Ultimate Geek List - Books

Posted on Apr 19th 2010 | 9comments

I don’t like list posts. But ironically, I have written one and I think it’s going to be my favorite post on this blog. To be precise, I hate those list posts which contain only screenshots. But, I have absolutely nothing against those which contain detailed explanations.

So, here’s the “Ultimate Geek List” of books, documentaries and T.V. shows. The entire list would be presented in two parts. The first part contains Geek books whereas the second one will feature geek documentaries and T.V shows. I’m only featuring those books which I have read completely or partially.

I am also not including any science-fictions because there are so many of them that it’s impossible to list them all in a single post. To make things more interesting, I am including a Geek Path in the form of function plots, which will indicate the difficulty level of the book. It would be great if you can plot these functions manually or with the help of wolframalphaThe range for the entire function has been specified in the brackets.

1. God Created the Integers

This is one of my favorite books on Mathematics. It’s a collection of the greatest mathematical works in history.

“From the geometry of Euclid through the calculus of Newton, from the probabilities of Laplace to the thought of Boole”

Each chapter consists of a short biography of a mathematician followed by his original mathematical proofs and results.

The short biographies are well written and it’s really great to know the circumstances under which these great mathematicians came up with their brilliant work. However, the best parts of the book are not these biographies but the original mathematical works included with every chapter. You can just skim through these mathematical works, but that would really ruin the whole purpose of getting this book. The best way to enjoy this book is to work through these mathematical results. For example, you can work out the proposition that says “Any sphere is four times the cone with base equal to a great circle of the sphere and height equal to its radius”. You can find many such propositions related to geometry in the chapter on Archimedes. Obviously, it’s not possible to work out every mathematical result contained in this book as some of them are highly complex. These great mathematicians have spent years together to prove these results and hence it’s not possible to prove these results in a matter of few hours (unless you’re a math prodigy).

I think that this book should be on the bookshelf of every math lover. Highly recommended!

Geek Path : The book contains 17 mathematicians and their original work. The difficulty level somewhat increases with each chapter.However, the works are not entirely related to each other.

2. Emperor's New Mind

This brilliant book by Roger Penrose is all about proving that human thinking can never be emulated by a machine. The book begins with an understanding of Turing machines and goes on to explore various other concepts of Mathematics, Physics and Computer Science like Gödel’s theorem, quantum physics, arrow of time and artificial intelligence. I bought this book few years ago and I must accept that I had problems in understanding it completely. The first few chapters are easy to understand, but it gets tough when you get into Hamiltonian Mechanics, Hilbert space and quantum field theory. However, the best thing about this book is that it will force you to explore these concepts. After understanding these concepts in a better way, I can appreciate this book to a greater extent. This book will make you think all the time. You will be amazed at how brilliantly the author has woven together various concepts of Mathematics, Computing and Physics in order to make you realize that the brilliance of the human brain cannot be emulated by a machine. You might not agree with some of the arguments given in this book, but the author has got them covered in a sequel to this book – “Shadows of the Mind”

Geek Path :Each chapter in the book can give you a lot of knowledge.However, the content increases in difficulty. x = difficulty level

3. The Road to Reality

This is a MUST have book if you’re into universe and astrophysics. The book runs over 1000 pages and covers various topics like manifolds, symmetry groups, space-time, Minkowskian geometry and quantum physics along with basic and advanced mathematics. It’s important to have a solid grasp of mathematics to completely understand this book. If you hate math, then this book is not for you. However, it’s not a problem if you’re not much familiar with higher mathematics. The first few chapters will give you a good understanding of it and then you can build upon that knowledge to dive into more complex mathematics. So why is this book so good? The answer is very simple. We have been hearing about our Universe and space exploration since many years, and yet most of us just know a little about planets, stars, black holes and other celestial bodies. This is because you need to go through a lot of complex physics and mathematics to understand the laws of the universe. It’s not easy to do so unless you’re a brilliant astrophysicist. However, Roger Penrose took a herculean task of explaining the known laws of universe in a single book. And this is what makes it brilliant. You cannot call yourself an astrophysicist after reading this book, but you can surely get a much deeper understanding of our Universe and a direction to move forward with your research.

Geek Path: You will some knowledge of basic and advanced mathematics before you can handle complex problems

4. Flatland

Flatland is an 1884 novella by Edwin Abbott Abbott. The most unique thing about this novella is that it’s all about dimensions. I will not give out the plot in this post, but if you love math and physics then you will surely love Flatland. Isaac Asimov described it as “The best introduction one can find into the manner of perceiving dimensions”. Moreover, the novella is still popular amongst mathematics, physics, and computer science students.

Geek Path : Nothing difficult in this book

5. Gödel, Escher, Bach

Gödel, Escher, Bach is a Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Douglas Hofstadter. The book explores various concepts of mathematics, physics, computing and neuroscience. The author has already clarified that the book is not about mathematics, art, and music but rather about how cognition and thinking emerge from well-hidden neurological mechanisms. You can find similar concepts in many other books, but what sets this book apart is its unique presentation. The book has many imaginary characters, word play and puzzles, which give you a very unique reading experience. The book has been structured as a counter-point between dialogues and chapters and ideas have been discussed through these dialogues. You’ll hardly find any mathematical equations in this book as the author as emphasized more on discussion of concepts rather than demonstrating them with the help of equations. I think that this is also a MUST have book for every geek ;)

Geek Path :This book is not that tough to comprehend. It rather revolves around Gödel,Escher and Bach with interesting discussions.

6. The Art of Computer Programming

The Art of Computer Programming is a comprehensive monograph written by Donald Knuth which is covered in three volumes (4 volumes in some other countries). It covers various programming algorithms and their analysis. I think every computer science student should have this monograph. Although, Hobbyist programmers like me can also enjoy and learn a lot from it. One of the major prerequisite of this monograph is that you should be very good in Mathematics especially series, probability and calculus. Obviously, you will also find major application of Discrete Mathematics in this monograph. Some of the problems in it remind me of a book called as “Problems in General Physics” by I.E Irodov, which is considered to be one of the toughest problem books by engineering aspirants. Most of the problems in this book look complex, but can be solved with some efforts if you have a good understanding of basic concepts in Physics (which I realized a year after I failed in JEE). The same argument goes for the problems given in this monograph. I think a quote by Bill Gates is enough to summarize this monograph – “If you think you're a really good programmer . . . read (Knuth's) Art of Computer Programming . . . You should definitely send me a résumé if you can read the whole thing” Thus, I would recommend this monograph only if you have deep interests in Mathematics and Programming.

Geek Path : You'll be greeted with some tough topics from the beginning and the difficulty would just increase exponentially

7. The Design of the UNIX Operating System

Geeks love UNIX. And that’s why this classic book has been included in this list. It was first published in 1986 and is still a favorite book amongst UNIX enthusiasts. Moreover, it’s also recommended in the computer science course at Indian Institute of Technologies (IIT’s). This book will help you understand the Kernel, Buffer Cache, System calls, Process control, Memory Management, I/O Subsystem and Multiprocessor systems. The book has been written well and you can easily understand it if you’re familiar with certain algorithms, assembly language and C.

Geek Path : You'll need some basic knowledge of algorithms, assembly language and C before you can handle these advanced topics.

I hope you have enjoyed this post. Looking forward for your review and suggestions in the comments section :)

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