2021
Piranesi – Susanna Clarke
Very surreal but in a great way. I kind’a didn’t like the last part of the book, but still enjoyed it.
Money: The True Story of a Made-Up Thing – Jacob Goldstein
Light and interesting read.
Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? And Other Questions About Dead Bodies – Caitlin Doughty
Meant for younger readers but really interesting!
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory – Caitlin Doughty
Thought provoking with dashes of death-related trivia!
Stories of Your Life and Others – Ted Chiang
Some *amazing* short stories though there are a small handful of snoozers.
First Person Singular: Stories – Haruki Murakami
Not his best work but enjoyable. Pretty typical Murakami stories that range from decent to good.
Breasts & Eggs – Mieko Kawakami
A bit slow in parts but there’re some great doses of nostalgia in parts.
Project Hail Mary – Andy Weir
It’s like those old adventure serials where every episode ends in a cliffhanger. A fun read.
The First Ten Years: Two Sides of the Same Love Story – Joseph Fink and Meg Bashwiner
It’s interesting what people think of as important when they go through their relationships and memories.
The Starless Sea – Erin Morgenstern
Magical. Really magical.
2020
The Sorrows of Young Werther – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The original unrequited love-lorn emo character. Still a great read.
Moonshot: What Landing a Man on the Moon Teaches Us About Collaboration, Creativity, and the Mind-set for Success – Richard Wiseman
Surprisingly engaging and entertaining for a self-help type psychology book.
Notes on a Case of Melancholia or A Little Death – Nicholas Gurewitch
A wonderfully illustrated and twisted story. A perfect and/or horrible read for the covid-19 era.
Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives – David Eagleman
Neat! Reminds me of Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman, a book I enjoyed so much I bought about a dozen copies to give away. Some of the “tales” are just decent, but there are some real gems.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes – Suzanne Collins
A good read. More of the same, if you’ve already read the Hunger Games trilogy, but good nonetheless.
The Metamorphosis – Franz Kafka
Interesting, but not sure why it’s such a classic. At least it’s a quick read.
Wind, Sand and Stars – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Such a great, romantic view of the old days of open-cockpit flying and flying in the desert.
Airman’s Odyssey – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
This is a compilation of 3 books: Night Flight; Wind, Sand and Stars; and Flight to Arras
I already read/loved Win, Sand and Stars. The other two are a bit more dry.
2019
The Magicians trilogy
Very different from the tv show. I think I like the tv show better, but the books are really engrossing.
How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems – Randall Munroe
Not as fun as his other books but still really interesting.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind – Yuval Noah Harari
Entertaining but SOOOOO speculative. Well written though.
Leonard – William Shatner
An easy read. William Shatner has a conversational writing style that makes the book feel like he’s just telling you a story at a dinner. Some fun anecdotes and interesting insights about Leonard Nimoy’s life and personality..
Arctic Dreams – Barry Lopez
Wow. This is like a tour-de-force of arctic history. Densely packed with in about life and wildlife in the arctic. And it gives you a head-turning perspective about human history and how we completely take how easy many aspects of life are for granted.
2019: “Siri, tell me how to get to X and pull it up on Google Maps”
Past: It took *how* long to map the arctic??? But it’s *right there* on the map!
Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness – Edward Abbey
Edward Abbey has a way with words and descriptions. The desert has never seemed so lush and appealing to me as it does in Desert Solitaire.
Who – Geoff Smart & Randy Street
Firefly: Big Damn Hero