Join the Silicon Valley Archives in welcoming Patrick McCray to talk about his latest book, README: A Bookish History of Computing from Electronic Brains to Everything Machines, on January 21, 2026, at 4:00 p.m. 

In README, historian Patrick McCray argues that in order for computers to become ubiquitous, people first had to become interested in them, learn about them, and take the machines seriously. A powerful catalyst for this transformation was, ironically, one of the oldest information technologies we have: books. The author uses a carefully chosen selection of books, some iconic and others obscure, to describe this technological revolution as it unfolded in the half century after 1945. The book begins with a fundamental question: How does a new technology become well-known and widespread? McCray answers this by using books as a window into significant moments in the history of computing, books, publishing, and American culture.

README offers a literary history of computers and, more broadly, information technologies between World War II and the dot.com crash of the early twenty-first century. From the electronic brains and cybernetics craze of the 1940s to the birth of AI, the rise of the personal computer, and the Internet-driven financial frenzy of the 1990s, books have proven a durable and essential way for people to learn how to use and think about computers. By offering a readable half-century of bookish history, README explains how computers became popular and pervasive.