Books: 2024

On content: This year I made it my personal quest to read all the books on my to-read shelf or acknowledge that I was not ever going to read them. I succeeded! As of this reading, I have two books on my nightstand (You Are Not Your Own by Alan Noble and Taming the Octopus by Kyle Edward Williams) and none on my to-read shelf. I also have been dipping my toe into audiobooks this year: I am almost done with Polaris by Jack McDevitt and stuck halfway through Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.

Most of the books on my shelf were impulse-buy sci-fi books that I looked at a week later and thought, “huh, I guess I was in a weird mood that day.” I also got a big trove of sci-fi books from Brian Burns on a recent visit. So the list this year is heavily skewed toward sci-fi, but somewhat unintentionally.

On volume: I read 26 books this year, which is in line with my general expectation of reading a book every two weeks.

On the list: Within categories, they’re arranged roughly in the order of enjoyment, although it is not a strict list.

Overall: time to get some more books!

(Postscript: I finished Polaris and Taming the Octopus before the end of the year, and have added them below.)

Sci-fi

  1. Infomocracy by Malka Older. A near-future techno-political thriller, which is not something I usually like. However, this book gets nearly everything right.  
  2. Robots and Empire by Isaac Asimov. I still haven’t read an Asimov book that I didn’t like. This one is top-shelf from among the ones I liked.
  3. A Talent for War by Jack McDevitt. A brilliant space-archeology whodunit.
  4. Moonbound by Robin Sloan. A truly unexplainable book, and a joy to read.
  5. Double Contact by James White. The last of the Sector General novels, and a worthy contribution to the series.
  6. Another Now by Yanis Varoufakis. A near-future alternate history, heavy on the economic theory.
  7. Past Master by R.A. Lafferty. Via time travel, a failing future society on another planet makes Thomas More their leader in a bid to save their society. Just ponder that premise for a moment.
  8. Schismatrix Plus by Bruce Sterling. Probably the most enjoyable cyberpunk book I’ve ever read. I like cyberpunk in space better than on Earth.
  9. Science Fiction: A Historical Anthology, edited by Eric S. Rabkin. Felt good to round out my sci-fi knowledge with some of the really early stuff.
  10. The Cyberiad: Stories by Stanislaw Lem. One of the loopiest, funniest collections of short techno-satires I’ve ever read.
  11. Christmas on Ganymede and Other Stories, edited by Martin H. Greenberg. Three of these stories will stick with me for a long time and none were so bad as for me to abandon them, which is a good return on an anthology.
  12. Polaris by Jack McDevitt. Threw enough red herrings to keep me off the trail for a long time in this howdunit space mystery. The characterizations were not as good as in A Talent for War.
  13. Star Well by Alexei Panshin. A little chaotic, but enjoyable.
  14. Masters of the Vortex by E. E. “Doc” Smith. Somewhat chaotic, but enjoyable.
  15. The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. Very chaotic, and enjoyable at times.
  16. Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick. Extremely chaotic, and mostly not enjoyable. The first PKD that I have not liked.
  17. Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman by Walter Miller (abandoned). I regret abandoning this book, as I found myself a few weeks later wondering how the book ended. I will return to this book.
  18. Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon (abandoned). I have no regrets abandoning this strange book, though.

Fantasy

  1. The Hobbit: Or, There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien. AND THEN A BEAR-MAN CAME OUT OF NOWHERE AND SAVED US ALL!
  2. The Book of Atrix Wolfe by Patricia McKillip. Very elegant and strange in the best way.
  3. Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer. Eh, it didn’t really hold up from when I was a young person.

Literary

  1. The Eyes and the Impossible by Dave Eggers. A truly outstanding book that has so much to say about why life is good, even amid its many struggles.
  2. Sourdough by Robin Sloan. The Lois Club is a beautiful invention.
  3. Multiple Choice by Alejandro Zambra. Just the right level of experimental fiction/poetry for me.
  4. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. I loved some of the characters in this book and did not like the story they were in.
  5. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon (abandoned). I got 150 pages in and said, “oh no this is all about to go horribly for everyone, isn’t it?” and I quit. My brother finished the book so he could tell me the ending, and he informs me that it did indeed go horribly for everyone. Yikes.

Nonfiction

  1. Taming the Octopus: The Long Battle for the Soul of the Corporation by Kyle Edward Williams. A fascinating look at the relationships between Wall Street, management, government, and stakeholders regarding what the corporation owes to society.
  2. Life in Code: A Personal History of Technology by Ellen Ullman. An interesting collection of non-fiction essays about what it was like going from the ‘80s to the ‘10s in professional technology.