Slashdot Asks: What Are Some Good Books You Read This Year?

As we inch closer to the end of the year, we will be running a couple of year-ender posts in the next few days. We're starting with books. What were some books you read this year that you would recommend to others? (It could be from any genre.) Second, what were some books from this year that you read that you would recommend to others? And third, what are you reading now, or planning to read soon?

Comments

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

[mrflash818]

This year I read

Don Quixote - by Miguel de Cervantes

Re:Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

[spitzig]

I was surprised how funny this was.

Re:Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

[azcoyote]

Awesome and hilarious book. I think it's sad that I wasn't introduced to it in high school.

Re:Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

[dgatwood]

On the topic of humorous books... well, I could be tactless and shill to try to get my own sci-fi/humor books into the double digits reader-wise (or, since it's Christmas, the historical-sci-fi short story involving a robot Santa traveling back in time to meet Saint Nicholas), but instead I'll talk about a different series of books containing Latin humor, the Liturgical Mysteries series by Mark Schweizer.

In the Liturgical Mysteries books, Hayden Konig is the chief of police and church choir director in the small town of St. Germaine, North Carolina. Saint Germaine, although normally a sleepy mountain town, also happens to have gotten a reputation as the murder capital of the state, so in addition to the usual music, Chief Konig keeps a handgun in the organ bench, both because of the ever-present danger and because he has "always found that tenors can use a bit of encouragement."

Each book in the series combines a traditional (but often humorous) murder mystery with tales of church disasters. From Christmas programs involving live animals that go horribly wrong to the church burning down, the absurd characters and situations will make you laugh so hard you'll cry. The Liturgical Mysteries series is a great read for anybody who has any connection to church liturgy or music or both.

Seveneves

[mobby_6kl]

It's not a new book but I just picked it out at random from my backlog to read on vacation. It's way easier to get into than some other NS books (looking at you, Baroque Cycle), and has really great emotional ups and downs throughout the first 2/3rds of the book with what I thought was a pretty interesting and satisfying conclusion.

Re:Seveneves

[mobby_6kl]

Yeah I have no doubt, I've started Quicksilver like five times in paper and audio form and while the setting and subject matter is fascinating, I just kept getting bogged down with the ton of infodumps, and I'm one of the people who enjoys his frequent masturbatory multi-page deep dives into Captain Crunch and what not. I need to give it another go with a clear head one day.

Re:Seveneves

[JaredOfEuropa]

Also read Seveneves, and I agree: an accessible and very enjoyable read.

I had opportunity to read a lot of other stuff. A few picks:
- World Without End by Ken Follet. This is a sequel to Pillars of the Earth. Both recommended
- The Three-body Problem by Liu Cixin. A great SF read even if it suffers a bit from pacing here and there.
- I recently found out that Cory Doctorow also writes fiction so I picked up a bunch of his novels and short stories. Walkaway, Pirate Cinema, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, For the Win and a few others. Easy reads, some are a bit better than others but all are recommended.
- Some fantasy too: I enjoyed the Legends of the First Empire series by M.J. Sullivan.

Re:Seveneves

[ErstO]

I did finish the book, but I agree, it was not one of his better works

The Powers of the Earth

[Anonymous Coward]

Outstanding read. First in a series. It won the Prometheus Award for 2018.

Re:The Powers of the Earth

[nospam007]

"Outstanding read. First in a series. It won the Prometheus Award for 2018."

OK, I'll believe you. I downloaded just now, because it's free on kindle unlimited, which I use because I read a book or 2 a day, being retired and there's nothing ever on TV.

An odd assortment

[CrimsonAvenger]

Last Stand of the Tin-Can Sailors by James D Hornfischer

The Night Land (again!) by William Hope Hodgson

The Lord of the Rings (for the umpteenth time) by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Sackett Brand by Louis L'Amour

The First World War by A.J.P. Taylor

The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss

The Greatest Knight by Thomas Asbridge

Re:An odd assortment

[shanen]

First matches on Tolkien and Wyss. I did read different books from L'Amour and Taylor, too. However most of them were so long ago I don't remember many of the details...

Frankopan's Silk Roads

[reanjr]

The Silk Roads: A New History of the World by Peter Frankopan. It's a world history from the view point of central Asia, book-ended by the rise of Persia and the important role Iran now plays in world events. Especially fascinating is how Europe barely registers until the mid 20th century, and how British adventurism in Asia had major repercussions for the Americas. The Muslims, Mongols, and Han are the dominant players.

The Testament of Loki

[reanjr]

The Testament of Loki by Joanne Harris. It's a sequel to The Gospel of Loki, a fantasy novel describing Norse myth from Loki's perspective, but goes pretty wildly off the rails, with Loki, Odin, Freya, and Thor inhabiting an awkward teenage girl, a wheelchair bound computer geek, a popular cheerleader, and a cocker spaniel, respectively.

Some SciFi / Fantasy

[DavenH]

Peter Watts' Blindsight, after which I read the sequel Echopraxia, and another of his works 'Freeze Frame Revolution.'

Also by popular recommendation I read Hyperion by Dan Simmons, and am in the middle of 'Fall of Hyperion'.

I re-read Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicles books (4th time, I think), and the Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson.

Pretty much all of them were thoroughly enjoyable.

Re:Some SciFi / Fantasy

[shanen]

Match on The Fall of Hyperion , though I read it back in 2003 and was less impressed than by two of his books on Mars (if I'm remembering Illium and Olympos correctly).

Hosts file

[Anonymous Coward]

This year I read APK's hosts file.

Read This Year

[tquasar]

Red Platoon by Clinton Romesha - A True Story of American Valor. Soldiers tasked with an impossible task, becomes how to keep the man next to you alive. Accessory to War. Tyson and Lang. Advances in science and technology are used by the military. It doesn't end well. Fear by Bob Woodward. "Trump is a fucking liar" 365 motorcycles you must ride. Published by Cycleworld magazine. The first book I read that wasn't required by school was The Godfather by Mario Puzo.

