FoRK Recommended Bits

In association with Amazon.com

Curious about FoRK? Dip into our archive or FAQ. Also check out Megan's book picks and the FoRK Recommended Music page. See also Adam's Lit Links and Books Page.

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Table of Contents of FoRK Recommended Books:

Books: Travel
Books: Venture Capital
Books: Design
Books: Science and Technology
Books: Economics and Business
Books: History and Culture
Books: Faith
Books: Nonfiction
Books: Fiction
Books: Joebar
Online Bits
Music Picks

Books: Travel

Traveler's Handbook edited by Miranda Haines. ( recommended by Adam)

Books: Venture Capital

eBoys: The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists At Work, by Randall E. Stross. (recommended by Mike Masnick)
High Stakes, No Prisoners: A Winner's Tale of Greed and Glory in the Internet Wars, by Charles H. Ferguson. (recommended by Adam)
High Tech Start Up: The Complete Handbook for Creating Successful New High Tech Companies, by John L. Nesheim. (recommended by everyone)
The Monk and the Riddle: The Education of a Silicon Valley Entrepreneur, by Randy Komisar.

Books: Design

Bugs in Writing by Lyn Dupre. (recommended by Adam)
Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman. ( recommended by Adam)
Design Paradigms: Case Histories of Errors and Judgment in Engineering, Henry Petroski. (recommended by Adam)
Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software, by Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, and John Vlissides. (recommended by Rohit, Ron, and Mark)
Dynamics in Document Design: Creating Texts for Readers by Karen Schriver. (recommended by Rohit)
Envisioning Information by Edward Tufte. ( recommended by Adam)
Evolution of Useful Things by Henry Petroski. (recommended by Adam)
General Principles of Systems Design, by Gerald M. Weinberg and Daniela Weinberg (recommended by Lisa)
Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter. ( recommended by Adam, Ron, Mark, ...)
Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern by Douglas Hofstadter. (recommended by Adam)
Pencil, by Henry Petroski. (recommended by Adam)
Release 2.0 : A Design for Living in the Digital Age by Esther Dyson. ( recommended by Dan Connolly)
Things That Make Us Smart: Defending Human Attributes in the Age of the Machine by Donald Norman. (recommended by Adam)
To Engineer is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design, by Henry Petroski. (recommended by Adam)
Turn Signals are the Facial Expressions of Automobiles by Donald Norman. (recommended by Adam)
Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward Tufte. (recommended by Adam)
Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative by Edward Tufte. (recommended by Adam)
Wired Style: Principles of English Usage in the Digital Age by Constance Hale. (recommended by Adam)

