ITPro's recommended reading for 2026

There's nothing quite like a good book, and here at ITPro, we love our non-fiction tech reads. The internet is an endless pit of news, and we still value print partly because it is still the best way to fully absorb information.

We've taken five of the latest technology-focused books off the shelf and reviewed them for your pleasure. These cover flying cars, working at Meta, the inner workings of Huawei, and more.

Quick list

The Long History of the Future, by Nicole Kobie

They promised us smart cities, when all we really wanted was clean ones with well-organized transport networks. The reality is that we are not close to having either, and it's this kind of grounding that makes Nicole Kobie's The Long History of the Future such an engrossing read.

Across nine chapters, Kobie bursts the bubble on AI, Robots, Augmented Reality, Cyborgs, smart cities, Hyperloops, and both flying and driverless cars. Each subject is laid out in as simple a description as possible, freeing the reader from the marketing spiel and the jargon. What is left is a realism that both explains why we are not quite at the future we were promised. But also a sensible suggestion that these are not necessarily the best solutions to the problems they're pitted against.

The key to many of the breakthroughs is AI; it underpins them all. Kobie tackles this in the second chapter with a realism you will not find in any press release or tech company blog. Where the world has lost its cool over the potential of generative AI, Kobie shows you a technology that still has limitations. Where CEO's talk of the threat of an AI dystopia, Kobie explains that it's all just a part of the marketing. Ultimately, and quite reassuringly, Kobie uses the history of AI to show us how far away we really are from any such doomsday scenario (climate change is arguably more of a concern).

Kobie's book can also feasibly work as a guide to working in tech journalism and the strange places it may take you. From waiting for a Hyperloop in the Edinburgh rain to looking for SEO-worthy news about brain-reading technology in Germany, Kobie has done the hard yards and always comes away with the facts. From cover to cover, she puts each technology in its place with the right level of scepticism and a smattering of witty one-liners: "Roombas are small, flat suction machines, handily rideable by cats – and the closest most of us will come to a robo-butler"

House of Huawei, by Eva Dou

Origin stories and biopics can be a little dull, but Eva Dou's comprehensive account of the rise of Huawei and its reclusive founder, Ren Zhengfei, is an existential family saga akin to The Godfather.

Dou gives you everything you need to understand the story, with a complete list of characters and a guide to Chinese naming conventions within the first few pages. This allows us to enter the world of Ren as we begin with his humble(ish) beginnings.

He is a man on the wrong side of the Chinese political spectrum until he joins the military and the country begins experimenting with capitalism. From here, we see the shrewd businessman emerge alongside the rapid growth of the city of Shenzhen.

Ren marries and has a child, his eldest daughter, Meng Wanzhou, who later becomes Huawei's CFO – her story starts at Vancouver International Airport, where she was arrested on allegations of espionage in 2018.

This is one of many Huawei controversies Dou talks us through. The book is littered with little mysteries that Dou unravels as we go; Does Ren have ties to the Chinese government? Is Huawei a company controlled by the state? The answer to the first question is yes, but it's largely through a messy handling of its early investors, many of whom own companies with ties to its government. It's in these small puzzles that we come to view the controversial conglomerate that we know today.

Huawei may have earned global attention (scrutiny) when Meng was detained in 2018, but what will surprise readers is the fact that the Chinese company was being investigated long before that (2008), and actually, how much it invested in American manufacturing during its formative years. Huawei began as a reseller of telephone switches before constructing its own, in partnership with US-based manufacturers.

Dou is not just a diligent and vastly experienced correspondent; her account of Huawei also proves that she is a skilled storyteller and writer.

"Barber told Hu that he wasn't in the business of giving advice but that Huawei certainly had a problem, given the perception of the company as an arm of the Chinese state. Barber said: "You guys are going to get whacked!".

Computers that Made the World, by Tim Danton

While you're doomscrolling on social media, shopping online, or tinkering with a shiny new AI assistant, it's easy to forget the technology at our disposal today is the culmination of decades of tireless work and progress.

That's what makes Tim Danton's The Computers That Made the World such a captivating read.

Rolling back the years, Danton explores the theoretical breakthroughs and development of transformative devices built between the mid-1930s up to the early 1960s: from the Atanasoff-Berry computer (ABC), built out of Iowa State University, to the monstrously sized ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer) device.

Far from a whistlestop tour on early modern computing devices, Danton examines in detail a slew of iconic devices: spanning the development processes, motivations behind these projects, and their long-term implications.

We learn that John Vincent Atanasoff, designer of the ABC device, became frustrated with early tabulator machines while studying for a PhD, later modifying an IBM tabulator to speed up solving linear equations and in turn creating the first electronic digital computer.

