What computer books would you recommend reading?

There are thousands of computer books available today that cover every subject imaginable. Depending on what interests you or what you would like to learn more about really decides what we would recommend. If you are not sure what interests you or just want to see the best-sellers, see Amazon's best selling computer books.

General computer knowledge

How Computers Work by Ron White is a great overview of how everything in your computer works. The book has fantastic illustrations and is not as overwhelming as some other computer books.

Upgrading and Repairing PCs by Scott Mueller is one of our favorite books that is an in-depth overview of computers and computer hardware. This book goes into lots of details and is a long, but interesting read. There are several editions of this book, but for most we recommend getting the latest edition. We also highly recommend the Kindle edition if you have eBook reader or tablet since it is so big and heavy.

The Elements of Computing Systems: Building a Modern Computer from First Principles by Noam Nisan and Shimon Schocken gives an in-depth overview of how computers work and show you how a computer can be built from scratch.

A+ Certification

A+ Certification books are a great way to brush up on everything asked on the A+ Certification test and can be a great way to learn more about computers. Below is a listing of a few of our favorite A+ Certification books.

CompTIA A+ Certification All-in-One Exam by Michael Meyers is a fantastic book that covers everything asked in the A+ Certification test as well as does a great job at giving an overview of computers as well as troubleshooting information.

Troubleshooting, Maintaining & Repairing PCs by Stephen Bigelow is another great computer book and is another great book to help with studying for the A+ Certification. The book covers all the major aspects including many of the important troubleshooting techniques.

Other Certifications

There are dozens of other computer certifications and hundreds of other computer certification books. If you are looking to studying for a certification we recommend looking at the Best Seller list of certification books.

Hacking and computer security

Ghost in the Wires by Kevin Mitnick is a book covering one of the greatest and well known hackers in history. The book covers Kevin's thrilling true story of illegally accessing computers and networks.

Hacking: The Art of Exploration by Jon Erickson is a book that goes into detail about hacking is the art of problem solving and also gives examples of hacking techniques.

Hacking Exposed by is a great series of books that covers all types of computer security related topics.

Computer Programming

There are dozens of different computer programming languages and hundreds of computer programming books. If you have decided on what programming language you would like to learn, we suggest one of the programming books from O'Reilly for your language of choice. Below are some other good general computer programming books.

The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master by David Thomas that teaches all of the great techniques used by master programmers.

Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software by the Gang of Four is a great source of information on object-oriented design theory.

Introduction to Algorithms by Thomas Cormen is a more advanced programming book with an encyclopedia type listing of vEB trees, multithreaded algorithms, dynamic programming, edge-base flow, and other algorithms you are likely to encounter while programming.

Web design

HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites by Jon Duckett is a beautiful and well designed book that covers all the basics of HTML and CSS used for web design.

Don't Make Me Think! by Steve Krug is a fantastic book that covers the usability and design for anyone working on websites.

Electronics

Getting Started in Electronics by Forrest M. Mims III is a great book for starting in electronics that is written in hand letter and hand drawn diagrams of each of the circuits and topics being discussed.

Computer History

Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Steven Levy is a great book that profiles all of the great people in computer history who found ways at solving computer problems.

Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins Of The Internet by Katie Hafner and Mathew Lyon is the story of the origins of the Internet.

Biographies

iWoz by Steve Wozniak is a great overview of how Steve invented the personal computer and became a geek cult icon.

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson is a biography on Steve Jobs that was based off of forty interviews with Jobs over a two year period.

Historical Computer Books

Over the history of computer books there have been lots of classics, top sellers, and books that are still considered great, even though some of them are out of print.

DOS for Dummies by Dan Gookin was an instant classic that was first written in 1991 and what helped create the Dummies series of books. In DOS for Dummies Dan Gookin goes over the basics of MS-DOS in an easy and fun style of writing.

C Programming Language by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchieaka K&R was first published in 1978 and is one of the greatest programming language books ever written by two icons in the computer industry including Dennis Ritchie who wrote the C programming language.

The Soul of A New Machine by Tracy Kidder was first published in 1981 and won a Pulitzer Prize. This great book covers the development of computers and the in the late 1970s.

The Road Ahead by Bill Gates is a great book that was published in 1995 and was a look into what Bill Gates predicted for computer and the Internet.

The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering by Frederick Brooks is a great book published in 1995 about software project management and software engineering.