just for fun, linus torvalds' autobiography (written with david diamond) is a fun book. in addition to recounting his own (sketchily remembered) personal history, linus also lays out his basic philosophies in life, which i found remarkably resonant with my own. his golden rules:

1. do unto others as you would want them to do unto you.
2. be proud of what you do.
3. and have fun doing it.

words to live by. (although i'd quibble a bit with the first, simplifying it to “do as you would have others do.”)

one thing i was disappointed about in the book was the number of copy editing errors, including calling apache the most popular commercial distribution of linux.