45+ of Your Favorite Books About the Evolution of Technology

This giveaway is sponsored by What Is Your Quest? by Anastasia Salter What Is Your Quest? examines the future of electronic literature in a world where tablets and e-readers are becoming as common as printed books and where fans are blurring the distinction between reader and author. The construction of new ways of storytelling is already underway: it is happening on the edges of the mainstream gaming industry and in the spaces between media, on the foundations set by classic games. One of the earliest models for this new way of telling stories was the adventure game, the kind of game centered on quests in which the characters must overcome obstacles and puzzles. After they fell out of fashion in the 1990s, fans made strenuous efforts to keep them alive and to create new games in the genre. Such activities highlight both the convergence of game and story and the collapsing distinction between reader and author. The interactions between storytellers and readers, between programmers and creators, and among  fans turned world-builders are essential to the development of innovative ways of telling stories. ____________________   Technology is an ever-shifting beast, and its evolution has been the topic of countless think pieces, works of nonfiction, and even novels. We asked for your favorites of the bunch- the most entertaining and thought-provoking books on the evolution of tech that you could think of- and here’s what you came up with! Polio: An American Story by David Oshinsky Gutenberg the Geek by Jeff Jarvis Connections by James Burke It’s Complicated by Danah Boyd Ready Player One by Ernest Cline Little Brother by Cory Doctorow Smarter Than You Think by Clive Thompson A History of Reading by Alberto Manguel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson Wired for War by P. W. Singer Turing’s Cathedral : the Origins of the Digital Universe by George Dyson Amped by Daniel H Wilson Geek Sublime by Vikram Chandra Bomb by Steve Sheinkin Prey by Michael Crichton The Circle by Dave Eggers Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World by Jane McGonigal Feed M.T. Andersen 1001 Inventions that Changed the World by Jack Challoner The Information by James Gleick The Most Human Human by Brian Christian Longitude by Dava Sobel Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson The Maze Runner by James Dashner Cyberia by Douglas Rushkoff Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter by Tom Bissell Hamlet’s Blackberry by William Powers Ambient Findability by Peter Morville The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton M. Christensen Disappearing Ink: Poetry at the End of Print Culture by Dana Gioia The Artificial Ape by Timothy Taylor Innovating Women: The Changing Face of Technology by Vivek Wadhwa and Farai Chideya Mr. Gatling’s Terrible Marvel by Julia Keller Digital Fortress by Dan Brown The Master Switch by Tim Wu The Demon Under the Microscope by Thomas Hager The Case for Books by Robert Darnton Fire in the Valley by Michael Swaine and Paul Freiberger Ghost in the Wires by Kevin Mitnick and Steve Wozniak The Future of the Mind by Michio Kaku Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman and Andrew Postman I, Robot by Isaac Asimov