Recommended (Fun) Books for Undergraduates

David Novick

When I advise students, I ask if they read books for fun, because active reading is a key part of intellectual development. It almost doesn't matter what kind of books you read--mysteries, science fiction, romance, thrillers--as long as you have enough fun to get you to read additional books. Eventually students may turn to more challenging fare.

I sometimes lend my own books--typically books about the history of technology--to students to get them started. This Web page, then, lists some initial recommendations for books, non-fiction and fiction, that are relatively easy reads for undergraduates, engrossing, and fun. If you'd like to suggest additional books to list here, please e-mail me.

Fiction

• The Crying of Lot 49, Thomas Pynchon, 1966: A pair of San Franciscans may or may not be on the trail of an ancient conspiracy; Pynchon's first novel, rather short, full of pop culture, funny and gripping.
• Travels with my Aunt, Evelyn Waugh, 1969: The even life of a retired bank employee turns into a roller-coaster when he meets the sister of his late mother; one of Waugh's funniest works, revelatory.
• Catch 22, Joseph Heller, 1961: Savage, funny and unforgettable novel about of the absurdity of war, in this case in Italy in World War II; I used to read this book every three years.
• Side Effects, Woody Allen, 1975: A collection of very funny short pieces that, amazing enough, can be tied to ideas in computer science, such as the class-instance distinction.

Non-fiction: Technology

• Skunk Works, Ben R. Rich, 1996: The story of Lockheed's famous bleeding-edge aerospace unit, as told by its second director; I would have loved to have worked for the author.
• The Victorian Internet, Tom Standage, 1999: How the telegraph developed; a remarkable precursor to the Internet.
• The Subterranean Railway, Christian Wolmar, 2005: The history of the London Underground.
• The Map that Changed the World, Simon Winchester, 2002: The story of a canal digger whose 22-year effort to create a map of the structures under the surface of the earth founded modern geology.

Non-fiction: Relevant to Computer Science

• How to Solve It, G. Polya, 1954 (2nd edition): Heuristic methods for solving mathematical and other technical problems. A classic.

Non-fiction: Other

• The Last Fine Time, Verlyn Klinkenborg, 1990: The chronicle of the life of a family-owned restaurant in Buffalo, New York; brings the post-war era to life.
• The Common Stream, Rowland Parker, 1976: The story of the development of a village near Cambridge, England, from prehistory to the present.
• K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain, Ed Viesturs, 2009: A gripping history of attempts--successful and unsuccessful--to climb K2; after reading this book I wanted to fly directly to the Himalayas to see where this all happened.
• Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain, 2000: A savagely funny backstage tour of the restaurant world. (If you'd like to read a literary precursor, try "Down and Out in Paris and London," by George Orwell.

Further reading for the more adventurous

Here are a few additional books for whom greater challenge would bring greater rewards

• Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh, 1946; a sweeping novel of Great Britain from 1923 to 1943, with its characters divided by class, faith, and loss of faith.
• Goedel, Escher, Bach, Douglas Hofstadter, 1979; an idiosyncratic classic of genius, tying together mathematics, the visual arts, and music.
• Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome, Anthony Everitt, 2010; a biography of the Spaniard who ruled the Roman Empire at its Zenith.
• The Day of the Locust, Nathanael West, 1939. A darkly funny satire of Hollywood in the 1930s. If you like this, then follow up with The Loved One, Evelyn Waugh, 1948.

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