The Verge created a list of their top 40 non-fiction books about tech. I’ve heard of a few of them, but I’ve not read any.
Yet I’ve been on the lookout for books that really help explain our relationship with technology or how it shapes our society and frequently asked myself the question, “Which are the ones worth reading?”
Jason Kottke has asked the same question of his readers:
Anyway, back to the list — it seems incomplete in a way that I can’t quite articulate. I would have liked to have seen Tom Standage’s The Victorian Internet on there. What else? I would like to hear about your favorite books about tech (or non-tech books that are sneakily about tech anyway) or what you think might be missing from the list.
The Verge article makes it clear they chose non-fiction books exclusively, and that a list of fiction would be a whole different enterprise entirely. Looking back at my reading over the years, I’ve got many more fiction books about technology, and very few non-fiction–and even those non-fiction works lean towards biographies of innovators rather than considerations of technology itself.
I have a few books in my “to-be-read” pile that weren’t on the Verge list that I should get to:
- Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, Marshall McLuhan
- Tools for Conviviality, Ivan Illich
- The Technological Society, Jacques Ellul
As Kottke writes, the Verge focused on Silicon Valley and its effect on society, whereas the books on my brief list above are definitely a philosophical/sociological look at technology. Maybe I need to lighten up a bit.