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Alan Kay Recommended Books
Alan Kay has recommended 14 books. Browse the complete reading list with quotes and sources below.
Alan Kay is an American computer scientist.
(Read more on Wikipedia)14 Books Recommended
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A Programming Language
by Kenneth E. Iverson
"This has the same thought expanding properties of Lisp." - Alan Kay (Source)
The Art of the Metaobject Protocol
by Gregor Kiczales
"A real gem for helping to think about design and implementations." - Alan Kay (Source)
The Sciences of the Artificial
by Herbert A Simon
"A much stronger way to think about computing — and what 'Computer Science' might mean." - Alan Kay (Source)
The Principia
The Authoritative Translation and Guide: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
by Isaac Newton
"I have never forgotten the combined shock and thrill of making my way through this in my 20s." - Alan Kay (Source)
Also recommended by:
LISP 1.5 Programmer's Manual
by John McCarthy
"I have called this the 'Maxwell’s Equations' of computing, because it presents a very large part of what’s important about programming languages." - Alan Kay (Source)
Computation
Finite and Infinite Machines
by Marvin Lee Minsky
"It is actually a 'math book' — with lots of ideas, theorems, proofs, etc., — but presented in the friendliest way imaginable by a great mind." - Alan Kay (Source)
The Organ-Builder
by Francois Bedos de Celles
"A very different kind of book." - Alan Kay (Source)
The Mythical Man-Month
Essays on Software Engineering
by Frederick P. Brooks Jr.
"An early look and experience with timeless truths (and gotchas) from systems building with teams" - Alan Kay (Source)
Also recommended by:
Mythology
by Edith Hamilton
"A few more books like this, and by the time I got to first grade I had been ruined for the 'single book - single truth' ideas of school and church." - Alan Kay (Source)
Molecular Biology of the Cell
by Bruce Alberts
"For many years it has been the best single volume narrative of 'life from scratch.'" - Alan Kay (Source)
Also recommended by:
20000 Leagues Under the Sea
Voyages Extraordinaires, Book 7
by Jules Verne
"A formative book in so many ways." - Alan Kay (Source)
Also recommended by:
Molecular Biology of the Gene
by James Watson
"A lovely book to read." - Alan Kay (Source)
Art in the Blood
A Sherlock Holmes Adventure
by Bonnie MacBird
"[My wife] completely nailed the Arthur Conan Doyle voice of the characters and narrative, while being able to carry a marvelous story into the much larger realm of the novel." - Alan Kay (Source)
Advances in Programming and Non-Numerical Computation
by L Fox
"One of the books that Bob Barton had us read in his famous advanced systems design class in 1967." - Alan Kay (Source)
Other Recommenders
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Richard Reis
Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.
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Anurag Ramdasan
Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.
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