Progress forged in the pursuit of science or mere everyday problems has been the catalyst for great technological leaps, but as we also learn, the spark of innovation was fueled by the fires of war.

The outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 and the subsequent entry of the United States into the conflict prompted a wave of innovation in computing.

Bell Labs devices, such as the Model II and Model II, aimed at tracking aircraft and fine-tuning anti-aircraft weapons systems, derived from the Complex Number Calculator, a precursor to the first modern digital computers built as part of a 1937 research project.

Danton also explores the computing prowess of Britain during this period, with the Colossus computer living up to its name and playing a key role in supporting the iconic Bletchley Park codebreakers. As he notes, this was a device that "helped win a World War".

The journey doesn't stop there, however. The post-war years precipitated a wave of innovation with great leaps made on both sides of the Iron Curtain: from the EDVAC and Princeton-based IAS machine to the Pilot ACE computer, built based on designs by Alan Turing.

Denton ends this journey with an appropriate nod to Moore's Law, a concept we've all enjoyed the fruits of in the 60 years since its creation.

"And to think, it all started from people wanting to add things together."

Careless People, by Sarah Wynn-Williams

How did Facebook get a seat at the international table? What made Mark Zuckerberg swap hoodies and junk food for suits and fresh-cut fruit? And what implications does this journey have for all of us?

A tell-all memoir from the former director of global public policy at Facebook, Sarah Wynn-Williams, documents the internal culture at the firm in its pre-Meta days, charting its rise to global prominence. Along the way, Wynn-Williams charts purported missteps by executives, ranging from the embarrassing – repeated mistakes at events lead to Mark Zuckerberg sidelined or forced to contend with Big Bird for space onstage – to disturbing accusations of professional misconduct and international deals.

The first half of the book primarily comes in the form of an 'insider's view' of the early days at Facebook – with Wynn-Williams fighting to get executives to understand the importance of engaging with politicians at a global level.

It's worth noting that this is not a book for the faint of heart. Beyond the very serious allegations Wynn-Williams makes, she also chronicles two of the biggest health scares of her life: a near-fatal shark attack she experienced aged 13, and a terrible complication that occurred during the birth of her second child.

These aren't just side-note stories, but integral life events that help contextualize Wynn-Williams' worldview and her determination to make it through the worst moments.

Throughout the book, Wynn-Williams makes a series of major allegations around Facebook executives, the company's relationship with China, and its impact on the violence against Rohingya in Myanmar (backing statements made by Amnesty International).

As reported by CNBC, a Meta spokesperson said the book is "a mix of out-of-date and previously reported claims about the company and false accusations about our executives".

Whatever readers make of the content within Careless People, it's startling to read a tech memoir that lays out its claims so starkly. Wynn-Williams' structure leads the reader from the familiar public view of Facebook, through to a striking series of claims from behind the social media curtain.

Empire of AI, by Karen Hao

If there's one thing that really annoys me with books, it's quotes on the cover that say something like "urgent and necessary". Nevertheless, given how quickly things are changing in the world of generative AI, I would urgently recommend anyone interested in the personalities and philosophies behind the current hype to read this book before things change again.

Empire of AI forms part of a growing corpus of media that started accumulating over the course of 2025 as interest has grown in the background and motivation of Sam Altman and other AI leaders.

It follows Altman from studenthood to his time at Y Combinator, meeting Elon Musk, and, ultimately, the founding of OpenAI.

If you're somewhat familiar with the story – as I was, courtesy of various podcasts and articles – it's still worth a read. Hao's deep research, based on interviews with hundreds of people, and excellent prose fleshes out this story in ways you're unlikely to have heard before. The insider view of a company that's changing shape almost as quickly as its products change our reality is novel and intriguing in a way that purely third party research can't replicate.

If you're unfamiliar, you're in for a treat as the origins and evolution of OpenAI are what can only be described as a wild ride. Let's put it this way: turning your photos into Studio Ghibli-style illustrations and writing your emails was not the original mission of the operation.

Other characters from the world of tech you may recognise, in addition to Altman, are Anthropic co-founder Dario Amodei and members of the self-styled PayPal Mafia Peter Thiel and Elon Musk.

There are also guest appearances from Bill Gates and Satya Nadella that, given Microsoft's investments in OpenAI, may seem obvious but supply a hard-nosed business focus to the more esoteric concerns of the previous group.

Empire of AI is very much a business book so if you're interested in the inner workings of ChatGPT and Dall-E it's not going to give you much. If, by contrast, you want to know more about the companies, egos, and philosophies that are driving this latest technological revolution you would do well to start here.