Andrew, as an occasional geek, I would love to help you out, but I’m afraid that my base of geeky knowledge is far less specialised than what you’re looking for. However, I did want to share a few geekily-pleasurable book titles, and I figured that your post deserved a bump up.
So I’m a bit of a wannabe science geek I think, though I’m far more of the general knowledge variety. Some of my favourite science-y books have been: “A Short History of Time” by Stephen Hawking; “A Short History of Nearly Everything” by Bill Bryson (brilliant history of science with a great sense of humour); “Journey Through Genius”, a fantastic history of mathematics that taught me that my brain was not math-deficient after all, by William Dunham; and right now I’m reading “Guns, Germs and Steel” by Jarred Diamond, which is a very well written attempt to show that essentially environmental causes are what gave European societies their technological advantages over the rest of the world. And if you’re looking for a novel to get your geek on with, if you haven’t yet, you have to get into the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson, which is basically about the emergence of modern science and economy in the 17-18th centuries, but wrapped up in a pirate and spy adventure running through 8 novels – personally I couldn’t put it down.
Anyhoo, just wanted to share some of my own geek. Here’s hoping someone better-informed can lead you to the stuff you’re looking for.
