Episode 003 - Technology (non-fiction)

Book Club for Masochists: a Readers’ Advisory Podcast

Your Hosts This Episode

Anna Ferri | Amanda Wanner | Matthew Murray

We discuss online reading vs book reading (“I just want to read the wiki article”), whether pop science is formulaic, if we read non-fiction to learn explicit facts or provoke thought generally, the impact of blog writing/reading on technology books, our audiobook preferences, anti-narratives (handbooks), edutainment, “There is some fiction in my non-fiction!,” lying by omission, hate reads, and more…

Technology (Non-Fiction) We Read (or kinda):

Recommended

• What is Code? by Paul Ford, long-form article from Bloomberg Magazine
• The Making of Crash Bandicoot by Andy Gavin (The series of blog posts Matthew read; for the deep nerds out there)
• The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr
• Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter by Tom Bissell
• Kitten Clone: Inside Alcatel-Lucen by Douglas Coupland (for a unique experience of technology reading)
• The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer by Sydney Padua

Other books read

• Dataclysm: Who We Are (When We Think No One's Looking) by Christian Rudder
• The State of Play: Creators and Critics on Video Game Culture edited by Daniel Goldberg and Linus Larsson
• Free: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson
• The Naked Future: What Happens in a World That Anticipates Your Every Move? by Patrick Tucker

A few more “books” we mentioned(or that Meghan wanted us to mention since she couldn’t be there)

• The Urban Biking Handbook: The DIY Guide to Building, Rebuilding, Tinkering with, and Repairing Your Bicycle for City Living by Charles Haine
• Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
• The Victorian Internet by Tom Standage
• Paper Knowledge: Toward a Media History of Documents by Lisa Gitelman
• How It Began: A Time-Traveler’s Guide to the Universe by Chris Impey (example of odd “padding” in non-fiction, but the science stuff is coooool)
• BiblioTech: Why Libraries Matter More Than Ever in the Age of Google by John Palfrey
• What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly

Other/Links

• 7 Things You Should Read About Technology’s Role in Our Future
• Hatoful Boyfriend - The pigeon dating game
• Why so few violent video games? by Gregory Avery-Weir (short, funny, recommended)
• The World Future Society - produces The Futurist magazine for which Patrick Tucker is an editor…
• That's Revolting!: Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation edited by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore (an example of a book where the author really invites you to debate and disagree with the arguments in their work)

Check out our Pinterest board of all the Technology (non-fiction) books people in our club read (or tried to read).