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http://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Sold-Moon/dp/0671578634
(spoilers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Sold_the_Moon)
Then, for fun, go on to The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, wherein a great acronym TANSTAAFL is introduced.
Stephenson is in a league of his own when it comes to this kind of story. Snow Crash was a terrific piece of work, where the main protagonist :) was a hacker deeply lacking in entrepreneurial skills. Cryptonomicon had a ton of stuff in it, even down to Bobby Shaftoe getting cracked over the ear with an oar when he was reunited with his beloved Glory :-)
Agreed Snow Crash is very good. It along with Diamond Age are my favorite of his works. The Baroque Cycle is too long for what it is and might have crushed my spirit to read his work any longer. I advise avoiding it unless you are an avid fan of his.
I read the Diamond Age, but I didn't finish it(Mostly because I read it in store). Someday, I'll finish it. What is really interesting to me because it feature an anarcho-capitalism model of society.
As does Snow Crash.
* David Leavitt's The Indian Clerk deals extensively with math (http://jseliger.wordpress.com/2007/12/14/the-indian-clerk).
* Joel Spolsky's The Best Software Writing isn't fiction but is worth reading.
* I'll reiterate Tom Wolf's The Bonfire of the Vanities and A Man in Full.
* Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy is nominally aimed at adolescents, but people of any age can enjoy it.
* Michael Tolkin's The Player is partially about the business of film, as is its sequel, The Return of the Player.
If you're curious about more, send me an e-mail; I write a book blog at http://jseliger.com , and a lot of the reviews/commentaries would probably be of interest to hackerish types.
I'm sure you'll get plenty of comments on hacker fiction, so here's some "business" fiction: * "The Bonfire of the Vanities" by Tom Wolfe. The classic novel of 80s Wall Street at its peak. * "American Psycho" by Bret Easton Ellis. A pretty terrifying picture of greed and excess, again on 80s Wall Street. If you've seen the movie, you know what to expect -- only in greater detail. * "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand. Some…
Second for Atlas Shrugged. It seems especially relevant right now.
It never occurred to me that the book might have other purposes than that. I think I'm going to check out The Fountainhead first though.
I liked Cryptonomicon, but more for the WWII side of the story. If you liked that part, check out Colossus by Jack Copeland. The Randy Waterhouse side of the story actually reminded me a lot of Digital Fortress by Dan Brown. Say what you will about Dan Brown, but I thought Digital Fortress was great.
Best black-hat hacker short story goes to "Burning Chrome" by William Gibson (last story in the anthology of the same name).
I liked Cryptonomicon, but more for the WWII side of the story. If you liked that part, check out Colossus by Jack Copeland. The Randy Waterhouse side of the story actually reminded me a lot of Digital Fortress by Dan Brown. Say what you will about Dan Brown, but I thought Digital Fortress was great.
Are you being serious about Digital Fortress? Digital Fortress is infamous for its technological and geographical inaccuracies. I found it good for a chuckle, but I wouldn't really consider it hacker fiction, unless we're talking about Hollywood's idea of a hacker.