Somehow I got a copy of James Gleick's book Chaos and it had a big impact on me. I was kind of obsessed with chaos and fractals for a while. Right around that time a whole bunch of similar pop sci books came out and I read a bunch of them. Steven Levy's Artificial Life, a Mondo 2000 collection, John Koza's Genetic Programming, and Cliff Stoll's The Cuckoo's Egg all stand out in my memory.