Fictional and non-fictional

[Nahooda]

- Neuromancer trilogy by William Gibson
- "Crime And Punishment" by Dostojewski

Non-fictional:
- "Krieger, Feldherren und Strategen - Krieg in der Antike von Achill bis Attila" (German) by Raimund Schulz. The title translates to "Warriors, Generals and Strategists - War in the Ancient World from Achilles to Attila". Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be an english translation. For anyone, who's interested in the classical ancient world, it's a must-read. It's about how war formed societies and vice versa. Fascinating in-depth details about battlefield tactics, weaponry and logistics.

Re:Fictional and non-fictional

[shanen]

Hmm... Not sure I should count such easy matches as Neuromancer , though it was mentioned in another book I read just recently.

Wikipedia More Than Books

[BrendaEM]

I tend to read Wikipedia more than anything, often for hours at a time.

Re:Wikipedia More Than Books

[rtb61]

Pretty much done me in as well, not just Wikipedia of course but the whole interactivity of the internet in itis; entirety. Have no read a book in years, only in Doctors office waiting for the appointment I turned up on time for but somehow still end up waiting a very long time. Books were a great escape but I found I no longer need that escape, unless I am trapped bored somewhere and I know I will be trapped bored somewhere. I filled my phone with books from http://www.gutenberg.org/ specifically enjoyed http://www.gutenberg.org/ebook... the writing style takes a little adapting to but once you do it is quite entertaining.

So everyone show http://gutenberg.net.au/ or http://gutenberg.ca/index.html some love or http://www.gutenberg.org/, some love ;). Fill your phone and wish them a merry Christmas (for those who do not do Christmas and want to complain, what can I say but FOff don't be a misery guts, not that I am big on Christmas I certainly ain't but I recognise that others are and am content for them to have their fun).

Winners Take All

[Kethinov]

This was not only the best book I've read all year, but the best book I've read this decade:

Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas.

"An insider's groundbreaking investigation of how the global elite's efforts to 'change the world' preserve the status quo and obscure their role in causing the problems they later seek to solve."

Re:Winners Take All

[shanen]

Thanks, that Winners Take All sounds like a book I need to read, though it isn't yet available in any of the local public libraries... (I have about 20 library cards now.)

If I understand the summaries correctly, then I think the solution approach involves ekronomics. As it applies to governments, it's in terms of pro-freedom anti-greedom taxation principles.

Seems like the only thing I can do is send out the ILL request and see if they can drag it in from somewhere...

3 months of my life

[NeilAtWhartonSquare]

The cat in the hat - complex plot, but enjoyable

Re:3 months of my life

[iggymanz]

Strangely enough, no one has made a porn with a moss covered 3 handled family gradunza yet.

I read non-fiction mostly ...

[CaptainDork]

... like:

NONFICTION

- Neanderthals Rediscovered: How Modern Science Is Rewriting Their Story (Revised and Updated Edition)
Dimitra Papagianni, Michael A. Morse (recommend)

- Almost Human: The Astonishing Tale of Homo Naledi and the Discovery That Changed Our Human Story
Lee Berger, John Hawks (recommend)

- The Edge of Physics: A Journey to Earth's Extremes to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe
Anil Ananthaswamy (recommend)

- Einstein's Dice and Schrödinger's Cat: How Two Great Minds Battled Quantum Randomness to Create a Unified Theory of Physics
Paul Halpern (recommend)

- The Quantum Labyrinth: How Richard Feynman and John Wheeler Revolutionized Time and Reality
Paul Halpern (highly recommend, 2017 publication)

- The Black Hole War: My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics
Leonard Susskind (recommend)

- Tales of the Quantum: Understanding Physics' Most Fundamental Theory
Art Hobson (recommend)

- Quantum Physics: What Everyone Needs to Know®
Michael G. Raymer (recommend)

- Just Visiting This Planet: Merlin Answers More Questions About Everything Under the Sun, Moon, and Stars
Neil De Grasse Tyson, Stephen J. Tyson (recommend)

- The Sky Is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist
Neil Degrasse Tyson (recommend)

- Merlin's Tour of the Universe: A Skywatcher's Guide to Everything from Mars and Quasars to Comets, Planets, Blue Moons, and Werewolves
Neil De Grasse Tyson (recommend)

- Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution
Neil deGrasse Tyson, Donald Goldsmith (recommend)

- Welcome to the Universe: An Astrophysical Tour
Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss, J. Richard Gott (recommend)

- Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries
Neil deGrasse Tyson (recommend)

- The Muleskinner and the Stars: The Life and Times of Milton La Salle Humason, Astronomer (Springer Biographies)
Ronald L. Voller ( highly recommended. Humason was an "also mentioned," in a book about Hubble. What a guy! )

- Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
Neil de Grasse Tyson (recommend)

- Seven Brief Lessons on Physics
Carlo Rovelli (recommend)

FICTION

- 1984
George Orwell (recommend with reluctance. It's the most depressing goddam book I've ever read.)

- The Caves of Steel (The Robot Series Book 1)
Isaac Asimov (recommend)

- Dune
Frank Herbert (recommend)

- The Fountainhead
Ayn Rand (recommend)

- Best. State. Ever.: A Florida Man Defends His Homeland
Dave Barry (don't recommend, boring description of Florida tourist locations)

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[AlanObject]

... like:

NONFICTION

- The Fountainhead Ayn Rand (recommend)

Not to pick a fight or anything, but..... why?

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[CaptainDork]

I don't view it as picking a fight. It's a valid question, and it's actually under FICTION.

The list I presented is for 2018. In late 2017, I also read, "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand.

