"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll. I am not even joking.

cben · on Nov 18, 2023

I seriously nominate Lauren Ipsum by Carlos Bueno as a _better_ Alice story. It's exlipictly about CS, but is also chock full of math, philosophy and some life advice. It's almost a GEB for kids.

emigre · on Nov 11, 2023

Check The Universe in a Handkerchief: Lewis Carroll Mathematical Recreations, Games, Puzzles, and Wordplays by Martin Gardner. I think you might like it.

simbolit · on Nov 11, 2023

It's on my bookshelf. But the prompt said only one book. :)

emigre · on Nov 11, 2023

You're cool :D

simbolit · on Nov 11, 2023

Not even a quarter as cool as Martin Gardner.

esrauch · on Nov 11, 2023

Ok, I'll bite. It's a good book, but how does it relate to programming?

simbolit · on Nov 11, 2023

It teaches you to think, and specifically to question conventional wisdom.

I don't need to "learn" programming anymore (and if I did, I would use something interactive, not a book), and thus not falling into rote monkey-coding, but questioning "what am I doing here?" and "how can this be done different ways?" are much more important.

Alice gives you that. I recommend Martin Gardner's "the annotated Alice", which explains a lot of things that us non-Victorians might have missed otherwise.

Turing_Machine · on Nov 11, 2023

"The name of the song is called 'Haddocks' Eyes'."

"Oh, that's the name of the song, is it?" Alice said, trying to feel interested.

"No, you don't understand," the Knight said, looking a little vexed.

"That's what the name is called. The name really is 'The Aged Aged Man'."

"Then I ought to have said 'That's what the song is called'?" Alice corrected herself.

"No, you oughtn't: that's quite another thing! The song is called 'Ways And Means': but that's only what it's called, you know!"

"Well, what is the song, then?" said Alice, who was by this time completely bewildered.

"I was coming to that," the Knight said. "The song really is 'A-sitting On A Gate': and the tune's my own invention."

Get a clear understanding of what's going on in that passage, and pointers will never cause you any difficulties.

Turing_Machine · on Nov 12, 2023

To elaborate, if you understand the difference between "the song", "the name of the song", "what the song is called", and "what the name of the song is called", you're probably going to be able to grok pointers without much trouble.

brudgers · on Nov 12, 2023

  48. The best book on programming for the layman is 
      "Alice in Wonderland"; but that's because
      it's the best book on anything for the layman. 

          -- Alan Perlis

simbolit · on Nov 12, 2023

Alan Perlis is cool. :D