I don't have any friends who haven't read it who would appreciate it, but Clifford Stoll's The Cuckoo's Egg is both a highly entertaining thriller, a fascinating look at how computer security was, and is, viewed, and a highly personal story about a man trying to figure it all out. It's very funny, entirely true, and taught me a lot.
Oddly, a lot of people hated the various more personal aspects of the book, as you see Cliff's friends, and his life as a whole. While that's valid, calling it a flaw in the book is, I think, inaccurate. The book as much a story a story about Cliff as the shadowy hacker on the other side of the wires, and that's a big part of its charm, IMHO.
Ghost in the Wires, and Exploding the Phone are also good, and true stories.
I read that one and Catch Me If You Can as a young teen both really captured my imagination, something about the thrill of the hunt intersecting with lives in modern society that I could recognize. I'd recommend both for that age group, and older of course.
I am just on the final few pages of The Cuckoo's Egg, and was planning on finishing it tonight. I too would say that it is a fantastically written page-turner, and it has taught me a lot about the old-school networking scene.
Ghost in the Wires compares favorably, also being a personal memoir, although from the other side of hacking.
Exploding the Phone takes an ousider's perspective, having been written by a relative outsider, and the information having been gathered from interviews with those involved. However, I would say it's better than Ghost in the Wires, being a better told story overall. It's also pretty much the definitive history of the phone phreaking scene, AFAICT. Phil Lapsley put a lot of work into getting his interviews, and reading up on the tech. Read it, if only so that you'll stop believing people when they tell you how awesome John Draper is.
I found The Cuckoo's Egg second-hand for 50c. Easily the greatest enjoyment:price ratio of anything I own. Exploding the Phone is also phreaking awesome. I devoured that book over the space of a few hours.
Yeah, The cuckoo's egg would be the greatest price:enjoyment ratio, but then I bought Half-Life, Blud Shift, Opposing Force, Day of Defeat, Counterstrike, Riccochet, and TF Classic for $5. And I got the cuckoo's egg for $7...
That's a really good book, indeed. Cliff in the book is much less annoying than Cliff in real life, though. I didn't expect him to be such a conservative anti-technology person. A good example is this[1] newspaper article of his. At times, he just seems like a typical attention-seeking contrarian.
He wrote some other books about that. Most of the points he gives are pretty reasonable (tech isn't a panacea, tech for its own sake in an professional/educational environment is bad, PowerPoint is the devil (that's actually true)), but I still wouldn't invite him over for dinner.
Oddly, a lot of people hated the various more personal aspects of the book, as you see Cliff's friends, and his life as a whole. While that's valid, calling it a flaw in the book is, I think, inaccurate. The book as much a story a story about Cliff as the shadowy hacker on the other side of the wires, and that's a big part of its charm, IMHO.
Ghost in the Wires, and Exploding the Phone are also good, and true stories.