelson • Statistics as Principled Argument • Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, Murray Silverstein, Max Jacobson, Ingrid Fiksdahl King, Shlomo Angel • A Pattern Language • Christopher Alexander • The Timeless Way of Building • W. Brian Arthur • The Nature of Technology • Philip Ball • The Self-Made Tapestry • Wolfgang Banzhaf, Lidia Yamamoto • Artificial Chemistries • Michael F. Barnsley • Fractals Everywhere • Michael Benson • Beyond • K. G. Binmore • Logic, Sets and Numbers • K. G. Binmore • Topological Ideas • Susan Blackmore • The Meme Machine • David Brin • The Transparent Society • Frederick P. Brooks Jr • The Mythical Man-Month • Sean B. Carroll • Endless Forms Most Beautiful • Gregory J. Chaitin • The Limits of Mathematics • Brian Christian, Tom Griffiths • Algorithms to Live By • Irun R. Cohen • Tending Adam's Garden • Richard E. Cytowic • The Man Who Tasted Shapes • Richard Dawkins • The God Delusion • Richard Dawkins • The Selfish Gene • Manuel DeLanda • A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History • David Deutsch • The Fabric of Reality • K. Eric Drexler • Engines of Creation • Harlan Ellison • The City on the Edge of Forever • Robert L. Forward • Indistinguishable from Magic • Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph E. Johnson, John Vlissides • Design Patterns • George Gamow • Mr Tompkins in Paperback • Atul Gawande • Being Mortal • Peter Godfrey-Smith • Other Minds • Brian Greene • The Fabric of the Cosmos • Franklin M. Harold • The Way of the Cell • Douglas R. Hofstadter • Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies • Darrell Huff • How to Lie with Statistics • Kameron Hurley • The Geek Feminist Revolution • Stuart A. Kauffman • At Home in the Universe • Kevin Kelly • Out of Control • J. A. Scott Kelso • Dynamic Patterns • Tracy Kidder • The Soul of a New Machine • James Ladyman, Karoline Wiesner • What is a Complex System? • George Lakoff, Rafael E. Nunez • Where Mathematics Comes From • Jenny Lawson • Let's Pretend This Never Happened • Paul Lockhart • A Mathematician's Lament • Bertrand Meyer • Object-oriented Software Construction • John Pastor • What Should a Clever Moose Eat? • Judea Pearl, Dana Mackenzie • The Book of Why • Tom Peters • Liberation Management • Robert M. Pirsig • Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance • Przemyslaw Prusinkiewicz, Aristid Lindenmayer • The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants • Luciano Ramalho • Fluent Python • Kate Raworth • Doughnut Economics • Stephen Ressler • Do-It-Yourself Engineering • Stephen Ressler • Epic Engineering Failures and the Lessons They Teach • Stephen Ressler • Everyday Engineering • Stephen Ressler • Understanding Greek and Roman Technology • Carlo Rovelli • The Order of Time • Rudy Rucker • Mind Tools • SMP • Advanced Tables • Oliver Sacks • An Anthropologist on Mars • Oliver Sacks • The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat • Anil K. Seth • Being You • Tom A. Shippey • J. R. R. Tolkien • Brent Slatkin • Effective Python • Lee Smolin • The Life of the Cosmos • Lee Smolin • Three Roads to Quantum Gravity • Bernard Suits • The Grasshopper • Nassim Nicholas Taleb • The Black Swan • R. D. Tennent • Principles of Programming Languages • R. D. Tennent • Semantics of Programming Languages • Francis-Noel Thomas, Mark Turner • Clear and Simple as the Truth • Lynne Truss • Eats, Shoots & Leaves • Robert L. Weber • A Random Walk in Science • Susanne Wedlich • Slime • Gerald M. Weinberg • The Psychology of Computer Programming • David Weinberger • Everything is Miscellaneous • Noson S. Yanofsky • Theoretical Computer Science for the Working Category Theorist • Marcus du Sautoy • The Music of the Primes

