Top ten computer books

Vikram Chandra's first non-fiction book, Geek Sublime: Writing Fiction, Coding Software, came from his own lived experience as novelist and sometimes-programmer.

One of Chandra's top ten computer books, as shared with the Guardian:

The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder

More than 30 years old, but still unsurpassed as a description of working programmers and the problems they tackle. Kidder watched the engineers and programmers at the Data General Corporation build a new minicomputer in just a year; the "veterans" on the project were 35-year-olds who hired fresh college graduates willing to sacrifice themselves to make the machine work. This story of epic effort, technical idealism and management cynicism is repeated in many a startup today.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Soul of a New Machine is one of William Rosen's five best books about inventions.

--Marshal Zeringue