Books: Science and Technology

At Home in the Universe: The Search for Laws of Self-Organization and Complexity, by Stuart Kauffman of the Santa Fe Institute - hardcover, or softcover. (recommended by Mark)
All I Really Need to Know in Business I Learned at Microsoft: Insider Strategies to Help You Succeed, by Julie Brick. (recommended by Adam)
Apple: The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania, and Business Blunders by Jim Carlton. (recommended by Adam)
Art of the Metaobject Protocol by Gregor Kiczales. (recommended by Nelson)
Best of the Annals of Improbable Research. (recommended by Wendy; interview / other book info)
Building Business Objects by Peter Eeles and Oliver Sims. (recommended by Ron and Mark)
Business Objects: Delivering Cooperative Objects for Client-Server, by Oliver Sims. (recommended by Ron and Mark)
Cascading Style Sheets: Designing for the Web, by Hakon Wium Lie and Bert Bos. (recommended by Adam)
Computation and Human Experience by Phil Agre. (recommended by Ron)
Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy through the Maze of Computer Espionage, by Clifford Stoll. (recommended by Rohit, Adam, ...)
Darwin Among the Machines: The Evolution of Global Intelligence, by George B. Dyson. ( recommended by Mark)
Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life, by Daniel Dennett. (recommended by Kristin)
Designing XML Internet Applications, by Michael Leventhal, David Lewis, and Matthew Fuchs. ( recommended by Adam)
Distributed Algorithms by Nancy Lynch. (recommended by Rohit)
Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin, by Stephen Jay Gould. (recommended by jcwilliams)
Great Mambo Chicken and the Transhuman Condition: Science Slightly Over the Edge, by Ed Regis. (recommended by Wayne)
Growing Up Digital by Donald Tapscott. ( recommended by Mark)
Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, by Steven Levy. (recommended by Rohit and Adam)
HTML Studio Skills by Ian Bell and Marcus Eby. ( recommended by Ian)
Illustrated Guide to HTTP by Paul S. Hethmon. (recommended by Adam)
Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen. ( recommended by Adam)
Insanely Great: The Life and Times of Macintosh, the Computer that Changed Everything, by Steven Levy. (recommended by Adam)
Life by the Numbers by Keith Devlin. (recommended by Adam)
Microsoft Way: The Real Story of How the Company Outsmarts Its Competition, by Randall E. Stross. (recommended by Adam)
Mr. Bunny's Guides to ActiveX and Java. (recommended by Rohit)
Object-Oriented Client-Server Internet Environments by Amjad Umar. (recommended by Rohit)
Presenting XML by Richard Light. (recommended by Adam)
SGML Handbook by Charles Goldfarb. (recommended by Adam)
SGML on the Web: Small Steps Beyond HTML, by Yuri Rubinsky and Murray Maloney. (recommended by Adam)
Silicon Snake Oil: Second Thoughts on the Information Highway, by Clifford Stoll. (recommended by Adam)
Sperm Wars: The Science of Sex by Robin Baker. (recommended by Kristin)
Steve Jobs: The Journey Is the Reward by Jeffrey S. Young. (a Jobs biography recommended by Rohit)
Steve Jobs and the Next Big Thing by Randall E. Stross. (a Jobs biography recommended by Rohit)
Structuring XML Documents, by David Megginson. ( recommended by Adam)
Superdistribution: Objects As Property on the Electronic Frontier, by Brad J. Cox. (recommended by Rohit)
Teach Yourself XML in 21 Days, by James Tauber. ( recommended by Adam)
Through the Vanishing Point: Space in Poetry and Painting, by Herbert Marshall. ( recommended by Stephen)
Transaction Processing: Concepts and Techniques, by Jim Gray and Andreas Reuter. ( recommended by Dave)
What Is This Thing Called Science? by Alan Chalmers. (recommended by Ron)
What Will Be: How the New World of Information Will Change Our Lives, by Michael L. Dertouzos. (recommended by Rohit)
Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet, by Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon. (recommended by Rohit)
Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences, by Edward Tenner. (recommended by Rohit and Adam)
Writing Solid Code: Microsoft's Techniques for Developing Bug-Free C Programs, by Steve Maguire (recommended by Lisa)
XML by Example: A Webmaster's Guide, by Sean McGrath. ( recommended by Adam)
XML Handbook, by Charles F. Goldfarb and Paul Prescod. ( recommended by Adam)
XML: Principles, Tools, and Techniques, editted by Dan Connolly and Rohit Khare. (recommended by Adam)

