Close to the Machine (25th Anniversary Edition)

"Part memoir, part techie mantra, part observation on the ever-changing world of computer science . . . [Ullman is] a strong woman standing up to, and facing down, ‘obsolescence' in two different, particularly unforgiving worlds—modern technology and modern society."—The New York Times Book Review

Astonishing . . . Impossible to put down."—San Francisco Chronicle

"Fascinating . . . Chock-full of delicately profound insights into work, money, love, and the search for a life that matters."—Newsweek

"Close to the Machine may be the best—it's certainly the most human—book to have emerged thus far from the culture of Silicon Valley. Ullman is that rarity, a computer programmer with a poet's feeling for language."—Laura Miller, Salon

"Ullman comes with her tech bona fides intact (she is, after all, a seasoned software engineer). But she also comes with novel material . . . We see the seduction at the heart of programming: embedded in the hijinks and hieroglyphics are the esoteric mysteries of the human mind."—Wired

"For someone sitting so close to the machine, Ellen Ullman possesses a remarkably wide-angle perspective on the technology culture she inhabits."—The Village Voice

"This book is a little masterpiece . . . I have never read anything like it."—Andrei Codrescu