I love sci-fi, but rather than recommend "sci-fi" books, I would recommend "speculative fiction" (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speculative_fiction" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speculative_fiction</a>), which is "a fiction genre speculating about worlds that are unlike the real world in various important ways".<p>Good sci-fi is speculative fiction, but bad sci-fi is just "a story told in a sci-fi setting".<p>This is a good way of distinguishing between Dune by Frank Herbert (which speculates about many things, including the kind of universe that exists after a computer AI suppresses the human race and is then overthrown) and Hunters of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, which is a crap book that speculates about very little in a sci-fi setting.<p>If you think about it, starting a company that makes a new product is basically speculating about a world that is unlike our current world because of your product! Also, you should be speculating about how other technologies and products will affect our world, so you can adapt your company before it becomes extinct...
I had this thought a few months ago. I decided to read every Nebula / Hugo winner. I would also add, listening to good comedy albums and playing board / video games often.<p>I worked at a company where the President loved, Loved, LOVED pop business books. He hopped on every trend, told Seth Godin's stories as if they were his own (has a purple cow w\ the company logo, etc), and even tried to create a style of management based on Survivor.<p>When "seeking" knowledge he looked away from rigorous research and observation to the Amazon top lists.<p>I've never seen unhappier employees.
I've read about half that list, and half of what remains is on my list. But it's a pity Charles Stross's Accelerando isn't on there. You can read it online for free here: <a href="http://www.accelerando.org/book/" rel="nofollow">http://www.accelerando.org/book/</a>.
There are countless books that could go on this list, but you have to start somewhere. This is a good place to start. The books on this list are all worth reading, though I'm sorry to say that I found that the Foundation Trilogy had aged really badly :-( I'm glad I read it 3 times as a child, because I doubt I'll be reading it again...<p>I'd add a couple of modern authors to the list. Vernor Vinge has been mentioned. Another interesting one is Charles Stross (I recently came out of reading Accelerando... full of interesting ideas). I found Paulo Di Filippo's short stories generally great too.<p>Ultimately, you have to make your own list, from your own personal tastes and journeys. This is definitely a good starting point, though (at least as far as Science Fiction is concerned).
Cory Doctorow's "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" was very influential with me.<p><a href="http://craphound.com/down/download.php" rel="nofollow">http://craphound.com/down/download.php</a>
Does anyone else hate Stranger in a Strange Land, and Robert Heinlein in general?<p>I find that whole era/style of sci-fi silly, dated, and Heinlein in particular to be a chauvinist pig. These writers, many of them (wannabe)scientists, believed in and wrote about scientist super men. Lone men(always men) of bulky IQ and suave manners. Who save the world/universe/multiverse/timeline/whatever and get a girl as reward in the end.<p>Basically whatever would appeal(read sell books) to pubescent teenage nerds and adults who never grew out of that phase.
Props to Doctorow's Down and Out In the Magic Kingdom.<p>The other freely available (this one under copyright) great post-singularity work of sci-fi is The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect. <a href="http://www.kuro5hin.org/prime-intellect/mopiidx.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.kuro5hin.org/prime-intellect/mopiidx.html</a>
I'd like to recommend "Startide Rising" and "The Uplift War", by David Brin. Aside from being very enjoyable books, they're a big source of new ideas -- these books singlehandedly made me appreciate the goals of the Internet Archive.<p>Also, I've never understood the popularity of "Stranger in a Strange Land". I've always been a big Heinlein fan, but Stranger in a Strange Land always struck me as a book that <i>was</i> important and shocking and ground-breaking once upon a time.
I am especially fond of near-future scifi. Reading Stross, Stephenson, and Vinge always leaves me with a feeling of wonder - their novels are brimming with technological & sociological insight.<p>Often a novel is a thought experiment. If you read Vernor Vinge's _Rainbows End_, you will find a plausible and well thought out speculation on wearable computing. This is the kind of thinking we have to do in a startup - we take the current state of things and extrapolate.
The only problem is that after you read enough of them, you're spoiled on ideas. Oh, a culture where money is irrelevant and people can have backups of their brain and do completely stupid things without risk? How trite.<p>I am, literally, at the point where I don't even get a rise out of any book unless it's humorous. And Douglas Adams is dead.
Recently I've been playing some games on PlayStation and Wii to help myself brainstorming ideas for my ui. It's a source for inspiration especially for visualization.
here is a reasonable list for someone who actually reads a lot of books.
this is a list weighted by voting, critical reception, and awards
<a href="http://home.austarnet.com.au/petersykes/topscifi/lists_books_rank1.html" rel="nofollow">http://home.austarnet.com.au/petersykes/topscifi/lists_books...</a>
I would like to register my strongest possible endorsement of the article's mention of Iain M. Bank's <i>Culture</i> series. Since discovering them a few years ago, I have basically been obsessed with them, to the point of sort-of beginning to believe that the greatest possible mission in life is to work towards bringing about the soonest possible advent of a Culture-type society, any enabling technology, any small step.
Anime (as an art) is a delicious food for imagination.<p>And in general, an art of faraway countries, even movies and translated books is a very big deal.