"There are two kinds of cryptography in this world: cryptography that will stop your kid sister from reading your files, and cryptography that will stop major governments from reading your files. This book is about the latter". Need I say more? I bought this book having read Cryptonomicon, and don't regret it :)

The ultimate patterns book. Not language specific - this book features examples in C++, Smalltalk and psuedo-code. Note: This book will not teach you how to program, nor will it teach you how to do OO. It is a list of design patterns for use in OO code, each amazingly useful, detailed, and thoroughly exampled. This book is an incredibly useful reference, and the patterns can be used for anything, even gtk-style OO C.

The C++ book, written by the main guy behind the C++ language definition.

The best CG book out there, massively complex, lots of maths and trig - but full of useful algorithms and explanations. Neat book.

The book that started it all. The only book you will ever need to teach you C. A decent size, it packs in an incredible amount of knowledge, in a very concise, yet understandable manner. I love this book. Make sure you get the 2nd edition, as it's ANSI friendly.

This is a great book. Not only does it hit the real nitty gritty of compilers, memory management, and low level trickery, it is surprisingly funny, as the author constantly regails the reader with amusing programming related stories.

Not specific to any language, this book discusses the actual process of programming. Design, algorithms, data structurs, handy tips, things to avoid... They cover modern platforms, and discuss issues such as portability, reusability and open design.

The ultimate networking reference. A chunky and thorough manual. Unix-oriented.

A very decent Unix book. If you run a *nix system, get this book.

Awesome book - it's what makes the internet tick after all, really useful if you ever set up a small, medium or huge network, and interesting just for the sake of it.

Man, that's some good sci fi. Huge story, lots of mystery, subplots and twists - a nice detective story edge and some great tech. Killer cliffhanger ending however - the next book in the series needs to come out *now*.

On hold. I'll get back to it after Pandora's Star (this book starts pretty slow).

Quirky, funny, sad. A short read but worthwhile.

Not my usual kind of read. Suggested by James for the plane trip to SF, and I just couldn't put it down. Great plot and very well paced.

Great story, great twists, and some very modern writing.

A nicely put together toe-dip into a field that really interests me - neuroscience - a very eye-opening read.

This was just for fun, and it was quite a fun read. Most of the "hacks" the author documents are detailed in various places online. In fact, that's what this book mostly is, a compilation of content from such sites, with commentary by the author. He also reproduced some of them himself, and devised a few of his own. Anyway this book gave me the confidence to start planning a few hardware hacks of my own so it was well worth it.

Cool picture of a nanotech future and a great story.

Recommended by Sue. I usually abivalent towards Stephen King, with the notable exceptions of IT (fabulous book) and The Stand (his best?). Having been told that the Dark Tower series is along similar lines to The Stand, and of similar quality, I got stuck in! He's released 4 so far and expects the thing to be about 7 books long (!) when he gets done. Once I'd finished book 4, I was bitterly disappointed to discover that it'll be a year or so until book 5 comes out! Excellent series so far.

Just in time for the Two Towers movie, I completed this series (again). I had to - after the first film was unexpectedly brilliant I just had to get back into the world of middle earth and prepare for the new film.

Wow. Thanks to John for recommending this book, it's amazing. The book covers 7 days in a Benedictine monestary in the 14th century, and is full of lust and murder in search of a mysterious, long hidden book. Knowing a smattering of latin definitely helps read this book - there are numerous quotations and references in latin which Eco doesn't deign to translate :)

This is a non-fiction book about the Battle of Britain, recommended to me by a friend after several long discussions on the subject. It really is a fascinating read and I enjoyed it hugely. My interest in this period in history was actually kicked off from reading Cryptonomicon :)

Technically an essay rather than a book, this is nevertheless a great read.

Wow. So glad I read this book. It covers a lot of ground.. The hacker ethos, the second world war, cryptography... Awesome and huge. Plus there's a sci-fi element in a well hidden subtext, the Enoch Root character is fascinating and I look forward to reading more about him.

I read The Cobra Incident previously, which is a fiction work of his about a biological attack on the USA. This book is non-fiction, and is about an actual outbreak of an Ebola strain which occurred in the US. A scary story full of close escapes (possilby for all of us).

Actually I read this series recently for the second time. I first read it many years ago and it gets better for another look. Dark and disturbing most of the way through the series, yet somehow wonderfully uplifting at the same time. It's a book about hope vs despair and describes a huge world full of amazing characters.

I read all Iain's stuff, and this is one of his finer sci-fi's.

Hamilton is one of my favourite sci-fi authors. This was a good one.

Hamilton's best, in my opinion. You have to read this, because I can't describe it. The story is just too fantastic.

Great read without having a story as such.. Just a whole cast of amazing characters going through life.

This is classic computer age sci-fi. Malicious code in a virtual reality world is a (way too short) way to summarize.