Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
Susanna Clarke
January 2021
-
Very fun and definitely worth its length. I am so happy this is just
one book and not a trilogy -- epic fantasy trilogies that go on
forever are so frustrating, but this manages to be very immersive
without dragging into a long series that will never be finished.
-
I picked up this book after reading a
New Yorker Profile
on the author, published on the release of her second novel,
Piranesi. Might have to pick up that one next.
Trurl's Electronic Bard
Stanislaw Lem
January 2021
-
Short story. Linked by gwern who fed it to GPT-3 in a now-privated
tweet.
PDF here
-
Definitely on my list to read the full anthology,
The Cyberiad.
Demons
Fyodor Dostoevsky
November 2020
Xenocide
Orson Scott Card
September 2020
The Soul of a New Machine
Tracy Kidder
September 2020
Speaker for the Dead
Orson Scott Card
August 2020
Diaspora
Greg Egan
July 2020
Little, Big
John Crowley
June 2020
-
Very immersive setting. Everything in the world is slightly unreal
but simultaneously emotionally hyperreal.
Permutation City
Greg Egan
May 2020
Story of Your Life and Others
Ted Chiang
Apr 2020
-
Had to read more Ted Chiang. Exhalation is probably better
than this collection overall, but they're both quite good. This one
is worth picking up for Story of Your Life (Arrival) alone.
-
Favorite stories: Story of Your Life, Tower of Babylon, Liking What
You See
Exhalation
Ted Chiang
Mar 2020
-
One of the best short story collections I've read. Freshest sci-fi
I've read in a long time too.
-
I love how logical these stories are. Each narrative embodies a
philosophical concept or an idea about human experience. The plots
are tight and clever; they don't rely on vague mysteries or big
reveals to maintain interest or seem more literary than they are.
-
There are really cool "story notes" at the end -- a few paragraphs
about the ideas behind each story and what scientific concepts
inspired them. I wish more authors had something like this in their
collections and I appreciate how brief he kept them.
-
Favorite stories: The Lifecycle of Software Objects, Exhalation,
Omphalos, The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate
Foundation
Isaac Asimov
Mar 2020
-
I wish more books were written with this sort of scale. Does a great
job of quickly introducing characters and conflict.
-
I'm really awful at remembering character names, but I've never read
a book with so many characters where I'm never confused about who is
who. Might have to go back and see how this was achieved.
The Fifth Season
N. K. Jemisin
Feb 2020
-
Pretty cool fantasy novel, but I'm not sure the second person added
anything to the book.
Infinitesimal
Amir Alexander
Jan 2020
-
Really great. Interesting takeaway: the mathematicians who embraced
the paradoxes of infinitesimals and tried to determine what they
meant about the nature of infinitesimals were able to develop new
mathematics that their more conservative peers would never have.
-
This book also somewhat swayed my Platonist position on the
metaphysics of mathematics. Learning the history of calculus makes
me take more seriously the idea that mathematics is invented rather
than discovered.
Neuromancer
William Gibson
Dec 2019
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
Ursula K. Le Guin
Dec 2019
The Wise Man's Fear
Patrick Rothfuss
Dec 2019
The Name of the Wind
Patrick Rothfuss
Nov 2019
And Then I Thought I Was a Fish
Peter Welch
Nov 2019
Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives
David Eagleman
Nov 2019
- First story is really cool.
Circe
Madeline Miller
Nov 2019
- Great. Recommended for the biohacker who seeks immortality.
Blindsight
Peter Watts
Oct 2019
- The alien has a really interesting biology and intelligence.
The Hidden Life of Trees
Peter Wohlleben
Oct 2019
-
Didn't love it. Although it did give me more respect and interest in
trees (which seem to be even better environmental manipulators than
humans), the book was frustrating to read due to the amount of
anthropomorphization.
-
That being said, it's probably still worth a read. Gave me lots of
inspiration for writing alien species in sci-fi. The descriptions of
mycorrizha, tree timespans, and tree "culture" (with adults
protecting trees from growing too fast by blocking all the light)
are all very vivid to mine for details.
The Colour of Magic
Terry Pratchett
Oct 2019
Galatea 2.2
Richard Powers
Aug 2019
-
Pretty entertaining, but some of the prose and romance were a little
overwrought. Most of the time it felt like I was just waiting for
the next scene with the development of the AI.
Dune
Frank Herbert
Aug 2019
-
A little campy but extremely fun. Excellent hybrid of religion and
sci-fi.
Nature's Mutiny
Philipp Blom
Aug 2019
The Memory of Earth
Orson Scott Card
Jul 2019
The Three-Body Problem
Liu Cixin
2019
-
Not really "hard" sci-fi as I remember it being described to me. I
think I would have benefitted from knowing that it is more of a
political allegory rather than pure sci-fi. Will have to finish the
rest of the trilogy.
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
Charles C. Mann
2019
-
I read the book expecting to learn that Native Americans were far
more technologically and culturally advanced than is commonly
taught. What I didn't expect was to have my concept of a
pre-Columbian unravaged wilderness dismantled. Native peoples
manipulated and engineered their environment extensively and far
more than they are given credit for. For example, the ecosystem of
the Amazon rainforest is the result of thousands of years of fruit
tree cultivation by native peoples.
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
Marie Kondo
2019
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass
2019
Pimp: The Story of My Life
Iceberg Slim
2019
Oryx and Crake
Margaret Atwood
2019
Zami: A New Spelling of My Name
Audre Lorde
2019
-
Pairs extremely well with her essay
Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power
The Master and Margarita
Mikhail Bulgakov
2019
Erasure
Percival Everett
2019
-
A post-modern book that didn't lose any enjoyability for it.
Sometimes it feels like post-modern techniques can take over a book,
but here they were used precisely and thoughtfully.
-
Interesting to compare the plotline about aging here to that in
Galatea 2.2. For some reason this one comes across much
better while Galatea's feels stilted.
Confessions of a Video Vixen
Karrine Steffans
2019
The Idiot
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
2019
-
Unique among Dostoyevsky's work in that it is primarily
character-driven rather than driven by a certain plot premise. While
this makes the book uneven in quality at points, you never know
what's going to happen next, and get the sense the author isn't sure
either. Very fun and exciting.
The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdős and the
Search for Mathematical Truth
Paul Hoffman
2019
-
Lots of fun anecdotes. Awesome book for people who aren't interested
in mathematics to see why it is so beautiful and creative (and
weird).
Butterflies in November
Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir
2019.
-
Very fun main character. I think I lost some enjoyment because the
plot (like the character) felt spacey. Still very interesting to
read, even if I didn't enjoy it too much overall.
The Trial
Franz Kafka
2018
The Pale King
David Foster Wallace
2018
Everything Is Illuminated
Jonathan Safran Foer
2018
-
Very imaginative and enjoyable. One character is a little gimmicky.
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
David Foster Wallace
2018
The Paper Menagerie
Ken Liu
2018
The Crying of Lot 49
Thomas Pynchon
2018.
Notes from Underground
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
2018
East of Eden
John Steinbeck
2018
-
A 600 page book that actually felt like it used its length well.
Awesome characters, good and bad.
The Odyssey
Homer
2018
-
Read the Emily Wilson translation. Awesome translation and
translator's note.
A Walk in the Woods
Bill Bryson
2018
- Somewhat enjoyable, but not super exciting.
House of Leaves
Mark Z. Danielewski
2017?
-
For a book of pure gimmicks, it somehow didn't come across as
gimmicky? A lot of fun.
The Brothers Karamazov
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Aug 2017
-
One of my favorite novels. The Grand Inquisitor chapter is
excellent.
Beyond Good and Evil
Friedrich Nietzsche
?
Dubliners
James Joyce
2017
-
I remember certain stories really struck a chord with me, but I'd
have to go back to remember which ones.
Infinite Jest
David Foster Wallace
2016?
- Very long and my enjoyment varied a lot.
Crime and Punishment
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
2016?
-
I enjoyed it, despite it being a little too long, but I'm not sure
why you'd read this over The Brothers Karamazov or
The Idiot.
Mythology
Edith Hamilton
2016?
Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
Richard Bach
2016?
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show
Business
Neil Postman
2016?
- Made me stop watching all TV. Seems very prescient now.
The Stranger
Albert Camus
2016
Song of Solomon
Toni Morrison
2016?
All the Pretty Horses
Cormac McCarthy
?
Hamlet
William Shakespeare
2016?
The Origin of Wealth
Eric D. Beinhocker
2016
-
All about complexity economics. The beginning is interesting, but
then it drags.
The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald
?
Snow Crash
Neal Stephenson
?
Brave New World
Aldous Huxley
2015
-
Compared 1984, the writing is a lot worse, but the
predictions are more interesting.
Wind, Sand and Stars
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
2015?
-
Very strange to read the unfettered romanticism of
The Little Prince in a non-fiction memoir.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain
2015?
Into the Wild
Jon Krakauer
2015
Moonwalking with Einstein
Joshua Foer
2015?
As I Lay Dying
William Faulkner
2015?
- Extremely funny. Each character's voice is very distinct.
Moby-Dick, or, the Whale
Herman Melville
2015?
-
Not sure why I forced myself to read this over a high school summer.
Lolita
Vladimir Nabokov
2015?
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
Douglas R. Hofstadter
2015
The Art of Drowning
Billy Collins
?
Picnic, Lightning
Billy Collins
?