great stuff 2.5

• Scott Aaronson • Quantum Computing Since Democritus • Harold Abelson, Andrea diSessa • Turtle Geometry • Christopher Alexander, Murray Silverstein, Shlomo Angel, Sara Ishikawa, Denny Abrams • The Oregon Experiment • Dan Ariely • Predictably Irrational • Robert Axelrod, Michael D. Cohen • Harnessing Complexity • Robert Axelrod • The Evolution of Co-operation • Per Bak • How Nature Works • Julian B. Barbour • The End of Time • Kent Beck • Extreme Programming Explained • Kent Beck • Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns • Stafford Beer • Designing Freedom • K. G. Binmore • Mathematical Analysis • Mary L. Boas • Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences • Hartmut Bohnacker, Benedict Gross, Julia Laub, Claudius Lazzeroni • Generative Design • Steven J. Brams • Superior Beings • Julian R. Brown • The Quest for the Quantum Computer • James Burke • Connections • Bill Buxton • Sketching User Experiences • Eugenia Cheng • Cakes, Custard, and Category Theory • Andy Clark • Being There • Alistair Cockburn • Agile Software Development • Alistair Cockburn • Writing Effective Use Cases • Paul Cockshott, Lewis M. Mackenzie, Greg Michaelson • Computation and its Limits • John Horton Conway, Richard K. Guy • The Book of Numbers • Frederick C. Crews • Postmodern Pooh • Frederick C. Crews • The Pooh Perplex • Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi • Beyond Boredom and Anxiety • Richard Dawkins • A Devil's Chaplain • Richard Dawkins • The Blind Watchmaker • Daniel C. Dennett • Brainstorms • David Deutsch • The Beginning of Infinity • Guy Deutscher • Through the Language Glass • Joshua M. Epstein, Robert Axtell • Growing Artificial Societies • Eric Evans • Domain-Driven Design • Richard P. Feynman, Ralph Leighton • 'Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!' • Richard P. Feynman, Ralph Leighton • 'What Do YOU Care What Other People Think?' • Robert L. Forward, Joel Davis • Mirror Matter • Martin Fowler • Analysis Patterns • Martin Fowler • Domain-Specific Languages • Martin Fowler • Refactoring • Martin Fowler, Kendall Scott • UML Distilled • Steve Freeman, Nat Pryce • Growing Object-Oriented Software, Guided by Tests • Percival Frost • Curve Tracing • Stephen Fry • The Ode Less Travelled • Atul Gawande • Complications • Atul Gawande • The Checklist Manifesto • Henry Gee • Deep Time • Murray Gell-Mann • The Quark and the Jaguar • James Gleick • Chaos • Jonathan Glover • Causing Death and Saving Lives • Stephen Jay Gould • The Mismeasure of Man • Temple Grandin • Thinking in Pictures • Alan H. Guth • The Inflationary Universe • J. Storrs Hall • Nanofuture • David Harel • Algorithmics • Robert L. Harris • Information Graphics • Julian Havil • The Irrationals • Vicki Hearne • Adam's Task • David Herman • Narrative Theory and the Cognitive Sciences • Douglas R. Hofstadter • Metamagical Themas • Cay S. Horstmann • Scala for the Impatient • Sabine Hossenfelder • Lost in Math • David C. Howell • Fundamental Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences • Andrew Hunt, David Thomas • The Pragmatic Programmer • Michael Jackson • Software Requirements and Specifications • Steven