Books: Economics and Business

Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk, by Peter L. Bernstein. (recommended by Adam)
Armchair Economist: Economics and Everyday Life by Steven E. Landsburg. ( recommended by Adam)
Digital Economy: Promise and Peril in the Age of Networked Intelligence, by Don Tapscott. ( recommended by Adam)
Game Theory and the Social Contract: Playing Fair, by Ken Binmore. ( recommended by Ron's brother)
Hungry Spirit: Beyond Capitalism: A Quest for Purpose in the Modern World, by Charles Handey. ( recommended by Dan)
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, by Robert B. Cialdini. (recommended by Adam)
Liar's Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage of Wall Street, by Michael Lewis. (recommended by Adam)
Microcosm by George Gilder. ( recommended by Adam)
Motley Fool Investment Guide: How the Fool Beats Wall Street's Wise Men and You Can Too, by David and Tom Gardner. (recommended by Adam)
Out of Control by Kevin Kelly. ( recommended by Adam and Rohit)
Random Walk Down Wall Street: Including a Life-Cycle Guide to Personal Investing, by Burton G. Malkiel. ( recommended by DanK)
Sovereign Individual: How to Survive and Thrive During the Collapse of the Welfare State, by James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg. (recommended by Greg)
State of Humanity by Julian Simon. ( recommended by Dan)
Technology Fountainheads: The Management Challenge of R & D Consortia, by E. Raymond Corey. (recommended by Rohit)
Ultimate Resource 2 by Julian Simon. ( recommended by Adam; Lisa found its associated Web site)
Trust in the Balance: Building Successful Organizations on Results, Integrity, and Concern, by Robert Bruce Shaw. (recommended by Adam)
Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some Are So Poor, by David S. Landes. ( recommended by Adam)
Webonomics: Nine Essential Principles for Growing Your Business on the World Wide Web, by Evan Schwartz. ( recommended by Adam)
Witch Doctors: Making Sense of the Management Gurus, by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge. (recommended by Rohit)

Books: History and Culture

Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker, by Eric Liu. (recommended by Adam)
Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date, by Robert X. Cringely. ( recommended by Adam)
Bit Players: How the Creators of New Information Technology Will Change Our Lives Forever, but There Still Won't Be Anything to Watch on TV, by Robert X. Cringely. (recommended by Adam)
Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. (recommended by Adam)
Chronicles of Dissent by Noam Chomsky and David Barsamian. (recommended by Adam)
Fragments: Cool Memories Iii, 1991-95 by Jean Baudrillard. ( recommended by Adam)
End of Racism: Principles for a Multiracial Society, by Dinesh D'Souza. ( recommended by Laurence)
The Geek Handbook: User Guide and Documentation for the Geek in Your Life, by Mikki Halpin. ( recommended by Rohit and Ernie)
Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art by Guerrilla Girls. ( recommended by Janie)
History of Knowledge: Past, Present, and Future by Charles van Doren. ( recommended by Adam and Dan)
History of the American People by Paul Johnson. ( recommended by Adam)
History of the Jews by Paul Johnson. ( recommended by Adam)
Intimate History of Humanity by Theodore Zeldin. ( recommended by Dan)
Joystick Nation by J.C. Herz. ( recommended by Adam)
Lessons of History by Will Durant. (recommended by Adam)
Long Hard Road Out of Hell by Marilyn Manson. ( recommended by Adam)
Manufacturing Consent: the Video by Noam Chomsky. (recommended by Adam)
Our Guys: The Glen Ridge Rape and the Secret Life of the Perfect Suburb, by Bernard Lefkowitz. ( recommended by Rohit)
Peoples' History of the United States by Howard Zinn. ( recommended by Adam)
Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II, by Iris Chang. ( recommended by Adam)
Roman Revolution by Ronald Syme ( recommended by Jim)
Sex on the Brain: The Biological Differences Between Men and Women, by Deborah Blum. ( recommended by Tim)
Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family, by Matt Groening, and edited by Ray Richmond. (recommended by Adam)
Sovereign Individual: How to Survive and Thrive During the Collapse of the Welfare State, by James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg (recommended by Greg)
Suck : Worst-Case Scenarios in Media, Culture, Advertising, and the Internet, by Joey Anuff (Editor), Ana Marie Cox (Editor), Terry Colon (Illustrator). (recommended by Adam)
Underground Education: The Unauthorized and Outrageous Supplement to Everything You Thought You Knew About Art, Sex, Business, Crime, Science, by Richard Zacks ( recommended by Johnboy)
Vanishing American Jew: In Search of Jewish Identity for the Next Century, by Alan Dershowitz (recommended by Adam)
Veronica Webb Sight, by Veronica Webb. (recommended by Adam)

