The Soul Of A New Machine, by Tracy Kidder -
The history of computing fascinates me, and this is one of my favorite books on the topic.
Hackers, by Steven Levy -
Again, computing history, and especially relevant to me because I started personal computing in the mid-80s and like reading about the stuff I missed. Levy is always fun to read. There are a lot of good books on the microcomputer revolution, this one is just my favorite.
Bird By Bird, by Anne Lamott -
It's not just a book about writing, but a book about living. Lamott is a born storyteller, and every one of her non-fiction books is inspiring and highly readable.
On Writing, by Stephen King -
I am not a King fan. The only fiction piece he's written I come back to is The Stand. But the story of how he became a writer, and his life as a writer, gives me hope for my own writing. And his advice is valuable; even if I don't like his books, I can't argue with his success.
And/or the 3-part PBS series Triumph of the Nerds, which was based on it and has tons of great interviews with the personal computer pantheon - not just Jobs and Gates and Allen, etc., but MITS people, Intel, the behind-the-scenes people who made the IBM PC, so on. Good stuff even today (the documentary is from ~1995 ish, I think). It's on YT.
Hackers, by Steven Levy - Again, computing history, and especially relevant to me because I started personal computing in the mid-80s and like reading about the stuff I missed. Levy is always fun to read. There are a lot of good books on the microcomputer revolution, this one is just my favorite.
Bird By Bird, by Anne Lamott - It's not just a book about writing, but a book about living. Lamott is a born storyteller, and every one of her non-fiction books is inspiring and highly readable.
On Writing, by Stephen King - I am not a King fan. The only fiction piece he's written I come back to is The Stand. But the story of how he became a writer, and his life as a writer, gives me hope for my own writing. And his advice is valuable; even if I don't like his books, I can't argue with his success.