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
- Infomocracy by Malka Older. A near-future techno-political thriller, which is not something I usually like. However, this book gets nearly everything right.
- 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.
- A Talent for War by Jack McDevitt. A brilliant space-archeology whodunit.
- Moonbound by Robin Sloan. A truly unexplainable book, and a joy to read.
- Double Contact by James White. The last of the Sector General novels, and a worthy contribution to the series.
- Another Now by Yanis Varoufakis. A near-future alternate history, heavy on the economic theory.
- 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.
- Schismatrix Plus by Bruce Sterling. Probably the most enjoyable cyberpunk book I’ve ever read. I like cyberpunk in space better than on Earth.
- 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.
- The Cyberiad: Stories by Stanislaw Lem. One of the loopiest, funniest collections of short techno-satires I’ve ever read.
- 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.
- 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.
- Star Well by Alexei Panshin. A little chaotic, but enjoyable.
- Masters of the Vortex by E. E. “Doc” Smith. Somewhat chaotic, but enjoyable.
- The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. Very chaotic, and enjoyable at times.
- Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick. Extremely chaotic, and mostly not enjoyable. The first PKD that I have not liked.
- 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.
- Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon (abandoned). I have no regrets abandoning this strange book, though.
Fantasy
- 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!
- The Book of Atrix Wolfe by Patricia McKillip. Very elegant and strange in the best way.
- Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer. Eh, it didn’t really hold up from when I was a young person.
Literary
- 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.
- Sourdough by Robin Sloan. The Lois Club is a beautiful invention.
- Multiple Choice by Alejandro Zambra. Just the right level of experimental fiction/poetry for me.
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
- 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.