Books: Faith and the Big Questions

God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, What is the Question?, by Leon Lederman and Dick Teresi. (recommended by Wayne)
Mere Christianity: The case for Christianity, Christian behaviour, and Beyond personality, by C.S. Lewis. (recommended by Wayne)

Books: Nonfiction

Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, by Neil Postman. (recommended by Adam)
Brain Droppings by George Carlin. (recommended by Adam)
First Things First: To Live, to Love, to Learn, to Leave a Legacy, by Stephen R. Covey, A. Roger Merrill, and Rebecca R. Merrill (recommended by Adam)
Data Smog: Surviving the Information Glut, by David Shank. (recommended by Adam)
Downsize This! by Michael Moore. (recommended by Adam)
Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self, by Alice Miller and Ruth Ward (recommended by Adam)
Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace, by Janet H. Murray. (recommended by Adam)
Lexicon of Intentionally Ambiguous Recommendations (L.I.A.R.) by Robert Thornton. ( recommended by Adam and Rob)
Maus by Art Spiegelman. ( recommended by Adam)
The Medium Is the Message: An Inventory of Effects, by Marshall McLuhan, Quentin Fiore, and Jerome Agel. (recommended by Adam)
Mile High Club: First Class All the Way With the Rich and Famous, by Diana Benson. (recommended by Adam)
Night by Elie Wiesel. ( recommended by Adam)
Red Hourglass: The Lives of Predators, by Gordon Grice. ( recommended by Adam)
Sark books.
1. Creative Companion: How to Free Your Creative Spirit, Sark. (recommended by Adam)
2. Inspiration Sandwich: Stories to Inspire Our Creative Freedom, Sark. (recommended by Adam)
3. Living Juicy: Daily Morsels for Your Creative Soul, Sark. (recommended by Adam)
4. Magic Cottage Address Book, Sark. (recommended by Adam)
5. Oh So Succulent: Daring to Live Your Succulent Wild Life, Sark. (recommended by Adam)
6. Sark's Play!Book and Journal: A Place to Dream While Awake, Sark. (recommended by Adam)
7. Succulent Wild Woman: Dancing With Your Wonder Full Self, Sark. (recommended by Adam)
Seinfeld : The Totally Unauthorized Tribute, Not That There's Anything Wrong With That, by David Wild. (recommended by Adam)
Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff. ( recommended by Adam)
Truisms and Essays, Jenny Holzer. (recommended by Adam)
Unbounding the Future: The Nanotechnology Revolution by Eric Drexler and Chris Peterson with Gayle Pergamit. ( recommended by Adam)