The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays
Albert Camus
2015
-
Probably the first philosophy book I read. I remember the
self-titled essay being particularly good.
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Haruki Murakami
2014?
Of Mice and Men
John Steinbeck
2014
1Q84
Haruki Murakami
2013?
-
Long but enjoyable. Murakami is pretty great when he can fashion an
ending.
Life, the Universe and Everything
Douglas Adams
?
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Douglas Adams
?
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Douglas Adams
2013?
The Pearl
John Steinbeck
2013
The Broom of the System
David Foster Wallace
2013?
Animal Farm
George Orwell
2012?
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Philip K. Dick
2012?
Thirteen Reasons Why
Jay Asher
2012?
Siddhartha
Hermann Hesse
2011?
Welcome to the Monkey House
Kurt Vonnegut
2011?
- One of my favorite short story collections.
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Bill Bryson
?
-
Read this twice in elementary school. Probably one of the books that
influenced me the most as a kid.
Animal Farm
George Orwell
2011?
Ready Player One
Ernest Cline
2011?
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night
Time -- Mark Haddon
?
The Book Thief
Markus Zusak
?
Shadow of the Giant
Orson Scott Card
?
Shadow Puppets
Orson Scott Card
?
Shadow of the Hegemon
Orson Scott Card
?
Children of the Mind
Orson Scott Card
?
Ender's Shadow (The Shadow Series, #1)
Orson Scott Card
?
Xenocide
Orson Scott Card
?
Speaker for the Dead
Orson Scott Card
?
Ender's Game
Orson Scott Card
2013?
The Giver
Lois Lowry
2009?
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
Robert C. O'Brien
?
Artemis Fowl
Eoin Colfer
?
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate
Jacqueline Kelly
?
The Graveyard Book
Neil Gaiman
?
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
C.S. Lewis
?
The Little Prince
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
?
- One of my favorites as a kid. The 2015 movie honors it well.
The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
Entangled Life
Merlin Sheldrake
Schild's Ladder
Greg Egan
Genius at Play
Siobhan Roberts
Cat's Cradle
Kurt Vonnegut
Solaris
Stanislaw Lem
- Get the Bill Johnston translation
The Art of Game Design
Jesse Schell
Seeing Like a State
James Scott
The Dictator's Handbook
Alastair Smith
Demons
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Friedrich Nietzsche
Demons
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Snow Leopard
Peter Matthiessen
The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
Lawrence Wright
A Little Life
Hanya Yanagihara
Disappearing Earth
Julia Phillips
Mama's Last Hug
Frans de Waal
Becoming Dr. Seuss
Brian Jay Jones
Dark Pools
Scott Patterson
All the Light We Cannot See
Anthony Doerr
Middlesex
Jeffrey Eugenides
How Markets Fail
John Cassidy
The Dictator's Handbook
Bruce Bueno de Mesquita
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat
Samin Nosrat
The Mind Illuminated
Culadasa (John Yates)
Our Mathematical Universe
Max Tegmark
Hiking with Nietzsche
John Kaag
Life: A User's Manual
Georges Perec
Madame Bovary
Gustave Flaubert
The Worst Journey in the World
Apsley Cherry-Garrard
Einstein's Dreams
Alan Lightman
Invisible Cities
Italo Calvino
Quantum Computing Since Democritus
Scott Aaronson
Why Philosophers Should Care About Computational Complexity
Scott Aaronson
Embodiment and the Inner Life
Murray Shanahan
The Ego and Its Own
Max Stirner
Preface to Plato
Eric Alfred Havelock
Simulacra and Simulation
Jean Baudrillard
War and Peace
Leo Tolstoy
A Confession
Leo Tolstoy
Inferno
Dante Alighieri
Paradise Lost
John Milton
The Corrections
Jonathan Franzen
The Hobbit or There and Back Again
J.R.R. Tolkien
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Ken Kesey
Lord of the Flies
William Golding
Capital in the Twenty-First Century
Thomas Piketty
Postcapitalism: A Guide to Our Future
Paul Mason
Catch-22
Joseph Heller
The Signal and the Noise
Nate Silver
Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology
Neil Postman
The Road
Cormac McCarthy
Slaughterhouse-Five
Kurt Vonnegut
Fahrenheit 451
Ray Bradbury
Othello
William Shakespeare
A Rose for Emily
William Faulkner
The Sound and the Fury
William Faulkner
Ulysses
James Joyce
Gravity's Rainbow
Thomas Pynchon
Pale Fire
Vladimir Nabokov
Speak, Memory
Vladimir Nabokov
Invitation to a Beheading
Vladimir Nabokov
The Dark Forest (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #2)
Liu Cixin
Death's End
Liu Cixin
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
Douglas Adams
The Amulet of Samarkand
Jonathan Stroud