Alan Kay's Reading List In response to a question for "10 or so" recommended books, Alan made the following response:
"10 or so" books is tough. I read about 300 per year and have a library of about 10,000 nonfiction books. I wouldn't really
know how to get it down below several hundred or so. It is still a large list (in the hundreds) if I limit it to nontechnical books for the general reader. But here is a partial list of important and non-technical books that are relevant to our discussions. I do not agree with all of their points, but they are all nontrivial opinions about important issues.
 Technology & Media (any of his books)
Gutenberg Galaxy
Understanding Media
Peter Drucker (any of his books)
Technology, Management, and Society
Innovation and Entreprenuring Neil Postman
(any of his books)
Amusing Ourselves to Death
The Disappearance of Childhood
Conscientious Objections Lewis Mumford (any of his books)
The Myth of the Machine
Technics and Civilization
Learning & Creativity (any of his books)
The Psychology of the Child
To Understand is to Invent Jerome Bruner (any of his books)
Towards a Theory of Instruction
The Relevance of Education Lev Vygotsky (any of his books)
Thought and Language
Mind in Society
The Psychology of Art Edward de Bono (any of his books)
Lateral Thinking
Six Thinking Hats Frank Smith (any of his books)
Essays into Literacy John Holt (any of his books)
Instead of Education
Teach Them Yourself Tim Gallwey (any of his books)
The Inner Game of Tennis Shinichi Suzuki (any of his books)
Nurtured by Love Maria Montesorri (any of herbooks)
The Secret of Childhood
The Discovery of the Child Seymour Papert
Mindstorms
The Children's Machine John Dewey (any of his books)
School and Society
Freedom and Culture Arthur Koestler (any of his books)
Act of Creation
The Ghost in the Machine
Anthropology & Psychology (any of his
books) Myths to Live By
The Masks of God Derek Bickerton (any of his books)
Language and Species
Silvia Scribner & Mike Cole (gets technical)
The Psychology of Literacy Julian Jaynes
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind Clifford Geertz (any of his books)
The Interpretation of Cultures Mihaly Csikszenmihalyi (any ofhis books)
Beyond Boredom and Anxiety
Flow Robert Ornstein & Paul Ehrlich (any of their books)
New World, New Mind Charles Hampton-Turner
Maps of the Mind Carl Jung (any of his books)
Man and His Symbols
Modern Man in Search of a Soul Marvin Minsky (any of his books)
Society of Mind Anthony Stevens
Archetypes
Philosophy
(any of his books)
Timeaus
Republic Bertrand Russell (any of his books)
History of Western Philosophy
Human Knowledge, its Scope and Limits -- Skeptical essays Richard Tarnas
The Passion of the Western Mind
Jacob Bronowski (any of his books)
Ascent of Man Mary Midgley
Wisdom, Information, & Wonder
Science as Salvation Hannah Arendt
The Human Condition Korzybski
Science and Sanity Vannevar Bush
Science is Not Enough Mark Booth (ed)
What I Believe "Great Books"
Most of Greeks, Cicero, Lucretius, Seneca, Montaigne, etc. Mortimer Adler
The Great Ideas: Syntopicon of "Great Books" (Volumes I & II) Lao-tzu
Tao Te Ching D.T. Suzuki (any of his books)
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
Art & Perception (any of his books)
Civilization
What is a Masterpiece? Ernst Gombrich (any of his books)
Art and Illusion Richard Gregory (any of his books)
Eye and Brain Rudolf Arnheim (any of his books)
Visual Thinking
Design (any of his books)
Notes on a Synthesis of Form
A Pattern Language Grosser
Gossamer Odyssey Valentino Braitenberg
Vehicles W. Gray Walter
The Living Brain Edward Tufte
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information Visualizing Information
Science The Machinery of Life Philip Morrison (any of his books)
The Ring of Truth Niko Tinbergen (any of his books)
The Animal in its World L. C. Epstein
Relativity Visualized Eric Drexler
Engines of Creation Richard Dawkins (any of his books)
The Blind Watchmaker Evert
Neuroethology (semi-technical) Richard Feynman (semi-technical)
The Character of Physical Law
-- QED Leon Lederman (semi-technical)
The God Particle
From Quark to Cosmos James Watson
The Double Helix
Political
(any of his books on any subject)
An American Primer
The Americans Madison, et.al
Federalist Papers
The Debate on the Constitution Ralph Ketcham (ed)
The Anti-Federalist Papers Tom Paine
Common Sense
The Rights of Man
The Age of Reason Benjamin Barber
An Aristocracy of Everyone
Computers LISP 1.5 Manual (MIT Press) Marvin Minsky (any of his books)
Computation: Finite and Infinite Machines (technical) Nicholas Negroponte
The Architecture Machine
Architecture Machines
Being Digital | 
