Recommended Reading

Several books are recommended throughout Technomancy 101. The following additional recommendations range in technicality from beginner tutorials to works of high scholarship. Titles marked with an asterisk (*) are especially academic in nature, but I would not discourage anyone from reading them—great challenges yield great rewards!

Magic & Occult Arts

  • How to See Fairies: Discover Your Psychic Powers in Six Weeks by Lionel Snell (if you are new to magic, start here)
  • Liber Null & Psychonaut: An Introduction to Chaos Magic by Peter J. Carroll
  • Condensed Chaos: An Introduction to Chaos Magic by Phil Hine
  • Brain Magick: Exercises in Meta-Magick and Invocation by Philip H. Farber
  • The Mentalist’s Handbook: An Explorer’s Guide to Astral, Spirit, and Psychic Worlds by Clint Marsh
  • What Is a Witch? by Pam Grossman and Tin Can Forest
  • Witchbody by Sabrina Scott
  • A Deed Without a Name: Unearthing the Legacy of Traditional Witchcraft by Lee Morgan
  • Mastering Witchcraft: A Practical Guide for Witches, Warlocks, and Covens by Paul Huson
  • Arcana Mundi: Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds: A Collection of Ancient Texts by Georg Luck
  • Materia Magica: The Archaeology of Magic in Roman Egypt, Cyprus, and Spain* by Andrew T. Wilburn
  • A Cognitive Theory of Magic* by Jesper Sørensen
  • TechGnosis: Myth, Magic & Mysticism in the Age of Information by Erik Davis
  • Strange Frequencies: The Extraordinary Story of the Technological Quest for the Supernatural by Peter Bebergal

While clearly I practice and advocate contemporary forms of sorcery, most of my passion for magic is kindled by ancient and medieval expressions of the Art. Along such lines, I am quite a fan of Penn State University Press’s Magic in History series.

I also find much creative inspiration in occult-related fantasy, science fiction, and especially weird fiction (my mother’s fear came true: Dungeons & Dragons and heavy metal music did indeed lead me down a dark path to black magic). Among these, my absolute favorite collection is The Book of Eibon by Clark Ashton Smith, Lin Carter, et al., and Robert M. Price (Ed.).

Computers & Computational Media Arts

  • The Pattern on the Stone: The Simple Ideas That Make Computers Work by Daniel Mills
  • Computers as Theatre by Brenda Laurel
  • Multimedia: From Wagner to Virtual Reality by Ken Jordan and Randall Packer (Eds.)
  • The New Media Reader by Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Nick Montfort (Eds.)
  • The Cybercultures Reader by Barbara M. Kennedy and David Bell (Eds.)
  • Art and Electronic Media by Edward A. Shanken (Ed.)
  • Telematic Embrace: Visionary Theories of Art, Technology, and Consciousness by Roy Ascott
  • Spaces of Interaction, Places for Experience by David Benyon
  • Digital Performance: A History of New Media in Theater, Dance, Performance Art, and Installation* by Steve Dixon
  • Æsthetics of Interaction in Digital Art* by Katja Kwastek
  • Machine Art in the Twentieth Century* by Andreas Broeckmann
  • Bodies in Code: Interfaces with Digital Media* by Mark B. N. Hansen
  • Making Sense: Cognition, Computing, Art, and Embodiment* by Simon Penny

Some of the titles mentioned above are part of the Leonardo series by MIT Press and the International Society for the Arts, Sciences, and Technology.

Tinkering, Hacking, & Making

  • Make: Paper Inventions: Machines that Move, Drawings that Light Up, and Wearables and Structures You Can Cut, Fold, and Roll by Kathy Ceceri
  • Easy Electronics by Charles Platt
  • Electronics: Learning Through Discovery by Charles Platt
  • More Electronics: Journey Deep Into the World of Logic Chips, Amplifiers, Sensors, and Randomicity by Charles Platt
  • Tools: How They Work and How to Use Them by Charles Platt
  • Physical Computing: Sensing and Controlling the World with Computers by Dan O’Sullivan and Tom Igoe
  • Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking by Nicolas Collins
  • The Art of Tinkering by Karen Wilkinson and Mike Petrich
  • The Big Book of Maker Skills by Chris Hackett
  • Programming Interactivity: A Designer’s Guide to Processing, Arduino, and openFrameworks by Joshua Noble
  • Making Things Talk: Using Sensors, Networks, and Arduino to See, Hear, and Feel Your World by Tom Igoe
  • Making Things Move DIY Mechanisms for Inventors, Hobbyists, and Artists by Dustyn Roberts
  • Action: Movement, Light, and Sound with Arduino and Raspberry Pi by Simon Monk
  • Hacking Electronics: Learning Electronics with Arduino and Raspberry Pi by Simon Monk
  • Electronics Cookbook: Practical Electronic Recipes with Arduino and Raspberry Pi by Simon Monk
  • Sensors: A Hands-On Primer for Monitoring the Real World with Arduino and Raspberry Pi by Tero Karvinen, Kimmo Karvinen, and Ville Valtokari
  • Mind Performance Projects for the Evil Genius: 19 Brain-Bending Bio Hacks by Brad Graham and Kathy McGowan
  • Bionics for the Evil Genius: 25 Build-it-Yourself Projects by Newton C. Braga
  • Electronic Projects from the Next Dimension: Paranormal Experiments for Hobbyists by Newton C. Braga

Some of the titles mentioned above are frequently included in Humble Book Bundles. Many of them are part of the Make: series.

There are several Scratch books available, but the best by far is Learn to Program with Scratch: A Visual Introduction to Programming with Games, Art, Science, and Math by Majed Marj.

Periodicals