Recommendations please

[Mike Fletcher]

8<___ request for recommendations for books for non-programmers ___

For my money, The Hobbit.  Straight-forward hero tale with enormous amounts
of textural detail in the background (see the Silmarilion, History of Middle
Earth etceteras).  We (programmers, designers) take very complex systems,
powerful, rich, and so flexible that they are impossible to apprehend at a
glance; we construct from that rich media an experience that helps our users
cope with their environment.  Maybe we tell them a story, maybe we build
them a house, it could be that we create a tool that lets them accomplish a
needed task.

At the lowest level, the user must understand what we have created, but
understanding only goes so far.  The hint of the mystic, the wonder of the
unseen must be there to draw them forward, to promise them some insight into
the deeper powers of which they do not know, and which might arise some day
to trouble their quaint little hobbit holes.  It is to be hoped that insight
will enable them to stand up to those little evils which they encounter
daily, to fight the wrongs which threaten the little people, to build a
better society, to lead happier lives.

Or maybe we just like to play with cool toys...
Mike