As you can guess this is not a manual of any sort. This is just a list of books that I have read in some point of my life and found that they are interesting/entertaining/educational or just good fun.
I am excluding most of the computer how-to/manual sort of books from this list as they are mostly just references. The books I have included offer something more on intellectual level, like ideas and thoughts.
Title:
The New School of Information Security
Author(s):
Adam Shostack and Andrew Stewart
ISBN:
0321502787
How can gathering better evidence improve security. Discusses on similar ideas
as presented in Zittrains, Scheiers and Hallam-Bakers books (maybe a bit more on
the economics side of things).
Title:
Schneier on Security
Author(s):
Bruce Schneier
ISBN:
0470395354
A good and entertaining book on security in general.
Title:
The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security
Author(s):
Kevin D. Mitnick, William L. Simon, Steve Wozniak (Foreword)
ISBN:
076454280X
We humans can be very stupid and we most likely will always fall to
some kind of social engineering tricks.
Title:
The Art of Intrusion: The Real Stories Behind the Exploits of Hackers, Intruders & Deceivers
Author(s):
Kevin D. Mitnick, William L. Simon
ISBN:
0471782661
A book about exploits done by hackers and analyzed by Mitnick.
Title:
Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World
Author(s):
Bruce Schneier
ISBN:
0471453803
A book saying that the security is as good as its weakest link and how
complexity in software degrades security.
Title:
Necropolis: London and Its Dead
Author(s):
Catharine Arnold
ISBN:
1416502483
A book about the cemeteries and customs of death in
London. Interesting history of the dead in London.
Title:
Meta Maths: The Quest for Omega
Author(s):
Gregory J. Chaitin
ISBN:
184354525X
Book about incompleteness theorem and "halting problem". Also offers a
view on the future of mathematics.
Title:
The Survival Game: How Game Theory Explains the Biology of Cooperation and Competition
Author(s):
David P. Barash
ISBN:
0805076999
Book about game theory. He also applies game theory to evolution. Read
"Selfish Gene" before this and you'll be surprised how much there is
common with this book. I would say this book is a good common language
explanation on the subject and entertaining to read.
Title:
The Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary Edition--with a new Introduction by the Author
Author(s):
Richard Dawkins
ISBN:
0199291152
Our genes are selfish and how game theory can be applied to
evolution. Dawkins' first book and a classic.
Title:
The God Delusion
Author(s):
Richard Dawkins
ISBN:
0618918248
Dawkins looking religion through the spectacles of science. Organized
religion can be oppressing and so on. Nice book to read if you want to
see how religion handles if it is handled as a scientific theorem.
Title:
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Author(s):
Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner
ISBN:
0061234001
Sort of economics book. The topics are bit wild but, yes this is a
book on economics and very entertaining one at that.
Title:
Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means
Author(s):
Albert-Laszlo Barabasi
ISBN:
0452284392
Book telling you about networks and how everything is connected. I
think this is the same book as published earlier with the name Linked:
New science of networks. Anyways, its a good book to read about random
networks, six degrees of separation and chaos.
Title:
The dotCrime Manifesto: How to Stop Internet Crime
Author(s):
Phillip Hallam-Baker
ISBN:
0321503589
Very entertaining to read. This is a sort of book that explains from
where and how we got here (botnet/spammer infested Internet). This
book starts from the beginning explaining the situation when internet
was born, what went "wrong" with it. How it was fixed and how that
went "wrong". This book offers some good pointers on how to proceeed
with the enhancments to security and how to deploy them.
Title:
The Future of the Internet--And How to Stop It
Author(s):
Jonathan Zittrain
ISBN:
0300124872
Ok, this is one view of the future and in my opinion not that
distant. Zittrain argues that the future of the Internet might result
into closed hardware/software environment where all the decisions are
made by big corporations. He also shows that Internet is a generative
network and there lies its biggest advantage. Lets keep the network
open and keep on innovating...
These are just my opinion, you can disagree with them and its your right.