I love reading these older papers, because since there wasn't a whole lot of prior implicit understanding of computer-science, they're a lot easier to read for a wannabe-intellectual like myself (someone who loves the academic world but who isn't smart enough to actually be an academic).

Guy Steele's papers in particular are almost always an entertaining read. My favorite by him is basically a glorified rant about how the programmer shouldn't have to manually handle tail-recursion (I'd link to it but I cannot seem to find it...If someone here knows where it is I'd appreciate it).