I read a lot, but I am restricted to reading relatively straightforward books—things you don’t have to think about to understand.
No such thing. Reading is thinking. I’ll assume you mean that it doesn’t take too much effort, but effort is relative to your ability. Reading some enjoyable fiction to help you unwind would be a terrible chore for most kindergartners, for example. This is true even for your past self. What will your future self consider easy? That might depend on what kind of books you read.
Since you’re interested in CS and algorithms, and aren’t looking for anything too difficult, I recommend Petzold’s Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software. This is a pop book, not a textbook. I found it to be a pretty easy read, though there were small parts in the middle that you may gloss over. That’s fine. One of my better computer science classes in college was Computer Architecture. Code does an excellent job of covering most the same ground. You’ll feel like you could engineer a computer from scratch (if only you had a multimillion-dollar chip factory).
There are a number of other CS book I’d recommend, but they take more effort.
No such thing. Reading is thinking. I’ll assume you mean that it doesn’t take too much effort, but effort is relative to your ability. Reading some enjoyable fiction to help you unwind would be a terrible chore for most kindergartners, for example. This is true even for your past self. What will your future self consider easy? That might depend on what kind of books you read.
Since you’re interested in CS and algorithms, and aren’t looking for anything too difficult, I recommend Petzold’s Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software. This is a pop book, not a textbook. I found it to be a pretty easy read, though there were small parts in the middle that you may gloss over. That’s fine. One of my better computer science classes in college was Computer Architecture. Code does an excellent job of covering most the same ground. You’ll feel like you could engineer a computer from scratch (if only you had a multimillion-dollar chip factory).
There are a number of other CS book I’d recommend, but they take more effort.