Johnson • Emergence • Steven Johnson • Everything Bad is Good for You • Richard A. L. Jones • Soft Machines • Diana Wynne Jones • The Tough Guide to Fantasyland • Edward Kasner, James R. Newman • Mathematics and the Imagination • Tracy Kidder • House • George Lakoff, Mark Johnson • Metaphors We Live By • Steven Levy • Artificial Life • David Lindley • Where Does the Weirdness Go? • John E. Littlewood, Bela Bollobas • Littlewood's Miscellany • Seth Lloyd • Programming the Universe • Benoit B. Mandelbrot, Richard L. Hudson • The (Mis)Behaviour of Markets • Scott McCloud • Understanding Comics • John McWhorter • The Power of Babel • Donella H. Meadows • Thinking in Systems • Bertrand Meyer • Agile! • Bertrand Meyer • Introduction to the Theory of Programming Languages • Marvin L. Minsky • The Emotion Machine • Alan Morton • The Complete Directory to Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Television Series • Michael A. Nielsen • Reinventing Discovery • Patrick Niemeyer, Joshua Peck • Exploring Java • Denis Noble • The Music of Life • Jenny Odell • How to Do Nothing • Arika Okrent • In the Land of Invented Languages • Paul Ormerod • Butterfly Economics • Tom Peters • Thriving on Chaos • Ivars Peterson • Newton's Clock • Ivars Peterson • The Mathematical Tourist • Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini • Inevitable Illusions • Steven Pinker • The Language Instinct • Steven Pinker • The Sense of Style • Steven Pinker • The Stuff of Thought • Steven Pinker • Words and Rules • Karl R. Popper • The Open Society and Its Enemies Volume 1 • William Poundstone • The Recursive Universe • Vilayanur S. Ramachandran, Sandra Blakeslee • Phantoms in the Brain • Venkatesh Rao • Tempo • Eric S. Raymond • The Cathedral and the Bazaar • Eric S. Raymond • The New Hacker's Dictionary • Stephen Ressler • Understanding the World's Greatest Structures • Matt Ridley • The Red Queen • Carlo Rovelli • Reality Is Not What It Seems • Rudy Rucker • Infinity and the Mind • Karl Sabbagh • Dr. Riemann's Zeros • Oliver Sacks • A Leg to Stand On • Oliver Sacks • Seeing Voices • Carl Sagan • The Demon-Haunted World • Eric D. Schneider, Dorion Sagan • Into the Cool • Tom A. Shippey • The Road to Middle-Earth • Lee Smolin • The Trouble with Physics • Lee Smolin • Time Reborn • Rebecca Solnit • Men Explain Things to Me • Ian Stewart • Does God Play Dice? • Ian Stewart, Jack Cohen • Figments of Reality • Ian Stewart • Life's Other Secret • Anne Sudworth, John Grant • Enchanted World • Nassim Nicholas Taleb • Fooled by Randomness • Carol Tavris, Elliot Aronson • Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me) • The Times • Britain from Space • Linus Torvalds, David Diamond • Just for Fun • Sherry Turkle • Alone Together • Unicode-Consortium • The Unicode Standard • Leonard M. Wapner • The Pea and the Sun • David A. Watt • Programming Language Processors • Robert L. Weber • More Random Walks in Science • David Weinberger • Too Big to Know • Wil Wheaton • Just a Geek • Donna Williams • Nobody Nowhere • Donna Williams • Somebody Somewhere • Colin P. Williams, Scott H. Clearwater • Ultimate Zero and One • Ludwig von Bertalanffy • General System Theory

