If you love hard science fiction, I strongly suggest books by Vernor \\ 3: Vinge. I've read all but one of his books and I consider him to \\ 4: be a highly talented writer. (He's also a computer science teacher at \\ 5: a university in southern California.) One of my favorite books of his is Across \\ 6: Realtime. Unfortunately, it's out of print now, but you could check \\ 7: it out of the library or get it from one of the old book sellers online \\ 8: (like Alibris).
I finished Vernor Vinge's newest book (as of 1999) "A Deepness in the \\ 10: Sky". Wow! As always, Vernor Vinge has outdone himself. There are so \\ 11: many plot twists in this book that I never knew what to expect. At numerous \\ 12: places throughout the book my expectations as to the way that certain \\ 13: subplots would pan out turned out to be completely wrong. And, of course, \\ 14: there were plenty of neat scientific and technological "concepts" that \\ 15: are encountered and explored (For instance, we watch an alien race of \\ 16: spiders go from the industrial age to the electronic age and explore \\ 17: the differences that occur as a result of the spiders' being so physiologically \\ 18: different from humans.). It's science fiction at its best! I highly \\ 19: recommend it!
\\ 23: Vernor Vinge's books (all are good, but the 1st three listed here are my favorites):\\ 24:
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The book is called "Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution". \\ 36: It's divided into three eras.
The first (and my personal favorite) describes the lives of the first \\ 38: true hackers. These are the people from MIT in its glory days in the \\ 39: late 1960s, early 1970s, that defined what it meant to be a hacker. \\ 40: These are scraggly haired, unbathed, pale-faced nerds that slept during \\ 41: the day and lived next to the computer (the TX-0 then the PDP-1, etc.) \\ 42: at night because that was when the computers were available. These are \\ 43: the people who picked the locks of school doors just because they were \\ 44: locked. (To stop them from breaking into places they didn't belong, \\ 45: the administration finally gave them a set of master keys to every door \\ 46: in all the school buildings. This took the fun out of it, so they stopped \\ 47: doing it.).\\ 48: \\ 49: The second part of the book is about the hardware hackers from the 1970s. \\ 50: In particular, it follows the lives of people from the Homebrew computer \\ 51: club. The third part is about the game programmers of the early 1980s. \\ 52: That's the age of Atari, the Apple II, and a host of other mutually \\ 53: incompatible machines. (Incidentally, I got my start on an Apply //e \\ 54: when I was about 10.)\\ 55: \\ 56: This book makes me truly nostalgic about the days when computer time \\ 57: was more precious than gold. That's not to say that I'd want to have \\ 58: computer access restricted like that, but I feel nostalgic about it \\ 59: anyway (despite the fact that I wasn't even alive during the period \\ 60: described in the first section of the book).\\ 61: \\ 62: It's a truly excellent book and I recommend it to anyone who would enjoy \\ 63: knowing more about the mindset of true programmers throughout the ages. \\ 64:
\\ 71: \\ 72: One of the best books of all time is The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. \\ 73: I was first introduced to this wonderful book when I was a child (That's \\ 74: probably one of the reasons why I like it so much. But, unlike music \\ 75: that I like only because it was popular when I was going through adolescent \\ 76: angst, The Hobbit really is some excellent stuff.). I used to listen \\ 77: to the story-book record (a record and book set where you turn the page \\ 78: when you hear the chime) all the time. I still have that story-book \\ 79: record (actually the original one got scratched, but my dad got me another \\ 80: one, so I now have two of them). I also have the 50th year gold-bound \\ 81: edition (it was written in 1939) in addition to three other not-so-special \\ 82: copies. I also have the audio book and the cartoon movie on VHS. I even \\ 83: have a ring that I used to pretend was my Hobbit ring when I was little. \\ 84: It didn't have the inscription on it, but I pretended it did.