Like some of the other fiction and a shitload of Robert A Heinlein, back in 2017 I re-read some of the stuff I absorbed when I was a young lad.

The Fountainhead made for a good movie, as well, though it fast-forwarded most of the story line.

I also read Ayn Rand's "The Virtue of Selfishness," which is a fucked up idea, but interesting (and a tiring read), and informs her fictional work.

While Ayn Rand pushed an agenda, the story lines of her fiction made them entertaining. I recommend both books.

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[AlanObject]

OK, good answer. I just asked because your list seems to be pretty well rounded and we encounter too many Rand readers regard her works as the Fount Of All Reason And If You Don't Agree You Are An Idiot Or Worse A Clinton Lover. In other words the opposite of well rounded. Recognizing fiction as fiction and not something else is an ability that is beyond too many people.

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[shanen]

Interesting that I also read a lot of nonfiction but, near as I can tell (without a bunch of searches), I've missed all of your authors. However I've read (but not this year) all of the fiction you mentioned. Not sure about that specific Dave Berry, though I've read many of his books.

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[JaredOfEuropa]

I agree about Rand, those two fiction titles make for decent reading, and present some interesting ideas. By the way, Atlas Shrugged was also turned into a movie (or rather a miniseries). I watched that this year. It's horrible, do not waste your time on that one.

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[CaptainDork]

Recognizing fiction as fiction and not something else is an ability that is beyond too many people.

Agree, as in Scientology.

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[CaptainDork]

I steered clear of the miniseries. There's no way in hell of transfering that story to a screenplay.

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[KermodeBear]

Maybe it presents some interesting ideas in an easy-to-understand way. You don't have to agree with a point of view in order to recommend reading about it... In fact, approaching beliefs that differ from your own, with an open mind, is the best way to learn about what you believe.

You're never going to learn anything if you only read material you agree with...

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[Bite The Pillow]

Fountainhead is a lot better than people might think, based on the hate for Atlas Shrugged. In the world Ayn created, I side with her. Not necessarily in this world.

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

The only thing more irritating than those who say you should read Rand are those who say you shouldn't.

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[phantomfive]

Ha! Well said.

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[CaptainDork]

I didn't read Ayn Rand to get a point of view. I read, and enjoyed, the story line. For the most part, her fiction was not formulaic.

In the Fountainhead, her use of architecture as a vehicle was very unusual when I read it as a kid.

Atlas Shrugged was a spellbinder with unique perspectives.

I think of both books as period pieces.

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[CaptainDork]

Like Cajun music, one Dune is quite enough. Thank you.

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[CaptainDork]

Thanks. I particularly recommend "The Muleskinner and the Stars: The Life and Times of Milton La Salle Humason." In earlier works covering the life and times of Hubble, he was an "also ran," a footnote that fascinated me for YEARS.

The guy was nothing when he started, and progressed to one of the most sought-after spectrum analysts in the world. The book is well written and hard to put down.

Also, the books on quantum theory combine to explain why there will never be a super quantum computer. The small universe jiggles and Heisenbutg's Uncertainty Principle along with Plank's units combined with the laws of thermodynamics inform the limitations imposed by entropy.

Re: I read non-fiction mostly ...

[CaptainDork]

/s

I know. Some authors do that because they have an agenda (Rand) and some do it because they are poor writers. Rand was the former, so I just invoked a little speed reading.

But you're right.

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[Bite The Pillow]

Atlas Shrugged was interesting until it devolved into a rant. I read it after Fountainhead, and I got the general point early on. You were young, most people with opinions are old.

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[CaptainDork]

You were young, most people with opinions are old.

I should be impressed that you are a research scientist in the field of sociology of opinion and have concluded that "most," or over 50%, of people with opinions are old. Rather, my opinion, late in life is that I would have called bullshit much earlier, too.

Skin in the Game - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

[Alan R Light]

Also recommend Antifragile, also by Taleb - but I read that one last year.

Also read most "Memoirs of Service Afloat" by Admiral Raphael Semmes, but haven't finished it yet. Good stuff though.

E.E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman Series

[Anonymous Coward]

Okay, only four books into it, but it's a rollicking good time and I'll probably finish it before year's end. Highly recommended, though some of the lingo can be dated. There are definitely some interesting parallels between the Lensman and Star Wars universes.

Re:E.E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman Series

[techno-vampire]

There are definitely some interesting parallels between the Lensman and Star Wars universes.

This is probably not a coincidence. I was told, years ago, by Bill Ellern that Lucas had wanted to film the Lenseman series, but that Smith's older daughter wouldn't give permission.

Tech History

[DaChesserCat]

The Friendly Orange Glow, by Brian Dear. Talking about PLATO and people who were chatting across timezones (and continents), playing MMORPGs (and flunking out of college from too much gaming, too little studying) and generally doing stuff that most people think was invented with the Internet, back in the 1970s (and no, this WASN'T running on the ARPANet). This history appears to be largely off-the-radar because it DIDN'T happen in Silicon Valley or at MIT.

The Theory That Would Not Die, by Sharon Bertsch McGrayne. About Bayes' Rule and how it to helped break Enigma, find missing atomic bombs and completely turn the medical world in its ear. The part about an insurance company actuary predicting the first mid-air collision, a couple years before it happened ... priceless.

Battlefield Earth

[vadim_t]

I read Battlefield Earth out of morbid curiosity. It was horrible.

The first third of so corresponds to the movie, and is the part that reads the best. Not good by any means, but the least awful. From there, it's all downhill. First, there's the defeated Terl and some random handicapped jerk from Johnny's village vs Johnny, then it's Johnny vs Intergalactic Banking, which is about as exciting as that sound.

