"The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage", by Clifford Stoll. Stoll is an astrophysicist, but he was working as a systems manager at UC Berkeley in the 1980s when a seemingly-minor billing error eventually led to discovering and apprehending a cracker who had been intruding in his network.
It's definitely an IT book, and in some sense it's kind of an admin book, but since it's written like a novel it's nothing like all those reference texts we spend our days (and nights) poring over.
Because once you have the admin-puzzle sorted out, you know how you want your systems to look. But you'll probably end up having to fight with upper management for money, and here is where psychology books comes in handy. Don't be the geeky tech who thinks that the money-people will see reason once you present it to them. It's a game, and you have to know how to play it!
The Mythical Man Month
The non-technical sys admin bible as far as I'm concerned is: Tom Limoncelli's Time Management for System Administrators
Cover http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51wgFhqjq6L._SL500_AA240_.jpg
http://www.amazon.com/Management-System-Administrators-Thomas-Limoncelli/dp/0596007833/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243425856&sr=8-1
I'd say anything along the lines of scripting. The more you know that can help you automate tasks the better.
How to Win Friends and Influence people.
The Code Book by Simon Singh
The Code Breakers by David Kahn
Great books that will help you understand encryption in more detail.
"The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage", by Clifford Stoll. Stoll is an astrophysicist, but he was working as a systems manager at UC Berkeley in the 1980s when a seemingly-minor billing error eventually led to discovering and apprehending a cracker who had been intruding in his network.
It's definitely an IT book, and in some sense it's kind of an admin book, but since it's written like a novel it's nothing like all those reference texts we spend our days (and nights) poring over.
Completely non-IT? Then this is a very good book:
Influence - the Psychology of Persuasion
Because once you have the admin-puzzle sorted out, you know how you want your systems to look. But you'll probably end up having to fight with upper management for money, and here is where psychology books comes in handy. Don't be the geeky tech who thinks that the money-people will see reason once you present it to them. It's a game, and you have to know how to play it!
Neal Stephenson In The beggining there was the Command Line
Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance.