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The New Turing Omnibus

A. Dewdney · 6 HN comments
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Amazon Summary
No other volume provides as broad, as thorough, or as accessible an introduction to the realm of computer science as A. K. Dewdney's The Turing Omnibus. For everyone from the curious beginner to the working professional, The New Turing Omnibus offers 66 concise, brilliantly written mathematically oriented articles on the major points of interest in computer science theory, technology, and applications. Foundational for this tour: information on algorithms, detecting primes, noncomputable functions, and self-replicating computers--plus fundamental sections on the Mandelbrot set, genetic algorithms, the Newton-Raphson Method, neural networks that learn, DOS systems for personal computers, and computer viruses.
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Also 3 more "easy overview" type books:

The New Turing Omnibus by A K Dewdney (https://www.amazon.com/New-Turing-Omnibus-Sixty-Six-Excursio...)

The Society of Mind by Marvin Minsky (https://www.amazon.com/Society-Mind-Marvin-Minsky/dp/0671657...)

Creating Mind: How the Brain Works by John E Dowling (https://www.amazon.com/Creating-Mind-How-Brain-Works/dp/0393...)

The New Turing Omnibus: Sixty-Six Excursions in Computer Science https://www.amazon.com/dp/0805071660
I'm a programmer without a computer science degree and I'm quite aware that CS is a bit of a blind spot for me so I've tried to read up to rectify this a little.

I found The New Turing Omnibus[1] to give a really nice overview of a bunch of topics, some chapters were a lot harder to follow than others but I got a lot from it.

Code by Charles Petzold[2] is a book I recommend to anyone who stays still long enough; it's a brilliant explanation of how computers work.

Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (SICP)[3] comes up all the time when this kind of question is asked and for good reason; it's definitely my favourite CS/programming book, and it's available for free online[4].

I'm still a long way off having the kind of education someone with a CS degree would have but those are my recommendations. I'd love to hear the views of someone more knowledgable.

[1] https://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Turing-Omnibus-K-Dewdney/dp/080... [2] https://www.amazon.co.uk/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware/dp/... [3] https://www.amazon.co.uk/Structure-Interpretation-Computer-E... [4] https://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html

This should be on this list http://www.amazon.com/How-Solve-It-Modern-Heuristics/dp/3540... single best technical book I have ever read.

Also, if you ever need to give a gift, http://www.amazon.com/The-New-Turing-Omnibus-Excursions/dp/0...

The book Algorithmics: The Spirit of Computing doesn't read like a textbook to me, and it's quite interesting.

http://www.amazon.com/Algorithmics-Spirit-Computing-David-Ha...

The New Turing Omnibus

http://www.amazon.com/The-New-Turing-Omnibus-Excursions/dp/0...

is also good, as is Code by Charles Petzold.

http://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-Softwa...

AFTER EDIT: While I thought about the first three books I mentioned, I thought of another, Write Great Code, Volume 1: Understanding the Machine by Randall Hyde.

http://www.amazon.com/Write-Great-Code-Understanding-ebook/d...

jh3
I've see Code in B&N but never did more than quickly skim through it. And I've never heard of the other two. Thanks!
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