Hubbard apparently made some noise about writing good scifi with paying attention to the science, but the science is laughable. The plot relies on stupidity. The core idea is that an alien species that has zero concern for the wellbeing of anybody on Earth, planet killing bombs, teleportation, and autonomous surveillance and bombing aircraft for some reason needs to mine by hand, rather than say, using robots or just blowing up mountains and sorting out the rubble. There's also that the "devious" villain for some reason puts up with a rebellious slave and teaches him everything needed to fight a revolution.

Oh, and there's a guy named "Arsebogger" in it.

I don't recommend it at all, it sucks.

Re:Battlefield Earth

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

I read Battlefield Earth out of morbid curiosity. It was horrible.

The first third of so corresponds to the movie, and... Oh, and there's a guy named "Arsebogger" in it.

Now I wanna read it! >:-(

Mostly non-fiction

[smi.james.th]

Bad Science by Ben Goldacre

Freakonomics by Levitt & Dubner

How Not To Be Wrong by Jordan Ellenberg

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Khaneman

Leadership and Self-Deception by The Arbinger Institute

I've still got The Black Swan by Taleb on my shelf waiting for me. Each so far has profoundly changed the way I think, in distinct but related ways.

SciFi/Fantasy

[Camarillo Brillo]

I read everything I could find by Kian D. Vinge including Catspaw, The Snow Queen, and The Summer Queen. Really great writing with touches of commentary on the absurdity if our current, broken, American society.

Re: SciFi/Fantasy

[Camarillo Brillo]

Correction, That's Joan D. Vinge. ...

My own

[Oligonicella]

An unfortunate feature of writing is having to edit, re-edit and re-edit. I'm on the last four books of the series I'm working on. Not a lot of time to read other stuff.

A couple

[AlanObject]

My list is modest this year but I'll mention a few:

-> The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult. I read this because my stepmother was reading it. If you like Lifetime-TV-for-Women you will like this. Noble/naive/underappreciated woman up against Evil Man type of stuff. It gets into holocaust stories including a first-person narration of the conditions in Auschwitz.

-> Uncompromising Honor by David Weber. Like anyone else who is reading this we have followed the series from the beginning. I think it is still going strong even though I am sympathetic to the argument that the story has been played out too far. Now Manticore (that's a Star Nation) has the People's Republic as an ally going up against the immense Solarian League. Probably the best space opera currently on the market -- much more substantial than anything with "Star Wars" on the cover.

-> Into The Fire by Elizabeth Moon. Not bad but I suspect that I am not the only person who would have preferred she work on the Serrano books instead of this. The laws in this Vatta world are baffling.

-> The Complete Guide to Fasting by Jason Fung, MD. Yet another fad diet? Well maybe. Any lay book on diet/nutrition these days should be approached with a healthy dose of skepticism. However if you read only one for the year I would make it this one.

Re:A couple

[SuiteSisterMary]

I read Uncompromising Honor, it really suffered from 'wrap it up' syndrome, I thought.

The thing to remember about the Vatta universe is that it's Moon's Traveller campaign written down, much like Deed of Paksennarion is her D&D campaign written down.

I like Fung's work; make sure you read The Obesity Code too, for his take on the science and research into this stuff.

Re:A couple

[michael_cain]

I read Uncompromising Honor, it really suffered from 'wrap it up' syndrome, I thought.

Yeah, same thing with the last Safehold book the year before. I have heard that Weber has some serious health problems. I assume he's going to let Eric Flint do the heavy lifting to wrap up the Alignment aspects of the story using Zilwicki et al as protagonists.

Facebook

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

That counts as a book, right? I mean it is called some book... right?

Re:Facebook

[shanen]

I'd give you the funny mod if I ever had a mod point to give, though there's also a bitter edge of insightful in there. Lot of very fractured reading going on these years.

I even have a theory that it's starting to affect the authors, too. For example, I read a couple of David Crystal's books this year, and I noticed that the older one had much larger chapters. (My swansong was teaching a course on technical writing.)

Re:Facebook

[angel'o'sphere]

Well, in German we have a kind of joke about "Mantafahrer", drivers of a certain car brand/model. I adapt it a bit:

A guy asks the other "What did you do last years?"
"Oh, 'Im reading a book!"

"You read? Oh I did not think you are into reading! How thick was it, did you like it?"

"Oh, only few dozen pages, yes I like it, I guess I finish it in a year or so."

"Whow, you are taking your time!"

"Well, the back cover says: from 6 to 99 years!"

My list

[kencurry]

Notable from 2018
Hampton Sides "On Desperate Ground" - US Korean War battle, non-fiction
Delia Owens "Where the Crawdads Sing" - murder mystery, fiction
Brad Thor "spy master" - Scot Harvath novel, spy v. spy fiction

Notable reads, previously published
Stephen King "11-22-63" - Kennedy assassination, King Horror style: one of his best
Winston Churchill "The Gathering Storm & other volumes ..." Churchill's WWII memoirs
JW Rinzler "the Making of Star Wars" ebook edition - great bio of George Lucas, saga of how he got that movie made. ebook has a lot of outtakes, audio clips, early sketches of concepts

I've been reading more the past few years

[weilawei]

Here's a few recent books I've read:

The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
Koevoet! by Jim Hooper
Secrets and Lies by Marléne Burger & Chandré Gould
The Push by Tommy Caldwell
Five Past Midnight in Bhopal by Dominique Lapierre and Javier Moro
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
A Novel and Efficient Synthesis of Cadaverine by SA Scoggin

Re:I've been reading more the past few years

[shanen]

Me, too (regarding the Subject:). Over 100 this year (though that's down from last year and I still need to port that database to a more modern system). However, it's kind of hard for me to pick favorites. A few that are related to Slashdot are:

Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom
Phishing and Countermeasures by Jacobsson and Myers
Mobile Suite Gundam: The Origin 1 by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko
Everybody Lies by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz
Feynman by Jim Ottaviani
The Internet is Not the Answer by Andrew Keen
Payoff by Dan Ariely
Head in the Cloud by William Poundstone
Rock Breaks Scissors also by William Poundstone

And just for grins, Furasshu Memori no Himitsu by Katsuyuki Toda. The translated title might be Secrets of Flash Memory .

