_vntb

Erich Fromm came to mind as well. The same ideas and themes also appear in the books of Hermann Hesse.

Sicilian Defence (1. e4 c5) and how to develop it further by using different variations. It is easy to learn, it has hundreds of years of history and it is very popular in grandmaster tournaments.

APL is quite common in the code golf scene.

You could follow the western canon if you wish to find classics.

For culture and fun: GolfScript

Catch Me If You Can by Spielberg (2002)

Good Will Hunting by Van Sant (1997)

I think the most common thing to implement is the perceptron algorithm from scratch.

I would recommend Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning by Christopher M. Bishop. It assumes no previous knowledge of pattern recognition or machine learning.

Hermann Hesse - Siddhartha

Esoteric programming languages are usually created to bend the boundaries of programming language design or prove something, not to be actually used to write software. It is hacker culture.

Similar quote from Steve Jobs (1998)

"That's been one of my mantras - focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: you have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains."

The Sublime Object of Ideology (1989) by Žižek

Interactive and high-level languages are really fun to use. This reminds me of Sharp tools essay in The Mythical Man-Month (1975).

"The most important two tools for system programming today are two that were not used in OS/360 development almost a decade ago. They are still not widely used, but all evidence points to their power and applicability. They are (1) high-level language and (2) interactive programming. I am convinced that only inertia and sloth prevent the universal adoption of these tools; the technical difficulties are no longer valid excuses."

Oh yes, reader macros, now I get it. As far as I know, you cannot write your own reader macros in Clojure (unlike in Common Lisp).