worth reading 3

• Russell L. Ackoff, Herbert J. Addison, Andrew Carey • Systems Thinking for Curious Managers • Michael Adams • From Elvish to Klingon • Lloyd Allison • A Practical Introduction to Denotational Semantics • Dorsey Armstrong • The Black Death • Avner Ash, Robert Gross • Elliptic Tales • J. L. Austin • How to do Things with Words • J. L. Austin • Sense and Sensibilia • Jon Barwise, John Etchemendy • The Liar • Laurie Bauer, Peter Trudgill • Language Myths • Kent Beck, Martin Fowler • Planning Extreme Programming • Kent Beck • Test-Driven Development • Pamela Bedore • Great Utopian and Dystopian Works of Literature • David Bellos • Is That a Fish in Your Ear? • Maggie Berg, Barbara K. Seeber • The Slow Professor • Sandra Blakeslee, Matthew Blakeslee • The Body has a Mind of Its Own • Iris Bohnet • What Works • Steven J. Brams • Biblical Games • John Brockman • This Explains Everything • Damien Broderick • The Spike • Allie Brosh • Hyperbole and a Half • Mark Buchanan • Small World • Mark Buchanan • Ubiquity • Susan Cain • Quiet • A. G. Cairns-Smith • Seven Clues to the Origin of Life • Sean B. Carroll • The Serengeti Rules • James P. Carse • Finite and Infinite Games • Dan Cederholm • Bulletproof Web Design • Vikram Chandra • Geek Sublime • Ford Cochran • Wonders of the National Parks • Jack Cohen, Ian Stewart • The Collapse of Chaos • James O. Coplien, Douglas C. Schmidt • Pattern Languages of Program Design • David Crystal • Spell It Out • Paul C. W. Davies • The Last Three Minutes • Tom DeMarco, Timothy Lister • Peopleware • Daniel C. Dennett • Freedom Evolves • Daniel C. Dennett • Kinds of Minds • Douwe Draaisma • The Nostalgia Factory • Roland Duncan, Miranda Weston-Smith • The Encyclopaedia of Ignorance • Peter Elbow • Writing With Power • David Epstein • Range • Daniel L. Everett • Don't Sleep, There are Snakes • Richard P. Feynman, Anthony J. G. Hey, Robin W. Allen • Feynman Lectures on Computation • Gary William Flake • The Computational Beauty of Nature • Dawn Foster • Lean Out • Barry C. Fox • An Introduction to Infectious Diseases • Atul Gawande • Better • David Gelernter • The Aesthetics of Computing • Neil A. Gershenfeld • When Things Start to Think • Malcolm Gladwell • Blink • Malcolm Gladwell • Outliers • Malcolm Gladwell • The Tipping Point • James Gleick • Faster • Neal Goldstein, Jeff Alger • Developing Object-Oriented Software for the Macintosh • Rebecca Newberger Goldstein • Plato at the Googleplex • Brian C. Goodwin • How the Leopard Changed Its Spots • Stephen Jay Gould • Ever Since Darwin • Temple Grandin, Catherine Johnson • Animals in Translation • Chris Hadfield • An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth • Stephen W. Hawking • A Brief History of Time • David J. Helfand • The Physics of History • Dee Hock • Birth of the Chaordic Age • Douglas R. Hofstadter • I am a Strange Loop • Matthew M. Hurley, Daniel C. Dennett, Reginald B. Adams, Jr. • Inside Jokes • Michael R. A. Huth, Mark D. Ryan • Logic in Computer Science • Harold Jeffreys, Bertha Jeffreys • Methods of Mathematical Physics • Ron Jeffries, Ann Anderson, Chet Hendrickson • Extreme Programming Installed • Jeff Johnson • GUI Bloopers • Neil D. Jones, Carsten K. Gomard, Peter Sestoft • Partial Evaluation and Automatic Program Generation • Evelyn Fox Keller • Making Sense of Life • Spencer Kelly • Language and the Mind • Joshua Kerievsky • Refactoring to Patterns • Gordon Laing • Digital Retro • David Langford • Up Through an Empty House of Stars • Robert B. Laughlin • A Different Universe • Ralph Leighton • Tuva or Bust! • Douglas B. Lenat, R. V. Guha • Building Large Knowledge-Based Systems • Seth Lerer • The History of the English Language • Emily Levesque • Great Heroes and Discoveries in Astronomy • Steven Levy • In the Plex • C. S. Lewis • Studies in Words • Gretchen McCulloch • Because Internet • John McWhorter • Language Families of the World • John McWhorter • Myths, Lies, and Half-Truths of Language Usage • John McWhorter • Understanding Linguistics • N. David Mermin • Boojums All the Way Through • Bertrand Meyer • Eiffel: the Language • Mary Midgley • Utopias, Dolphins and Computers • John H. Miller • A Crude Look at the Whole • Hans Moravec • Robot • NationalGeographic • Satellite Atlas of the World • Donald A. Norman • Turn Signs are the Facial Expressions of Automobiles • Helga Nowotny • The Cunning of Uncertainty • Onora O'Neill • A Question of Trust • Paul Ormerod • Why Most Things Fail • Priya Parker • The Art of Gathering • Tom Peters, Nancy Austin • A Passion for Excellence • Tom Peters, Robert H. Waterman Jr • In Search of Excellence • Tom Peters • The Pursuit of Wow! • Karl R. Popper • The Open Society and Its Enemies Volume 2 • Geoffrey K. Pullum • The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax • Edward Regis • Great Mambo Chicken and the Transhuman Condition • Edward Regis • Nano! • Matt Ridley • Genome • Todd Rose • The End of Average • Oliver Sacks • Musicophilia • Susan Schaller • A Man without Words • Ricardo Semler • Maverick! • Wolfgang Sieber, Richard Wielebinski • Pulsars • Simon Singh • Fermat's Last Theorem • Suzanne Skublics, Edward J. Klimas, David A. Thomas • Smalltalk with Style • N. J. A. Sloane, Simon Plouffe • The Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences • Neil V. Smith • The Twitter Machine • Raymond M. Smullyan • What Is the Name of This Book? • Ricard V. Solé, Brian C. Goodwin • Signs of Life • Rebecca Solnit • A Field Guide to Getting Lost • Scott Solomon • Why Insects Matter • Ian Sommerville, Pete Sawyer • Requirements Engineering • Joel Spolsky • Joel on Software • Kenneth O. Stanley, Joel Lehman • Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned • Ian Stewart, Martin Golubitsky • Fearful Symmetry • Clifford Stoll • The Cuckoo's Egg • Steven H. Strogatz • Sync • Stephen Todd, William Latham • Evolutionary Art and Computers • Edward R. Tufte • Beautiful Evidence • Sherry Turkle • Life on the Screen • Sherry Turkle • The Second Self • David A. Watt • Programming Language Concepts and Paradigms • Peter Wayner • Disappearing Cryptography • Robert L. Weber • Science with a Smile • Gerald M. Weinberg • The Secrets of Consulting • Gerald M. Weinberg • Weinberg on Writing • E. T. Whittaker, G. N. Watson • A Course of Modern Analysis • Terry Winograd, Fernando Flores • Understanding Computers and Cognition • Marc Zender • Writing and Civilization • Arnold M. Zwicky, Peter H. Salus, Robert I. Binnick, Anthony L. Vanek • Studies Out in Left Field • Frans de Waal • The Bonobo and the Atheist • Heinz von Foerster, Bernhard Poerksen • Understanding Systems