Didn't match any of your [weilawei's] titles, which is a bit of a surprise. However now I'll look through the rest of the visible lists and see if I find any matches to other books from the 4,000+ in my ancient database...

Re:All fiction

[Hognoxious]

pet cemetery

You should read that one again - a bit more carefully.

My list:

[Qbertino]

Fiction
- Walkaway (Cory Doctorow) ... reading this right now. Lightweight near-future post-scarcity cyberpunk. Nice. Recommended.

- The Windup Girl (Paolo Bacigalupi) ... fresh generation cyber/biopunk, got the print edition but started listening to the audibile audiobook. Recommended.

- Foundation Cycle (Isaac Asimov) - never read it, planning to finally catch up as per recommendation by Elon Musk and due to my desire to up my general education, on my list, just got the first one in paperback

Non-Fiction
- The 6th Extinction (Elizabeth Kolbert) - on my list

- The Messy Middle (Scott Belsky) - Heard about it in a Tim Ferriss show with Belsky. Got curious. Bought it. Up in 2019, I presume.

- The Lean Startup (Eric Ries) - On my shelf. Might finally get to it in 2019.

- War is a Racket (Butler Smedley) - an anti-war classic from roughly 100 years ago. Apparently still 100% spot on about the reasons and mechanisms of war in general, apparently a must-read - on my list

- The Ethical Slut (Janet W. Hardy) - Zero-bullshit non-contemporary feminism and womanhood. I.e. feminism for women who can handle the fact than women and men are actually different in a way or two. A very fresh and welcoming distraction from current-day whiny "MeToo MeToo" pseudo-feminism. - On my list.

- Guns, Germs and Steel: The fate of human societies (Jared Diamond) - How and why "western" society came to rule the world, for reasons that were mostly accident and sheer luck more than anything else. - On my list.

Re:My list:

[shanen]

Only a few matches in your list, but I've gotten too overwhelmed to comment... However, you did remind me that I forgot to mention this one:

Fire in the Valley by Freiberger et al. I was motivated to read it when Godbout was killed in the Camp Fire in California.

The Invention of Hugo Caberet

[turp182]

It's a kid's book (8+), but it's an amazing story with incredible artwork (over 100 pages of black and white sketches, like a silent movie). It's also a bit sci-fi/tech with automated machines in 1931 Paris. The hardback edition is awesome.

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/...

Re:The Invention of Hugo Caberet

[omnichad]

It made a fantastic movie too. One of the few 3D movies where the effect is used as a proper cinematic tool. I still have yet to read it, but my wife owns the hardcover. Might happen in 2019.

Here is a few on kindle unlimited

[unity]

Fantasy:
Weaving Man: Book One of The Prophecy Series
https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...

Unsouled (Cradle Book 1)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...

Western:
Grizzly Killer: The Making of a Mountain Man
https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...

Sci-Fi:
30,000 B.C. Chronicles: Bordeaux
https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...

Earth Fall: Invasion
https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...

Teeth Of The Sea
https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...

Action:
The Jakarta Pandemic: A Pandemic Survival Thriller
https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...

Cartel: A Jason King Thriller
https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...

Historical Fiction:
Longbow (The Saga of Roland Inness Book 1)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...

Inside the AS/400

[ArchieBunker]

A book written by one of the architecture creators. The AS/400 is totally alien compared to the computer architectures we've been using for decades. Definitely worth a read if you're into hardware.

"The World Is Quiet Here"

[phantomfive]

Murakami Harki - Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World. Riveting read and nice world-building (the cryptography tech is a bit dated, though).

Lemony Snicket series, including "Series of Unfortunate Events" and "All the Wrong Questions" - At first look, they are just children's books, but the world created by the author is clever, well-written, and slowly revealed. Sophisticated in its analysis of right and wrong, good and bad that is missing in the world.

I'm still not sure about that vague, flimsy, dispensing sugar bowl.

Re: Nonfiction

[Anonymous Coward]

Bibles and religious texts are mythology, which equals fiction.

The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett & S. Baxter

[xpiotr]

I missed Terry Pratchett, and came across this collaboration with Stephen Baxter.
It was taking a new approach to Sci Fi, but I started with the Long Mars by mistake and I think it got even better
The Long Earth is the first novel in a collaborative science fiction series by British authors Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

My Reading list 2018

[jwhyche]

Dennis E Taylor, All These Worlds, For We Are Many, We Are Legion

EmmA Newman, After Atlas, Before Mars, PlanetFall

Ian Douglas, Alter Starscape, Darkness Falling

Jack McDevitt, Coming Home, MoonFall, The Hercules Texts, Eternity Road

John Scalzi, The Collapsing Empire, The Consuming Fire, The Dispatcher

Briandon Sanderson, Calamity

Victoria Schwab, City of Ghosts

Vernor Virge, A Fire on the Deep

Bill O'Reilly, Killing the SS, The Day The World Went Nuclear, Killing Patton

Michael McCloskey, Trilisk Ruins, Trilisk AI, Trilik Hunt, Trilisk Superstructure

Jason Levine Miss Nucleus (Reading)

I reread Alan Dean Fosters The Spell Singer Series and The Damned

James S.A. Corey, Persepolis Rising

James Calvell, Shogun

This is just what I can determine with on my Ereader. There are probably a few that I missed and more short stories that I care to mention. I have subscriptions to Analog and Asimov's. I'm not really including the books that I've reread, except the Spellsinger and The Damned books, or audio books. So this is no where near a complete list.

Red Rising series

[cdsparrow]

By Pierce Brown was a good read. One of the few books out there that actually kept me guessing on stuff.

