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It's not any heavier than GEB, and they will probably get more out of it. My picks in there would be Lanczos, Heinlein, and Levy, and SICP and SICM.

Umm.. I could read GEB; it was tough but more understandable. QCD is way over my head :), but may be because I am dumb.

Hah, I'm sure a great number of people would say being able to read GEB makes you not dumb.

I agree with you on SICP. Reading it was the single biggest improvement in my career as a programmer.