worth reading 3.5

• Amir D. Aczel • Entanglement • Christoph Adami • Introduction to Artificial Life • Charles L. Adler • How Science Shapes Science Fiction • Gregory S. Aldrete • A Historian Goes to the Movies • Natalie Angier • The Beauty of the Beastly • Caroline L. Arnold • Small Move, Big Change • Wallace Arthur • Biased Embryos and Evolution • Ken Auer, Roy Miller • Extreme Programming Applied • Andre Bacard • The Computer Privacy Handbook • Jon Barwise, Lawrence Moss • Vicious Circles • Kent Beck • Guide to Better Smalltalk • Peter J. Bentley • Digital Biology • Gregory Berns • What It's Like to Be a Dog • Bruno Bettelheim • The Uses of Enchantment • Michael Blastland, Andrew Dilnot • The Tiger that Isn't • William Goldbloom Bloch • The Unimaginable Mathematics of Borges' Library of Babel • Margaret A. Boden • The Philosophy of Artificial Life • Valentino Braitenberg • Vehicles • Rodney A. Brooks • Cambrian Intelligence • Rodney A. Brooks • Robot • Colin Bruce • Conned Again, Watson! • Armin Bunde, Shlomo Havlin • Fractals in Science • Jeremy Butterfield • Damp Squid • George L. Campbell • Concise Compendium of the World's Languages • W. Bernard Carlson • Understanding the Inventions that Changed the World • John L. Casti, Anders Karlqvist • Mission to Abisko • Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza • Genes, Peoples and Languages • Gregory J. Chaitin • Meta Math! • Gregory J. Chaitin • Proving Darwin • John Cheesman, John Daniels • UML Components • Andy Clark • Mindware • Andy Clark • Natural-Born Cyborgs • John Clute • Science Fiction: the Illustrated Encyclopedia • Jack Cohen, Ian Stewart • Evolving the Alien • Jack Cohen, Graham Medley • Stop Working and Start Thinking • Jack Cohen • The Privileged Ape • Leah Hager Cohen • Train Go Sorry • James F. P. Cotter • Practical Geology • Matthew B. Crawford • The Case for Working with Your Hands • Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi • Finding Flow • H. Martyn Cundy, A. P. Rollett • Mathematical Models • Anne Curzan • The Secret Life of Words • Antoine Danchin • The Delphic Boat • Robyn M. Dawes • Everyday Irrationality • Richard Dawkins • River Out of Eden • Richard Dawkins • Unweaving the Rainbow • Tom DeMarco • Slack • Tom DeMarco • The Deadline • Daniel C. Dennett • Brainchildren • Daniel C. Dennett • Breaking the Spell • Daniel C. Dennett • Elbow Room • Daniel C. Dennett • Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking • Daniel C. Dennett • Sweet Dreams • Daniel C. Dennett • The Intentional Stance • Keith Devlin • Logic and Information • Tristan Donovan • Great Board Games of the Ancient World • Gaston Dorren • Lingo • Apostolos Doxiadis, Christos H. Papadimitriou • Logicomix • Lyn Dupre • BUGS in Writing • George Dyson • Darwin among the Machines • Gerald M. Edelman • Bright Air, Brilliant Fire • A. W. F. Edwards • Cogwheels of the Mind • Claus Emmeche • The Garden in the Machine • Bruno Ernst • The Eye Beguiled • Katrina S. Firlik • Another Day in the Frontal Lobe • Vincent Flanders, Michael Willis • Web Pages the Suck • Ira R. Forman, Scott H. Danforth • Putting Metaclasses to Work • Richard P. Gabriel • Patterns of Software • David Gelernter • The Muse in the Machine • Neil A. Gershenfeld • Fab • Gerd Gigerenzer • Risk Savvy • Gerd Gigerenzer, Peter M. Todd, ABC_Research_Group • Simple Heuristics That Make Us Smart • Peter Gilliver, Jeremy Marshall, Edmund S. C. Weiner • The Ring of Words • Malcolm Gladwell • What the Dog Saw • Robert L. Glass • Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering • Larry Gonick, Mark Wheelis • The Cartoon Guide to Genetics • Deborah M. Gordon • Ants at Work • Stephen Jay Gould • An Urchin in the Storm • Stephen Jay Gould • Questioning the Millennium • Jeremy J. Gray • The Hilbert Challenge • Julian Havil • Nonplussed! • Mark Haw • Middle World • Ray Hemmings, Dick Tahta • Images of Infinity • Paul Hoffman • The Man Who Loved Only Numbers • Nancy Holder, Jeff Mariotte, Maryelizabeth Hart • Angel: the Casefiles: volume 1 • John Henry Holland • Hidden Order • Martin Hollis • Trust Within Reason • Jim Holmes • Object-Oriented Compiler Construction • Henrik Jeldtoft Jensen • Self-Organized Criticality • Bill Jensen • Work 2.0 • David Kyle Johnson • Sci-Phi: science fiction as philosophy • Steven Johnson • Where Good Ideas Come From • Trevor Jones, Liz Williams • Diary of a Witchcraft Shop • Michio Kaku • Hyperspace • Stephen H. Kellert • In the Wake of Chaos • Kevin Kelly • New Rules for the New Economy • James Kennedy, Russell C. Eberhart • Swarm Intelligence • Nancy Kline • Time to Think • Donald E. Knuth • Surreal Numbers • Leonard Koren • Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets and Philosophers • Bart Kosko • Fuzzy Thinking • Philippe Kruchten • The Rational Unified