Re: Das Capital

[nazsco]

what you recommend then?

Re:one

[nazsco]

my mind is blown. (just adding resolution to this universe's entropy generator) :)

The Mythical Man Month

[bobbied]

Got to read that every few years, trust me, it's worth it.

Well...

[DontBeAMoran]

The most interesting thing I've read this year was the nutrition facts from a box of Rice Krispies. Didn't know it had so much sodium in it!

Re: Das Capital

[Q-Hack!]

what you recommend then?

Not the gp, but I will take a stab at it.

People should absolutely read Karl Marx, but also read opposing views like Milton Friedman or Thomas Sowell. If one just reads Marx, one will remain ignorant of why he was so wrong on economics.

How many female readers?

[DCFusor]

Like from Henry Rollins hates dating - funny, so I'll leave it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
I am heartened to see how many readers are here - even this small amount is encouraging after seeing all the grammar and spelling errors usually here and obviously made by people who came along after dead tree media was cool...or maybe after seeming to know your own language became passe. For me, demonstrating ignorance and illiteracy pretty much means I won't hear your argument. Yes, I cut plenty of slack for people for whom English is not a first language, especially when the errors they make are natural constructs in their mother tongue.

Re: Das Capital

[Cmdln Daco]

To be fair, Marx was a nineteenth-century political economist. Those are special critters, not modern science-based economists.

Political economy is whatever a dude like Stalin says it is, and the theory is valid as long as the gulag up and running so peer review can be conducted.

Neurotopia

[jasonharrop]

Neurotopia. Cyberpunk techno thriller. Started yesterday, I'm 40% of the way through. A well written page turner.

The Amazon blurb:

The government can read your thoughts. Improve them too. War, poverty, and crime are history. If you don’t like it, you can always try your luck on that orbiting stateless superpower known as Apollo (formerly The Moon).

When Earth’s neuronet is hacked with a suicide virus, a reclusive thought-scanner, Sky Marion, finds her mother slitting her own wrists. Her mom is not alone – over a million Earth citizens are infected.

Who is to blame? The usual suspects – synthetic telepath hackers hiding on Apollo.

With no known remedy on Earth and less than a week before the virus shuts down victims’ brains, phobia-ridden Sky must risk her life and sanity to infiltrate the lawless lunar colonies if she is to find a cure.

But in doing so, Sky will find herself in the middle of a hidden war, fought for ultimate control over our minds.

All the Birds in the Sky

[NicknameUnavailable]

Was a pretty good one.

Into tech?

[AHuxley]

got some free time?
Go back over the years of Snowden documents.

Political

[Lord_Jeremy]

Best thing I read was The World as it Is by Ben Rhodes

the good ones this year

[jemmyw]

The Expert System's Brother
Adrian Tchaikovsky

Salvation: A Novel
Peter F. Hamilton

Elysium Fire
Alastair Reynolds

The Green Child
Herbert Read

Robots Have No Tails
Henry Kuttner

I've also been rereading all of the discworld novels to my kid.

A solid history of American capitalism

[shmorhay]

The book "Capitalism in America" by Alan Greenspan and Adrian Wooldridge has been a pleasant surprise. Good overview of the railroad robber-baron era, enabling you to connect the dots to our present corporate data oligopolies. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

Re: Read Books?

[pslytely psycho]

That indeed sucks. I have a friend with the type that turns letters into jumbles. He has found if he uses red letters on a yellow background he is able to read at nearly normal rates.
This has been life changing for him, and turned him into quite the bibliophile.

Good luck, and may you as well find a simpler workaround.

Change Agent

[btroy]

Change Agent by Daniel Suarez -- fictional story that highlights the elements of genetic editing. You'll see CRISPR edits referenced in modern times.

The Code Book by Simon Singh -- history of Cryptography

Click Here to Kill Everybody by Bruce Schneier

many others.

My short list

[CyclistOne]

Isaiah Berlin: A Life, Author: Ignatieff, Michael

Escape into Darkness: The True Story of a Young Woman's Extraordinary Survival During WW II, Author: Games, Sonia

Who Owns the Future, Author: Lanier, Jaron

Dawn of the New Everything: Encounters with Reality and Virtual Reality, Author: Lanier, Jaron

Waking Up White, Author: Irving, Debby

Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now, Author: Lanier, Jaron

Re:Epic Fantasies

[unity]

Thanks, added some of those to my queue.

From the sounds of some of those, you might like the Legend of Zero series. I did, but read them last year so I didn't mention them.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...

Three Body Problem, Dark Forest

[Alan R Light]

Excellent choice with The Three Body Problem. The Dark Forest trilogy might just be the best science fiction of the 21st century.

If we knew how to read females we wouldn't be here

[Alan R Light]

Seriously, you know this is Slashdot, right?

Andre (Alice) Norton

[angel'o'sphere]

From Gutenberg.org or other free sites like free-ebooks.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

The Time Traders (1958)
Galactic Derelict (1959) - here at the moment
The Defiant Agents (1962)
Key Out of Time (1963)

Actually I read everything from her, till I switch to the next author, but likely intermix one or two their books that i have started but not finished.

Rationalfic

[mentil]

Last time we did one of these, a few people recommended 'Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality'. It's longer than 'War & Peace' but I wholeheartedly recommend it; it's by far the most brilliant work of fiction I've ever read. Even if you don't normally read fanfiction, you'll like it if you've ever felt dismayed at fiction being written to be conveniently dramatic, with unrealistically-written characters that act in such a way so as to enhance the drama.