Books: Fiction

1984 by George Orwell. ( recommended by Joe)
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. ( recommended by Greg)
Animal Farm by George Orwell. ( recommended by Joe)
A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick. ( recommended by Tim)
Before Sunrise by Richard Linklater. (recommended by Adam)
Bombadiers by Po Bronson. (recommended by Adam)
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. (recommended by Adam)
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller. (recommended by Megan and recommended by Adam)
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. (recommended by Greg and Adam)
Clerks and Chasing Amy: Two Screenplays by Kevin Smith. (recommended by Adam)
Dazed and Confused by Richard Linklater. (recommended by Adam)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson. (recommended by Rohit and Megan)
Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes. (recommended by Reardon and Adam)
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick. ( recommended by Tom)
Focault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco. ( recommended by Adam)
Generation X by Douglas Coupland. ( recommended by Adam)
Good Will Hunting: A Screenplay by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. (recommended by Adam)
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino. (recommended by Adam)
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. (recommended by Joe)
Invisible Cities, by Italo Calvino. ( recommended by Adam)
Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte. (recommended by Lisa)
Mallrats by Kevin Smith. (recommended by Adam)
Microserfs by Douglas Coupland. (recommended by Adam)
Nature's End: The Consequences of the Twentieth Century by Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka. (recommended by Rohit)
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. (recommended by Adam, who also needs the Cliff's Notes)
Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth. ( recommended by Ron)
Pulp Fiction Screenplay by Quentin Tarantino. (recommended by Adam)
Reservoir Dogs and True Romance: Screenplays by Quentin Tarantino. (recommended by Adam)
Rising Phoenix by Kyle Mills. ( recommended by Adam)
Shawshank Redemption: The Shooting Script by Frank Darabont and Stephen King. (recommended by Adam)
Short Timers by Gustav Hasford. ( recommended by Greg)
Slacker by Richard Linklater. (recommended by Adam)
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. (recommended by Megan and recommended by Adam)
The Eight by Katherine Neville (chess, computers, math, historical figures involved in massive intrigue, the Freemasons, nuns running amok. what more could you want? it's "The female counterpart to Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose," according to the jacket. recommended by Megan)
The First $20 Million is Always the Hardest by Po Bronson. (recommended by Adam)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. ( recommended by Adam)
The Island of the Day Before by Umberto Eco. (recommended by Adam)
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. ( recommended by Adam)
Time's Arrow by Martin Amis. (recommended by Megan and recommended by Adam)
Trainspotting: A Screenplay by John Hodge and Irvine Welsh. (recommended by Adam)
Warday: And the Journey Onward, by Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka. (recommended by Rohit)
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. (recommended by Megan and recommended by Adam)

Books: Joebar

The Puzzle Palace: A Report on America's Most Secret Agency by James Bamford.
Vaxcluster Principles by Roy G. Davis.
VMS for Alpha Platforms: Internals and Data Structures (Volume 1) by Ruth E. Goldenberg, Saro Saravanan.
VMS for Alpha Platforms Internals and Data Structures (Volume 2) by Ruth E. Goldenberg, Saro Saravanan.
VMS for Alpha Platforms Internals and Data Structures (Volume 3) by Ruth E. Goldenberg, Saro Saravanan.
Windows NT in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference for System Administrators by Eric Pearce.
Windows NT File System Internals by Rajeev Nagar.
Learning Perl for Win32 by Randal L. Schwartz, et al.
The Telephone Book: Technology, Schizophrenia, Electric Speech by Avital Ronell.
Ontogeny and Phylogeny by Stephen Jay Gould.
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments by David Foster Wallace.
Infinite Jest: A Novel by David Foster Wallace.
Little, Big by John Crowley.
Michaelmas by Algis Budrys.
More Dark Than Shark by Brian Eao, Russell Mills.
The Clothes Have No Emperor: A Chronicle of the American '80s by Paul Slansky.
The Computer Connection by Alfred Bester.
Microserfs by Douglas Coupland.
Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre.
The Nag Hammadi Library in English by James M. Robinson.
1984 by George Orwell.
Animal Farm (Everyman's Library Series) by George Orwell.
Cyteen by C. J. Cherryh.
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.
Everyday Zen: Love and Work by Charlotte Joko Beck, Joko Beck.
Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco.
Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman by James Gleick.
Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen.
Grant: A Biography by William S. McFeely.
Listening to Prozac: The Landmark Book About Anti-Depressants and the Remarking of the Self by Peter D. Kramer.
Nobody Nowhere: The Extraordinary Autobiography of an Autistic by Donna Williams.
The Drowned and the Saved by Primo Levi.
Topics in Algebra by I. N. Herstein.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values by Robert M. Pirsig.
The Stand (The Complete and Uncut Edition) by Stephen King.
What Mad Pursuit; A Personal View of Scientific Discovery by Francis Crick.
How the Laws of Physics Lie by Nancy Cartwright.

Online Bits

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From the FoRK FAQ, maintained by adam at xent dot com
Last modified: Fri May 5 21:30:49 PDT 2000