Give the Gift of Geek: Books for the Brain Trust Set

By Anthony J. Ross

Geek is very much alive this season, and one of the best gifts you can present your loved one can be found just a few mouse clicks away. And whether you prefer to shop online or at your local bookstore, give the gift of reading this holiday and watch your favorite nerd's (or non-nerd) eyes light up.

But don't limit your brainy book-buying to just technology tomes...branch out with some light reading about science and nature (sure to fascinate any aspiring Einstein) or get your gear-head a book about modern art as seen through the eyes of a computer maker.

Below are some picks that I think any geek would eat up during this season of giving.

EXTREME ENGINEERING

America's "poet laureate of technology," Henry Petroski, is back at it again, this time with tales of noteworthy and audacious engineering projects. In Pushing the Limits: New Adventures in Engineering, Petroski examines (among others) Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin Bridge, London's Tower Bridge, and China's Three Gorges Dam project, putting each in their historical and technological contexts. But pushing the limits of technology does not come without risk, and Petroski also chronicles such technological disasters as the 1928 failure of California's St. Francis Dam, the 1999 tragedy of the Texas A&M Bonfire, and the September 11, 2001, collapse of New York's World Trade Center towers. Other notable books by Petroski include The Evolution of Useful Things, Engineers of Dreams, and To Engineer Is Human.

365 TECH

Leo Laporte, one of radio and television's most prolific technology personalities, has sought out the best of the best in everything techno and put it all into his latest book, Leo Laporte's 2005 Technology Almanac. Each day brings a new page dedicated to anecdotes, tips and factoids about the machines and technology at the center of your life. Laporte writes about everything from ergonomics to over-clocking your computer's processors, and even includes tips on getting the best prices from travel websites. The bite-sized nuggets of info will entertain and probably educate you every day of the year.

CREATIVE COMPUTING

Unless you have a Mac, you've probably wondered why most computers are just plain...well...UGLY. In this beautifully illustrated chronological look at the personal computer from the 1970's to today, Gordon Laing tells (and shows) the story of the classic home computers that paved the way for the PCs we use today. Laing's Digital Retro: The Evolution and Design of the Personal Computer takes you back to a time when PCs of every imaginable type flourished. His coffee-table style tome features rich, full-color photography of ancient computers, and stories of the brains behind those beasts. If you were around "back in the day," this book will certainly conjure up some fond computing memories.

A BOOK ABOUT NOTHING

No, this isn't a jaded look at the Jerry Seinfeld era of television. Instead, Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea is a concise and engaging look at the strangest number in the universe. I have to admit, not many books begin with cavemen carving notches on wolf bones and end with spaceships cruising through space in wormholes. Author Charles Seife's novel tells the story of a number that has wreaked havoc on religion, science, and the universe in general. Seife traces the origins and history of the number zero, from the Middle Ages when it took center stage on the battleground among religious clerics, to the scientific revolution and the fact that zeros STILL can cause equations to quickly fall apart. If your resident geek's head doesn't explode after reading this treatise on terminal nothingness, it's a safe bet they have more gray matter than your average bear.