On that note, I've read other 'rationalfic' as it's called, that I've enjoyed. 'Branches on the Tree of Time' is a Terminator fic that makes Sarah Connor an AI researcher who uses the power of time travel to fight Skynet. Events play out nothing like an action/thriller movie.
'Friendship is Optimal' is another fanfic where the world's first strong AI creates a virtual world based on the 'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic' franchise, and makes it a utopia for all of humanity to live in. A recursive fic called 'Heaven is Terrifying' more deeply examines the philosophical implications of this. Familiarity with the FIM universe is not required.
Rationalfic is now my favorite type of fiction, and has gotten me back into reading, after ~15 years of being meh about fiction.

I only started it, but the author of the latter work recommended another FIM fanfic called "Trixie's Magic Bit", which is, yes, erotic pony fanfic...
However! It has surprisingly excellent prose, by any standards, and is inspiringly sex-positive, with the most in-depth and (relatively) realistic handling of sexual relationships I've seen in fiction anywhere. Not that I've read any romance/erotic fiction before, so I guess I'm just comparing to film and more typical fiction.

Neal Asher

[cerberusss]

I haven't seen him mentioned so far, but this year I'm reading the books from Neal Asher: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

This is hardcore science fiction: basically a paradise of a million planets called the Polity, where humans are ruled by AI. When shit hits the fan, problems get solved by boosted humans working together with good-natured war drones and humongous space ships captained by AI.

Re:Neal Asher

[mentil]

How does this compare to the Culture novels, given these sound similar?

Re: Neal Asher

[cerberusss]

Anonymous Coward already gave an answer and I pretty much agree with it. The Culture novels are much more paced, there are more characters and they are described more thoroughly and the scenarios more encompassing. The Polity novels have more up and close action, more humor (sorry humour), the storyline is more to the point. However since there are more Polity books, the world feels bigger to me.

Seriously, they're both pretty awesome. If you like Banks, you like Asher.

Re:Read Books?

[mermeid007]

Then read comic books - POW! KRAK! BOOM! BANG! Is that more your speed jk ;)

Them: Why We Hate Each Other

[davide marney]

A good non-fiction policy/essay book by Sen. Ben Sasse. Wish they were all this thoughtful in Congress.

"Endurance"

[dpilot]

By Scott Kelly

Re:Das Capital

[jellomizer]

Or is it you that was brainwashed?
Communism was a failed experiment, it falls apart after a few hundred people, and turns into more or a tyrannical system, where we see today, where the leaders exploit the working class even further under the guise of being for the public good.
While Capitalism has its problems and we should work on finding these problems and addressing them, vs just calling anyone who states such problems as a communist, it spans well to a larger community, of millions to billions of people. With its own forces more or less naturally keeping things in place.

Now that being said, while unbridled capitalism will work, it isn't optimal, because capitalism is inherently a brutal form of economic system, where paid of failure is the driving force to succeed. That is why appropriate controls and safety needs to be in place.

Good 2018 Books

[bnemer]

Just reread and truly enjoyed The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux. Also, I enjoyed The True Adventures of Joey and Rocky.

Slow reader

[The Evil Atheist]

I managed a few books, thankfully all good.

The Book Smugglers of Timbuktu - the (ongoing) story of the history of Timbuktu and all the intrigue around its famed manuscript collection, and the threat from Al Qaeda.

The Water Kingdom - an analysis of China as a civilization revolving around water and flood managment, written by Philip Ball who was an editor for Nature at one point.

I Contain Multitudes - fascinating look at just how much we don't know about the role of bacteria in all aspects of life. The things we truly don't know about how microbes really work makes modern medicine look like folk remedies. His Royal Institution talk is a good taste of what the book goes into.

The Dark Forest - interesting where he went with it. Totally not expecting the direction of the story from where the Three Body Problem left off.

A Murder is Announced - getting around to reading Agatha Christie. It's a good one to start on.

Turns out I read more than I think I did.

Just starting on "A Mind for Numbers", and after that would be "Beyond Weird", also by Philip Ball.

one "old" one new

[nightcats]

I've recently taken my third or fourth journey through Pirsig's classic from 40+ yrs. ago, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. He had a vision of the future beyond binary -- for tech, art, and philosophy -- that we are so urgently being called toward by our current evolutionary moment.

New book about an author with a similar perspective: Decker's bio of Hermann Hesse, just published by Harvard U. Press. If like me you grew up reading Steppenwolf and Siddhartha and Demian and Magister Ludi, this bio may have some meaning for you.

Re: Read Books?

[fortfive]

That's a long title for a book. Who is the author?

Been busy writing a book

[MrKaos]

On the topic of using Systems Analysis techniques to resolve psychological abuse from Sociopaths.

Those people are on the cusp of being anti-social or what we commonly know as psychopaths and they use an array of psychological techniques to abuse high functioning people with high I.Qs. It was the most sobering experience because my own personal experiences with someone who liked to make the people around me suffer, until I figured out how they play their game.

I recruited a small team of psychiatrists and psychologists to review what I wrote, which they called genius and I called utter desperation. The book is 650 pages and 180,000 words. With the material I supplied the psychiatrist they were able to give me a professional opinion that I was dealing with a Narcissistic Sociopath by simply reading the behavioral analysis.

If there is a Christmas gift I can give to all /.rs is that sociopaths are more common than you would think and that once you address the system of abuse they install into you everything in life changes for the better. It seems to release massive amounts of fluid intelligence. I developed such a system to use on myself because the psychiatrists we good at telling me what was wrong, but not what to do about it . Well I did.

This is the first time I've ever done anything like this and I wouldn't have a clue how to publish the system I've developed. I hope that no one here has the misfortune of experiencing a Sociopath, especially a Narcissistic one, however I want people to know there is a way out of their abuse system.

I wish you all the best for Christmas.

Ulysses

[Anonymous Codger]

I read a number of books this year, but one of the ones that stayed with me was James Joyce’s Ulysses. I found Mr. Bloom to be a compelling character, the picture it gave of 1904 Dublin and its residents was fascinating, and the writing was engaging. I didn’t understand a lot of it so I’m going back and rereading it with some reference materials.