Process • Steve Krug • Don't Make Me Think • George Lakoff, Mark Turner • More than Cool Reason • Steven E. Landsburg • More Sex is Safer Sex • Shaughan Lavine • Understanding the Infinite • Janna Levin • How the Universe Got Its Spots • A. R. Luria • The Mind of a Mnemonist • Stewart Mader • Wikipatterns • Geoff Manaugh • A Burglar's Guide to the City • Anthony Martin, John Hawks • Major Transitions in Evolution • Pete McBreen • Questioning Extreme Programming • Pete McBreen • Software Craftsmanship • Wil McCarthy • Hacking Matter • Jim McCarthy, Michele McCarthy • Software for Your Head • Scott McCloud • Making Comics • Robert McCrum, William Cran, Robert MacNeil • The Story of English • Gary McGraw, Edward W. Felten • Java Security • Greg McKeown • Essentialism • John McWhorter • Language A to Z • John McWhorter • The Language Hoax • Peter J. R. Millican, Andy Clark • Machines and Thought • Melanie Mitchell • Analogy-Making as Perception • Leonard Mlodinow • Some Time with Feynman • Richard Morris • Artificial Worlds • Milton Muldrow Jr • Synthetic Biology • David Mumford, Caroline Series, David Wright • Indra's Pearls • Nicholas Negroponte • Being Digital • Alva Noe • Out of Our Heads • Donald A. Norman • Emotional Design • Donald A. Norman • Living with Complexity • Donald A. Norman • The Design of Future Things • Donald A. Norman • The Invisible Computer • Donald A. Norman • Things That Make Us Smart • Michael O'Neill, Conor Ryan • Grammatical Evolution • Susan Oyama • The Ontogeny of Information • John Allen Paulos • Once Upon a Number • Randy Pausch, Jeffrey Zaslow • The Last Lecture • Daniel Pennac • The Rights of the Reader • David Perkins • The Eureka Effect • Tom Peters • The Circle of Innovation • Ivars Peterson • Islands of Truth • Rosalind W. Picard • Affective Computing • Clifford A. Pickover • Computers, Pattern, Chaos and Beauty • Mircea Pitici • The Best Writing on Mathematics 2011 • Richard A. Posner • The Little Book of Plagiarism • William Poundstone • Labyrinths of Reason • Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, Jack Cohen • Darwin's Watch • Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, Jack Cohen • The Globe • Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, Jack Cohen • The Science of Discworld • Eric S. Rabkin • Masterpieces of the Imaginative Mind • Martin J. Rees • Just Six Numbers • Byron Reeves, Clifford Nass • The Media Equation • Edward Regis • What Is Life? • K. F. Riley • Mathematical Methods for the Physical Sciences • Amanda Ripley • The Unthinkable • Mark Ronan • Symmetry and the Monster • Carlo Rovelli • Seven Brief Lessons on Physics • Rudy Rucker • The Fourth Dimension • Julie Rugg, Lynda Murphy • A Book Addict's Treasury • Meryl Runion • How to Use Power Phrases To Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say, and Get What You Want • Andreas Rüping • Agile Documentation • Donald G. Saari • Decisions and Elections • Oliver Sacks • The Island of the Colour-blind • Oliver Sacks • The Mind's Eye • Matthias Scheutz • Computationalism • David Schmid • The Secrets of Great Mystery and Suspense Fiction • Al Seckel • Masters of Deception • Yen-Ping Shan, Ralph H. Earle • Enterprise Computing with Objects • Robert Shearman, Toby Hadoke • Running Through Corridors • Tom A. Shippey • Heroes and Legends • Neil Shubin • Your Inner Fish • Tom Siegfried • The Bit and the Pendulum • Thomas G. Smith • Industrial Light and Magic • Neil V. Smith, Ianthi-Maria Tsimpli • The Mind of a Savant • Robert C. Solomon, Fernando Flores • Building Trust • Joel Spolsky • More Joel on Software • Joel Spolsky • Smart and Gets Things Done • G. Stephenson • Mathematical Methods for Science Students • Ian Stewart • Another Fine Math You've Got Me Into... • Stephen M. Stigler • The Seven Pillars of Statistical Wisdom • J. Michael Straczynski • The Complete Book of Scriptwriting • Leonard Susskind, James Lindesay • An Introduction to Black Holes, Information and the String Theory Revolution • Bruce A. Tate • Seven Languages in Seven Weeks • Helen Thomson • Unthinkable • Renée R. Trilling • Old English Literature • Lynne Truss • Talk to the Hand • Alina Tugend • Better by Mistake • John Vlissides • Pattern Hatching • Grant L. Voth • The History of World Literature • Gerald M. Weinberg • An Introduction to General Systems Thinking • Garnett P. Williams • Chaos Theory Tamed • Eric (2) Williams • How to View and Appreciate Great Movies • Edward O. Wilson • Letters to a Young Scientist • Terry Winograd • Bringing Design to Software • Christopher Witt • Real Leaders Don't Do Powerpoint • Maryanne Wolf • Proust and the Squid • Nathan Yau • Visualize This • Ricardo Salem Zebulum, Marco Aurelio C. Pacheco, Marley Maria B. R. Vellasco • Evolutionary Electronics • Gavin de Becker • The Gift of Fear

