Gallery: 9 Essential Geek Books You Must Read Right Now
01advanced-dungeons-dragons-dungeon-masters-guide
*Over the next nine weeks, Wired.com is presenting a collection of galleries intended to help people become better geeks, nine items at a time. This is the first of the series.* [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/rawfile/wireds-9-for-9-galleries/)Maybe you have friends who aren’t into Wired. Or the whole geek thing. You're friends with these people, so we'll assume a certain level of intelligence. They can read, right? So what do you tell them to read to get them a footing in this weird, wonderful world? Here's a collection of books that should get anybody started on the road to geekdom, or at least get conversant in this world. If you've read all nine of these, you are one serious, smart geek. If not, you've got some fun ahead of you. The problem with making a list is that you need to set limits. The limits here are: nine books, no duplicate authors, none written by people employed in this building. (Peace at home trumps all.) __Above:__ *Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide* ---------------------------------------------------- __By Gary Gygax (1979)__ The hallmark of the true geek is attention to detail, and this book provides it in tiny, sans-serif type over 240 pages. You don't even have to be an adventurer to enjoy the obsessiveness that fills every page. There are tips on Treatment of Prospective Henchman, a Pummeling Table (that's a chart, not furniture) and 20 types of insanity with detailed descriptions. Ostensibly a rules encyclopedia, the book really is a resource that gives people the tools to create entire worlds that their friends can explore and dream in.
02hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy
*The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy* -------------------------------------- __By Douglas Adams (1979)__ Arthur Dent fumbled his way around the universe on British radio years before Douglas Adams eventually (and apparently under duress) wrote this novel featuring his beleaguered non-hero, earning millions of fans in the process. If you don't know the importance of a good towel or what a Babel Fish does or why every geek smartass on the planet answers your questions with "42," this book will tell you.
03watchmen-2
*Watchmen* ---------- __By Alan Moore (1986 to 1987)__ It may be stretching it a bit to call *Watchmen* a book, since it's really a comic book series combined into one volume, but its standing as the greatest graphic novel of all time overrides any rules-lawyering. Although it looks for all the world to be a classic superhero epic, it's anything but. The crime-fighters in *Watchmen* are not sympathetic, but they are fascinating and flawed, including the deeply cynical Comedian, the right-wing Rorschach and the too-smart-for-the-rest-of-us Ozymandias.
04godel-escher-bach
*Gödel, Escher, Bach* --------------------- __By Douglas Hofstadter (1979)__ The title promises looks at Kurt Gödel, M.C. Escher and Johann Sebastian Bach, and this crazy, complicated, smart, fun book delivers. But it's not really about math, art and music, but rather thinking. Add some Lewis Carroll and you get things like a Crab Canon; a discussion between Achilles, a tortoise and an anteater; and a ton of puzzles. Feed your brain.
05enders-game
*Ender's Game* -------------- __By Orson Scott Card (1985)__ It's the story of a violent boy who is selected for battle training as humans struggle with an insectoid alien species. The crux of the story involves Ender's spectacular ability to size up a conflict — simulated or otherwise — and find a way to win it, often in the most ruthless fashion. Thus the question becomes where the games begin and end. Be warned, as the novel has spawned some fairly nasty arguments about what's really happening in it (and the author himself isn't exactly well-liked). Fact submitted without comment: It once appeared on the U.S. Marine Corps Professional Reading List.
06snow-crash
*Snow Crash* ------------ __By Neal Stephenson (1992)__ Stephenson had to be on the list; the question simply being which book. While it's a simple task to throw out *The Baroque Cycle* (Baroque! And it's three beefy books), it's not that easy to beat *Cryptonomicon*. *Snow Crash* centers on the adventures of Hiro Protagonist (really) as he tries to track down and defeat a malicious virus that travels via the *metaverse* but seriously messes with people's real-world brains. The word *metaverse* was born here, and the book popularized the use of the term *avatar* to denote a graphical representation of a person.
07lord-of-the-rings
*The Lord of the Rings* ----------------------- __By J.R.R. Tolkien (1954 to 1955)__ The touchstone for fantasy freaks everywhere. OK, *The Lord of the Rings* is actually three books, but it's one work, Peter Jackson notwithstanding. You can cheat a little and just go for *The Hobbit*, but you'll end up back here anyway. It's impossible to overstate Tolkien's impact on the world of fantasy fiction, as the genre exploded after *LoTR* landed, and practically every current cultural reference to elves, magic jewelry, dwarves or bows can be traced back to this work, 50 years later.
08the-visual-display-of-quantitative-information
*The Visual Display of Quantitative Information* ------------------------------------------------ __By Edward Tufte (1992)__ Geeks love data. Lots of it. The problem is that too many times the visual representation of this data is utter trash. Enter Edward Tufte, who shows us how to approach the problem intelligently and provides examples — good and bad — of visual information. The book is a pleasure to look at, though the text is fairly sparse. It's a wonderful way to expand your communication toolbox.
09neuromancer
*Neuromancer* ------------- __By William Gibson (1984)__ Maybe you've heard that this is the novel that put cyberspace on the map (though William Gibson coined the term in an earlier work). That alone should get you to read *Neuromancer*, but if that's not enough, consider that Gibson credits a line from *Escape From New York* for inspiring the novel. ("You flew the Gulfire over Leningrad, didn’t you?") There's no Snake Plissken here, but the main story is about a powerful, yet bifurcated, AI attempting to bring itself to full power. How this all ties together makes for fascinating reading.
