Suggested readings by the Computer Science Department, University of Oxford:

• Computational Fairy Tales by Jeremy Kubica; CreateSpace, 2012. A romp through the principles of computational thinking, illustrating high-level computer science concepts, the motivation behind them, and their application via the medium of a fairy tale. Aimed at secondary school students. "Bonkers, but very enjoyable."

• Artificial Intelligence: A Ladybird Expert Book by Michael Wooldridge; Michael Joseph Books, 2018. Written by our Head of Department, this book “…chronicles the development of intelligent machines, from Turing's dream of machines that think, to today's digital assistants like Siri and Alexa.”

• Once Upon an Algorithm: How Stories Explain Computing by Martin Erwig; MIT Press, 2017. Concepts in Computer Science explained through familiar stories such as Hansel and Gretel, Sherlock Holmes, the movie Groundhog Day, and Harry Potter.

• Computer Science: An Overview by J. Glenn Brookshear; Pearson, 2014. Overview of what computer science is all about: each topic is presented with its historical perspective, current state, and future potential, as well as ethical issues.

• Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold. Microsoft Press, 2000. "What do flashlights, the British invasion, black cats, and seesaws have to do with computers? ...see how ingenuity and our very human compulsion to communicate have driven the technological innovations of the past two centuries."

• The Pattern on the Stone: The Simple Ideas That Make Computers Work by Daniel Hillis; Basic Books, 1999. Explains the basic concepts of the computer in everyday language.

• The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood by James Gleick; Fourth Estate, 2012. A chronicle that shows how information has become "the modern era's defining quality - the blood, the fuel, the vital principle of our world."

• Outnumbered: From Facebook and Google to fake news and filter-bubbles – the algorithms that control our lives by David Sumpter; Bloomsbury Sigma, 2018. An applied mathematician takes a look at what algorithms are doing with our data and how they are changing our lives.

• AI: Its Nature and Future by Margaret A Boden; Oxford University Press, 2016. “…reviews the philosophical and technological challenges raised by Artificial Intelligence, considering whether programs could ever be really intelligent, creative or even conscious, and shows how the pursuit of Artificial Intelligence has helped us to appreciate how human and animal minds are possible.”

• The Code Book by Simon Singh; Fourth Estate, 2002. Not strictly about Computer Science, but an interesting introduction to code-breaking and cryptography, fields that have a strong connection to Computer Science.

• Algorithmic Puzzles by Anany Levitin and Maria Levitin; Oxford University Press, 2011. "...The emphasis lies in training the reader to think algorithmically and develop new puzzle-solving skills: the majority of puzzles are problems where we are asked to find the shortest distance or the fewest moves to get from A to B, or construct a proof that a puzzle has no solution ..."

• The New Turing Omnibus by A Kee Dewdney; Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. Mini articles on Computer Science topics.

• Hello World: How to be Human in the Age of the Machine by Hannah Fry; Black Swan, 2019. "...a tour of the good, the bad and the downright ugly of the algorithms that surround us."

• The Road to Conscious Machines: The Story of AI by Michael Wooldridge; Pelican, 2021. "...elucidates the discoveries of its greatest pioneers from Alan Turing to Demis Hassabis, and shows us what today's AI researchers actually think and do. AI appeals to fundamental questions about what it means to be human; so too do the failures and limitations of its past."

• Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly; HarperCollins, 2016. The story of NASA’s African-American female 'Human Computers'.

• Computing with Quantum Cats: From Alan Turing to Teleportation: From Colossus to Qubits by John Gribbin; MIT Press, 2015. Pioneering study of the science behind quantum computing and what the new quantum reality will mean for mankind.