passes the time 4

• Eric Abrahamson, David H. Freedman • A Perfect Mess • John Barell • Developing More Curious Minds • John Bear • Send This Jerk the Bedbug Letter • Kevin Beresford • Roundabouts of Great Britain • Jonathan M. Borwein, Keith Devlin • The Computer as Crucible • Katy Bowman • Dynamic Aging • Mark Breier, Armin A. Brott • The Ten Second Internet Manager • William J. Brown, Hays W. "Skip" McCormick III, Scott W. Thomas • AntiPatterns and Patterns in Software Configuration Management • Bill Bryson • Mother Tongue • Peter Cochrane • Tips for Time Travellers • David Crystal • Txtng • Christopher Day • Places of the Soul • Keith Devlin • All the Math That's Fit to Print • Dietrich Dorner • The Logic of Failure • Allen B. Downey • Think Complexity • David Dufty • Losing the Head of Philip K Dick • Paul Evitts • A UML Pattern Language • Richard P. Feynman • The Meaning of it All • Neil Gaiman, Kim Newman • Ghastly Beyond Belief • Neil Gaiman • The View from the Cheap Seats • Martin Gardner • Did Adam and Eve Have Navels? • Simon Garfield • Just My Type • Betty Lehan Harragan • Games Mother Never Taught You • Carl Honoré • In Praise of Slow • Robert L. Jolles • The Way of the Road Warrior • David Kadavy • Design for Hackers • John Kay • Obliquity • Scott Kim • Inversions • Jeffrey Kluger • Simplexity • Jeremy Kubica • Best Practices of Spell Design • Roger Lewin, Birute Regine • Weaving Complexity and Business • Alan Lewis • Pundemoniam! • Mark Liberman, Geoffrey K. Pullum • Far From the Madding Gerund • Eric Liu, Nick Hanauer • The Gardens of Democracy • Scott McCloud • Reinventing Comics • Anna McGovern • Pottering. A Cure for Modern Life • Robin Mitchell • Adam Lyal's Witchery Tales • Will C. Mooney • Chinese Names for Oriental Dogs • Harold J. Morowitz • The Emergence of Everything • Peter Morville • Ambient Findability • Mugumogu • I am Maru • Haruki Murakami • What I Talk About When I Talk About Running • Wendy Northcutt • The Darwin Awrds • Matt Pearson • Generative Art • Pentagram • Puzzlegrams • Mircea Pitici • The Best Writing on Mathematics 2013 • William Poundstone • Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google? • William Poundstone • How Would You Move Mount Fuji? • Gavin Pretor-Pinney • A Pig with Six Legs • Michael Quinion • Port Out, Starboard Home • Garr Reynolds • Presentation Zen Design • Rudy Rucker • Artificial Life Lab • Oliver Sacks • Hallucinations • Paul M. Sammon, Dan O'Bannon, Ronald Shusett • Alien : the Illustrated Screenplay • Keith Selkirk, William Wynne Willson • Fifty per cent Proof • Richard Sennett • The Craftsman • Ian Stewart • Nature's Numbers • Michael Swift, George Grant • Britain from the Air • Nassim Nicholas Taleb • The Bed of Procrustes • Grant L. Voth • Myth in Human History • Gary Westfahl • Science Fiction Quotations • Linda Arms White • Log Spirit

passes the time 4.5

• Scott W. Ambler • Agile Modeling • Nathan Bierma • The Eclectic Encyclopedia of English • William J. Brown, Raphael C. Malveau, Hays W. "Skip" McCormick III, Thomas J. Mowbray • AntiPatterns • Emanuel Derman • Models.Behaving.Badly • Umberto Eco • Serendipities • Tino Gramss, Stefan Bornholdt, Michael Gross, Melanie Mitchell, Thomas Pellizzari • Non-Standard Computation • Stefan Helmreich • Silicon Second Nature • Maria Leach • The Ultimate Insult • William J. Majeski, Ralph Butler • The Lie Detection Book • Mark Monmonier • How to Lie with Maps • Harrison Owen • Expanding Our Now • Joshua Piven, David Borgenicht • The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook • Joshua Piven, David Borgenicht • The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Travel • Daniel N. Robinson • The Great Ideas of Philosophy • Donald E. Simanek, John C. Holden • Science Askew • David Weeks, Jamie James • Eccentrics • Cretien van Campen • The Hidden Sense

waste of time 5

• Java-SIG-Team • Java-SIG's 100 Best Applets • Harry Mount • Amo, Amas, Amat ... And All That • Clifford A. Pickover • Computers and the Imagination • Jonathan Pletzke • Advanced Smalltalk • Ian Vince, Dan Kieran • The Myway Code • Mark Ward • Virtual Organisms • Joe Yogerst • The Wonders of America's State Parks

waste of time 5.5

• Miyamoto Musashi • A Book of Five Rings

unfinishable 6

• Richard J. Bird • Chaos and Life • Carlos Bueno, Ytaelena López • Lauren Ipsum • Tara Calishain, Rael Dornfest • Google Hacks • Jostein Gaarder • Sophie's World • Graham Harman • Object-Oriented Ontology • John Henry Holland • Complexity • Stephen Law • The Philosophy Files • Michael D. McMaster • The Intelligence Advantage • John J. Renton • The Nature of Earth • David Shenk • Data Smog • Lewis Wolpert • Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast