[andrewlgood]

I read Magister Ludi or The Glass Bead Game several times in my younger days. I was a Hermann Hesse fan. I echo the recommendation but would add what I found most appealing about it is the idea that all knowledge is related. Once players study for years, they realize mathematics and music theory are related. Architecture and geometry are related. By analogy all knowledge is related and one can glide from one concept to another (in a Glass Bead Game) and tell interesting stories. Very influential to me on universality of learning and knowledge.

[WillAdams]

I really want to see a programming system which has the visual nature which this book projects, and the deep data ties to make it all workable.

That said, these days I mostly just hack at 3D designs using OpenSCAD using either BlockSCAD or the nascent OpenSCAD Graph Editor.