I'm yet to read a better book about the fundamentals of programming and computer science... It also helped me understand why Lisp may well be the perfect programming language.
A 6 star book ;)
LISP is the second oldest(only FORTRAN is older,as they say) high level programming out there in the planet.It's an amazing multiple-paradigm functional programming language,with tiny and elegant syntax(except for the parenthenses:< ),but powerful enough for doing anything.SICP is also an amazing programming textbook that not only teach scheme,but also many other things.For those who want a crash course on some popular programming languages,this is not the case.It's beyond just a traditional textbook.