I am starting my Computer Science course in university after the summer holidays and since I am really looking forward to it I thought I could give it an earlier go by buying some books and reading them throughout the summer months. Since I am an absolute newbie on this area though (all I know is some basic mathematics, and some bits of programming) and most of you are in a higher level I thought that this topic would be better if all of us (well, you to be honest) suggest books and rank them (like, for beginners, intermediate level, advanced level, etc). Don't limit yourself on programming/mathematics, books with a wider interest might be enjoyable too (like "Turing, A Novel about Computation).

Anyways, here's my "wishlist", would appreciate it if you could help me rank the books as I described above.

- A Framework for Web Science (Foundations and Trends® in Web Science) [by Tim Berners-Lee]
- Turing: A Novel About Computation [by CH Papadimitriou]
- The Future of Ideas [by Lawrence Lessig]
- Wired--A Romance [by Gary Wolf]

(I was also considering Don Knuth's "The Art of Computer Programming", is that a good idea? Suggestions are appreciated!!!)

Anyways, glad I made it to the end of the topic, I just want to apologise for my bad use of english but I haven't slept for the last 2.5 days and I just hope you get the general concept of my idea. If the topic title needs to be changed, feel free to do so!

This post has been edited by SebKom: 15 May, 2008 - 11:16 PM

Well theres programming, then there's electrical engineering, then there's math theory (I really enjoyed that class), then there's basic computer architecture, so on and so forth.

Anything written within the last 5-6 years is probable still good to use and computer history books where you learn about von Neumann(sic?), RISC, x86 and that stuff. Absolutely fascinating.

The study of computation and computability is a science, in and of itself. I like Introduction to the Theory of Computation, Second Edition, by Michael Sipser.

Algorithm books are important. Either CLRS or TAoCP are the books to get here.

There are some specialized algorithm books which are nice, if they're in your milieu. [/i]Algorithms on Strings, Trees and Sequences[/i] by Dan Gusfield is good, even though most of the example go towards biology and genome matching and so on.

I think a good book on graph theory is important, too.

I personally like Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs and How to Design Programs if you don't mind Lisp.

I agree with tgoshinski about SICP and HTDP. Though I tend to favor the latter mostly because I'm new into the world of FP.

Just a minor addition, both books use a dialect of Lisp called Scheme. Though Lisp would be the general term used, I've seen it causing confusion in many people's minds.

SICP uses the MIT Scheme implementation whereas HTDP uses the PLT Scheme implementation based upon MzScheme.