Internet Essentials
This page includes some book recommendations on the internet and internet culture. These reading suggestions are for popular non-fiction titles that we think will be of interest to anyone eager learn more about the internet. You’ll also find links to some of the Digital Library resources here at VPL.
Digital Library Resources
Recommended Titles
How the Internet Happened: From Netscape to the iPhone
004.6709 M13h
2018
A very readable, well-researched, and entertaining history of the internet.
Lurking: How a Person Became a User
303.483 M16L
2020
Gives an in-depth treatment of many of internet culture and gives some historical and cultural context about what fundamental needs being online is meeting (or failing to meet) for people.
Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language
2019
A linguistic analysis of Internetspeak. It covers how the Internet and its slang have changed language and how the peculiar and particular language of the internet developed.
The Idealist: Aaron Swartz and the Rise of Free Culture on the Internet
004.6709 P48i
2016
An engaging read that gives a great explanation of the Free Culture movement through the case of Aaron Swartz, a Free Culture activist who was tried for hacking and releasing vast amounts of academic journal material for free.
Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women who Made the Internet
004.092 E92b
2018
An entertaining book that tells the story of key women who contributed to the development of the internet, and who been under credited when compared with many of their male peers.