Great comment. I just read a book called Ten Kings. It's loosely based on a small portion of the Vedas that talks about the 'tribes' in the indus valley region and the constant wars that took place for control of the fertile lands there. I guess the region wasn't as peaceful as it's pointed out to be.
Yet another good book is Algorithm Design by Jon Kleinberg, Éva Tardos. What I like most about this book is that it contains tons of interesting, real-world examples and exercises that make the theory so much more fun.
The biggest gripe I have with single-letter variable names is that they invariably require mental translation to their full names before anyone can understand how they're being used. Even for those who wrote the code in question.
