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Some good books to enrich your life, that I bet you've not read:

Fiction

Stafford Beer "The Chronicles of Wizard Prang" (1989) [The Complementary Set, 34 Palmerston Square, Toronto, Canada M6G 2S7] (and now online ;-)
G. K. Chesterton "The Man Who Was Thursday" and "Father Brown" stories [Oxford University Press 1955]
Very funny tale about a group of secret agents named after days of the week, with chapters like 'The Police Chase The Criminals' and 'The Criminals Chase The Police'. Father Brown is an hilarious Irish priest-come-supersleuth. These books are both available online at Project Gutenberg
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky "The Idiot" (1869) [Penguin translation by David Magarshack 1955] ISBN 0-14-044054-2
Aidan Andrew Dun "Vale Royal" (1995) [Goldmark, 14 Orange Street, Uppingham, Rutland, LE15 9SQ, U.K. 1995] ISBN 1-870507-39-8
Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett "Good Omens" {The Nice And Accurate Prophecies Of Agnes Nutter, Witch} (1990) [Corgi 1993] ISBN 0-552-13703-0 Hysterically funny. (Terry Gilliam is writing a screenplay and plans to direct it!)
William Gibson "Pattern Recognition" (2003) [Viking 2003] ISBN 0-670-87559-7 Compelling story about some amazing film footage mysteriously appearing on the Internet, a vivid portrayal of our modern world of marketing, design, email, secret services, arms deals, terrorism.
Mark Haddon "The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time" (2004) [Vintage] ISBN 0-099-45025-9 Wonderfully engaging and hilarious story about an autistic boy.
Anna Kavan "Ice" (1967) [Picador 1973] ISBN 0-330-23442-0 Chilling.
Alfred Kubin "Die Andere Seite" (1909) translated in 1967 as "The Other Side" [Penguin 1983] ISBN 0-14-003594-X Fantastic tale of a man who is invited by an old school friend to go and live in a fabulous 'Dream Kingdom' he has established in deepest Asia...
Doris Lessing "Briefing For A Descent Into Hell" (1971) [Granada 1984] ISBN 0-586-03817-5 A visionary journey with deep insights into human existence.
Doris Lessing "Re. Colonised Planet 5: SHIKASTA" (1979) {First in the 'CANOPUS IN ARGOS: ARCHIVES' series of five novels} [Granada 1981] ISBN 0-586-05310-7 Epic accounts of a civilisation not unlike our own. A Bible.
Herbert Rosendorfer "The Architect of Ruins" [Dedalus 1992] ISBN 0-946-62691-X Amazing web of interlinked stories, with lots of musical references.

