No mention of early hacking is complete without someone chiming in, saying what an excellent read Steven Levy's "Hackers" is - starting off with the shenanigans

No mention of early hacking is complete without someone chiming in, saying what an excellent read Steven Levy's "Hackers" is - starting off with the shenanigans of MIT Tech Model Railroad Club members in the fifties, he follows the hacker movement - if one can call it that - Captain Crunch, Marvin Minsky, Woz - it reads like a who's who. Lots of amusing and at times educational anecdotes, all written in Levy's eminently readable prose.