The Computer: An Illustrated History, by Christian Wurster
published 2002 - read 2004

This coffee-table piece is better than most computer histories I've seen...or at least more interesting, in that Wurster clearly has a soft spot for weird niche computers outside the experience of most current PC users.  We get all the giant mainframes of the postwar era, of course, but lots of weird and transitional machines from the 70s and 80s are what make the book fun.  Plus, Wurster has a great eye for photographs, selecting only the best and most telling images of each computer in use.  Good for a flip-through for sure.

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