Non-Fiction

David C. Baines "Two Coats Colder" {Chronicles of Offley in Hertfordshire} (1994) ISBN 0-952-42790-7 [Sadly now out of print, but a copy is kept at Hitchin library]
Rob Brezsny "Pronoia is The Antidote for Paranoia: (How the Whole World Is Conspiring To Shower You with Blessings)" (2005) [Frog, Ltd.] ISBN 1-58394-123-1
Eric Charry "Mande Music: Traditional and Modern Music of the Maninka and Mandinka of Western Africa" [University of Chicago Press, 2000] ISBN 0-226-10162-2
Brian Eno "A Year with Swollen Appendices" (1995 diary) [Faber & Faber 1996] ISBN 0-571-17995-9
Peter Michael Hamel "Through Music To The Self" (1976) Translated by Peter Lemesurier 1978 [Element 1995] ISBN 1-85230-136-8
Gwyn Headley & Wim Meulenkamp "Follies" {A Guide to Rogue Architecture in England, Scotland and Wales} (1986) [Cape 1990] (out of print) ISBN 0-224-02790-5 [now available again in a revised edition :-]
Angela Hillyard "Images Of Old Offley" (1993) Available from the author (email the_hillyards AT hotmail DOT com), all proceeds go to help restore the 12^th Century Offley Church.
Douglas R. Hofstadter "Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid" {A metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll} (1979) [Penguin 1981] ISBN 0-14-005579-7
Alexander Ivashkin "Alfred Schnittke" (1996 biography) [Phaidon 20th Century Composers series] ISBN 0-7148-3169-7
Jamie James "The Music of The Spheres" (1993) ISBN 0-349-10542-1
Mamady Keita/Uschi Billmeier "A Life for the Djembe - Traditional Rhythms of the Malinke" (1999/2007) {with music CD} [Arun-Verlag, Fifth Edition 2007] ISBN 978-3-935581-52-3
R. D. Laing "The Politics of Experience" & "The Bird of Paradise" (1967) [Penguin 1974] ISBN 0-14-002572-3
Steve 'Sproutman' Meyerowitz "Food Combining and Digestion" (1987) [The Sprout House, 314 Main Street, Great Barrington, MA 01230, USA] ISBN 1-878736-57-4
Guy Murchie "The Music of The Spheres, The Material Universe - From Atom to Quasar, Simply Explained; Volume 1 - The Macrocosm: Planets, Stars, Galaxies, Cosmology" [Dover Publications Inc., 180 Varick Street, New York, USA 1961] ISBN 0-486-21809-0 / "Volume 2 - The Microcosm" [Dover] ISBN 0-486-21810-4
Andrzej Panufnik "Composing Myself" (1987 autobiography) [Methuen, London - out of print] ISBN 0-413-58880-7 Remarkable account of an artist's struggle with Polish state oppression under the Nazis and Soviets, and then his musical success after defecting to the West.
Dave Phillips "The Book of Linux Music & Sound" (2000) [No Starch Press] ISBN 1-886411-34-4 How to install, configure and use Linux audio software, comes with a CD-ROM of programs.
P. D. Ouspensky "The Fourth Way" (1957) [Penguin 1986] ISBN 0-14-019022-8
Giles Sparrow "Hubble - Window On The Universe" (2010) [Quercus Science] ISBN 978-1-84916-486-3
Michael Stutz "The Linux Cookbook" (2001) [No Starch Press] ISBN 1-886411-48-4 Recipes, tips and techniques for everyday use of Debian GNU/Linux.
Tony Waltham "Caves" [Macmillan 1974] ISBN 0-333-17414-3 Inspiring accounts and photographs of the underground explorers.

Online texts

Project Gutenberg is a massive repository of electronic books which includes works of classic literature by G. K. Chesterton and Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky
"The Club of Queer Trades" by G. K. Chesterton, also available at Project Gutenberg
"The Dalai Lama and the Master of Kung Fu"
The Luminarium has an anthology of Middle English Literature which includes "Sir Gawain & The Green Knight" translated into modern English by Jessie L. Weston (118KB HTML file)
101 Zen Stories compiled by Paul Reps in the book "Zen Flesh, Zen Bones" (1957/1991) [Penguin Arkana] ISBN 0-14-019267-0
Herbert M. Shelton "The Hygenic System: Volume II - Orthotrophy" [San Antonio, Texas: Dr. Shelton's Health School, Sixth Edition, 1975. First published 1935] A thorough examination of eating and foodstuffs, including the complete data on food combining, feeding of infant and children, the digestive system, etc. PUBLIC DOMAIN.
Arkady & Boris Strugatsky's excellent "Roadside Picnic" (131KB .zip file) and Chronicles of the XXII Century
Eric Tamm "Brian Eno: His Music and the Vertical Color of Sound" (1989) [Faber & Faber, out of print, but now available online :-]
Stafford Beer's "The Chronicles of Wizard Prang" is a great tale of modern wizardry, cybernetics, memetics and spiritual mechanics

Computer programming manuals - many of which are online

The Practice of Programming by Brian Kernighan and Rob Pike, 1999 [Addison-Wesley] ISBN 0-201-61586-X
Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs is available online
Bruce Eckel's Thinking in Python/Java/C++ online books
Paul Graham's On Lisp online book
Colin Allen's Lisp Primer online book

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