I reckon the 5 Hitchiker's guide books are the de facto benchmark of geekdom. Knowing the radio series word for word is a big bonus too IMHO.
Essential programmer material.
'Think of a computer program. Somewhere, there is one key instruction, and everything else is just functions calling themselves, or brackets billowing out endlessly through an infinite address space. What happens when the brackets collapse? Where's the final "end if"? Is any of this making sense? Arthur?'
'Sorry, I was just nodding off for a moment. Something about the universe, yes?'
'Something about the universe, yes.