I love reference books

I am a nerd by nature, and always have been. When other boys were playing football outside, I was usually squirreled away somewhere with a book. Growing up an only child, and in a trailer court with few others my age, there were few chances for getting together a neighborhood game of baseball (although I did build a cool dugout fort with the Vaughn brothers one summer - it is now buried under the basement of a condo).

From a fairly young age I gravitated to the 000s section of the library. What was then called "Reference." I was somewhat of a library rat through my elementary and junior high years, and checked out lots of books from most of the major Dewey decimal system sections. But there were just some reference books I loved, and still love. Further, I'd say they actually changed who I am, what I became, and help explain a part of why I am the way I am, and why I approach learning so differently than most.

I distinctly remember an atlas I had as a kid. My folks had given it to me because it was "obsolete." It was an old railroad atlas of the United States. I loved that book, I wish I still had it now. It's covers ended up gone, the pages tattered, but I would still flip through it from time to time, looking at the web of railroad lines, the small towns (many even then gone), learning the rivers, the patterns, the feel of our country. Coupled with long car drives for vacations (no one who wasn't rich flew in those days) it helped me set much of this country into a mental representation in my head. I admit it - I am a map geek. Don't ask how many atlases and topos there are floating around my house. For at least the last dozen years Les has put up with maps on the walls of our office, our hallways, even our bedroom (geologic map of Colorado and a landforms map of Missouri)! See how she loves me?

So, I decided to sit down and list a few reference books (or sets of books) that changed me, how I think, how I look at the world, how I process information. This certainly isn't all of them, but it's a start. And since it's been languishing half-written for three and a half years now, it's time to finish the damned post and get it out, don't you think?

• World Book Encyclopedia - every single programmer of my generation that I know, at least the good ones, all have a variant of the same experience growing up. Some time around their entry into adolescence someone gave them a set of used "World Books" and over the next few years they then proceeded to read them cover to cover. When I got mine in the early 1970s, I think the set was from the late 1950s. I can still remember some of the articles, charts and diagrams. Even now I love to spend hours "Wiki spelunking," just hopping from article to article, opening tabs with interesting links while I read one article until I have ten or twenty open to go through. I just recently moved a set of Britannicas out of our bookshelves and I just can't bring myself to throw them out, even though no one will take them - you literally can't give them away any more!
• The Whole Earth Catalog - I don't know which was better. The ethos of self-determination, independence and community, or the writing. Stewart Brand and company could wield words, that is for sure. The content and focus changed over two decades, but the goals of making us all true autonomous citizens never did. I miss it.
• Times Atlas of World History - combining two of my loves, history and maps, this beautiful (beautiful) book is full of fascinating details and yet presented in such a wonderful format. It was recommended by the Whole Earth Catalog in their "Best -of-the-Best" book list and it took no more recommendation than that. I bought my first copy and fell in love. I later gave that copy away to a neighbor (Vaun Minden, if you ever google your name and stumble across this, get in touch!) because I had bought an updated version. Wonderful book. Check out the "upside down" map of agriculture spreading from the Turkish/Syrian highlands. Or the kaleidoscopic map of the hundreds of duchies, bishoprics, free towns and other "powers and principalities" that was Germany in the 17th century. Wonderful.
• System/370 Principles of Operations - I read this over a period of six months while at my first "programming" job. It is hard to explain to a non-techie, but basically it is a manual covering the "machine language" of a certain type of computer. You can imagine reading a dictionary, then imagine it being a dictionary describing a language that is quite foreign, artificial and precise, and you can get a hint of what it is like. It was quite a feat and truly helped change the course of my career.

What about you? Are you a reference geek ready to come out of the musty closet? Do you like reading about things in order from A to Z?