Code: Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software

Rating:
Summary: pretty good
Review: The books starts off great, but later drowns in tedious details about the construction of complex circuits. I can't be too critical since it is apparently the purpose of the book to give such details, and I'm glad it didn't have the opposite problem of dumbing it down too much, but I think it could have been done better with the intended audience in mind.

Rating:
Summary: Great, accessible book.
Review: This book is a fun overview of the evolution of computing as we know it today. Starting with basic building blocks from years past (relays, telegraph, etc.) we move to the present (transistors, ICs). With a little motivation one could build a functional logic computer from the knowledge gained by this book.

The book is written in a very accessible manner, I would recommend it highly to a high school graduate considering pursuing a college career in any electronic engineering discipline.

Rating:
Summary: CODE: Simply the greatest book on the face of the earth!
Review: Yes, that's right! CODE is the greatest book on the face of the earth!
Why? Here's my story, and go judge for yourself.
I'm using computers for around four years. My question was always "How is this thing doing it's stuff?". Although I have no idea how other electronic stuff work, the computer did bothered me more then anything else because the computer seems to do some kind of THINKING, that's why it triggered my THINKING. This question kept on staying in my head until two weeks ago. It really bothered me. All along this four years I was looking for an answer to my question. I bought books, went to the library a thousand times, but nothing helped me. I learned a few programming languages along my journey, but it did not clarify how it really works. So I decided to learn Assembly Language because I taught that that's where I'm going to find the answer to my question. I must admit that it did helped me out quite a bit, but not to the extent I expected. I used a great book called "Assembly Language Step-by-Step" by Jeff Duntemann, which is a great book, but since the subject of the book is not to teach you how computers work, it didn't helped me enough to satisfy my desire for the answer to my question. I contacted Jeff Duntemann, the author of the book and I told him my problem. He referred me to this book CODE. So I rushed and bought this book. The rest of the story is self-understood, the book made my day and my life. And that's why I'm restating "This is the greatest book on the face of the earth".