Considering the age of this list, would it not be a terrible idea to create a new one using HN suggestions. Or maybe a much better idea, throw together a website where people can add books (using amazon metadata) and then up vote (or down vote) them so we can build a list of the most important books for hackers to read.

The problem with the upvote/downvote mechanism for things like books is that popular books tend to get voted higher than better, less popular books. If only 5 people have heard of a book, but they all think it's amazing, it should probably be around equal or higher than a book that a hundred people read and all thought was okay.

Come on we have an entire community of math and computer science wizards here, I think heuristics like that can be quite easily written. Especially using a tab for "Popular Books" and another "Highly Rated"

Of course. It's not a hard problem to solve, but it is one to consider.

You mean something like this: http://www.hackernewsers.com/books.html ? ;-)

I was just waiting for a link like that, I was sure someone had already done this

Edit: I do still think an up/down vote system to build a Top Hacker News suggested books, could be really cool to see

I agree. A first step is to search HN for "book review"[1] and see what the review says and how many upvote it has. I know it's not exactly what you ask for but it's a start.

[1] https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=site%3Anews.ycombinato...

http://www.hn-books.com/ appears to be something of an attempt to capture the book fancies of the HN crowd.

"Last updated: 7/9/01"

There must be some newer books that would be worthwhile.

Nothing will ever be more worthwhile than the VHS Gift Pack of Triumph of the Nerds!

On a more serious note, it seems to me that some of this list is still pretty valid.

Godel, Escher, Bach. I cannot recommend this book enough. Read it like it's literature.

I would include "Algorithms in C" by Sedgewick [1] and might tone down the wilder side (I mean it is important to understand the dark side of the force but not to dwell on it (unless you're an secops type)).

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-Parts-1-5-Bundle-Fundamenta...

Sadly, I've read all of those books. Sigh

without SICP? It is incomplete!

In my opinion it also lacks "Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment", "Hackers and Painters", "The Cathedral & the Bazaar", "Free as in Freedom", "Rice Tea", "Free Culture", "Steal This Book", "Do it!", "Little Brother", "For The Win"... just to quote those which pop into my head as I'm writing this.

But it's a great idea to have such a list!

The Information, James Gleick

Katie Hafner and John Markoff are dicks.