Before I started rereading Ulysses, I read the Odyssey for the first time in decades. I was captivated by the intimate look at a culture and physical world that were utterly alien to our own.

Boat?

[show me altoids]

Whose Boat is This Boat by Donald J Trump.

Re: Read Books?

[snakeplissken]

Yes, but at whom?

Unf*ck Yourself

[Anonymous Coward]

Unf*ck Yourself is a really eye opening book to help you see better ways to think and run your life. I really enjoyed it and it's given me a lot to think about.

Re: Das Capital

[AmiMoJo]

I'd suggest that a more useful book to start with would be On Liberty by John Stewart Mill, and then Existentialism and Humanism by Sartre. Economics is a tool, and being right or wrong largely depends on what you are trying to do with it.

en Français

[miles zarathustra]

Currently:
Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

2018:
Courrier Sud - Antoine de Saint Exupéry
Vol de Nuit - Antoine de Saint Exupéry
Maigret - Georges Simenon
Vingt mille lieues sous les mers - Jules Verne

Re:en Français

[vikingpower]

Wow! A slashdot commenter who read "Vol de nuit". To me, it is one of the most moving books in all of French literature. I must have read it ten times at least. In my imagination, that pilot is still somewhere over the southern Atlantic, his engine humming away above the clouds, the aircraft forever drifting in moonlight.

Dracula

[omnichad]

It took me over two months of before reading to get through Dracula. It's good, but full of archaic language and very slow plot movement. Literally finished reading it last night. Going to satay a round of non-fiction because I have a huge backlog thati never get to.

This year's Sci-fi

[eriks]

Becky Chambers: Record of a Spaceborn Few
Emma Newman: Before Mars
Kim Stanley Robinson: Red Moon
John C Wright: The Golden Age
Lois McMaster Bujold: The Flowers of Vashnoi
Nnedi Okorafor: Binti - The Night Masquerade
John Scalzi: Head On An Novel of the Near Future
Scott Meyer; Fight & Flight
Aliette de Bodard: The Tea Master and the Detective
Nathan Lowell: Suicide Run

Re:The World in 2019

[CaptainDork]

Looking at my list, do you see your suggestion being even somewhat related to my interests?

Re:If we knew how to read females we wouldn't be h

[DCFusor]

Yeah, oops ;~)

It was a good year...

[sandwall]

In no particular order (other than memory):

Fooled by Randomness - Nassim Nicholas Taleb (he's kind of a jerk, but gifted)

Sapiens - Yuval Noah Harari (beautiful, at the end I felt like i stared into the abyss of man)

The Idea Factory - Jon Gertner (great history of Bell Labs)

A Mind at Play - Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman (interesting biography of Claude Shannon)

The Jungle - Upton Sinclair (first time, great book)

Dune - Frank Herbert (second time, great book)

Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlein (first time, great book)

Tribe of Mentors - Tim Ferriss (where I found out about lots of good books)

Einstein's Dreams - Alan Lightman (beautiful, poetic)

The Nature of Time - Carlo Rovelli (same as above, but a little less imaginative; i.e. fact based)

The Daily Stoic - Ryan Holiday (almost done, again)

American Gods - Neil Gaiman (first time, great book)

Ready Player One - Ernest Cline (read before the movie, really enjoyed it -- but i'm an 80's kid)

            Not all the books I read this year, but those that stood out as good.

“Those who don't read good books have no advantage over those who can't.”
  Mark Twain

3 Body Problem

[wolf12886]

I cant believe I havent seen 3 Body Problem on here. It starts as a weird very chinese sci-fi about physics researchers, and then grows into an incredible epic tale about all of humanity. I cant recommend it enough, its absolutely mind blowing.

Re:3 Body Problem

[vikingpower]

Indeed. I read all three volumes in the series. Couldn't put any and each of them down until the last sentence. Especially Dark Forest Deterrence hooked itself into my thoughts, I'm still gnawing at the subject, its necessity and the likelihood of its necessity. Cixin Liu is a master.

The Last Temptation of Christ

[CranberryKing]

by Nikos Kazantzakis. Merry Christmas.

The Wealth of Nations by Smith, Adam

[mrcoder83]

"The Wealth of Nations" by Smith, Adam. Why workers are most often compensated per hour rather than per unit of work done? Why it was not easy to live as a free man in antique era? Was it better for a medieval serf to live in Church-owned or a noble-owned lands? Was it cheaper to own a slave or hire a worker in American colonies? Is it better to get most of your calories from bread or potatoes? How strict trade policies negatively impacted European states? Why not being allowed to public universities lead to better level of education for woman sometimes? Were all colonies managed equally well? How did the world look like on the brink of American Revolution? A lot of people, often well educated, keep repeating fringe and dangerous economic ideas (like Universal Basic Income, direct taxation of the capital or even communism) without understanding what makes the economy really work and without knowing any examples of bad economic policies ruining economies in the past. Most people, unless it is their profession requires it, don't have a natural source of reliable information on that matter and the mass media are full of myths and simplifications. This book is a wonderful journey though countless examples of how economy actually works up to the middle 18th century. By starting from a large number of observations it is very much an "Origin of Species" of the economy. Everybody should read it. Very eye opening. Sadly, it is also one of the longest books I've ever read and it takes endurance to eat thought all the references. It is much easier to read few pages of the Communist Manifesto, post class struggle rants on Facebook, join Black Lives Matter and block street traffic.

Classics

[azcoyote]

I like classic, well-aged literature. This year I read Middlemarch by George Eliot, expecting it to be something my wife would like because of its similarity to Jane Austen. But I loved it so much and found it so theologically deep that it's probably one of my favorite books ever now--I even bought a hardcover to peruse for good quotes. My wife, however, hated it.

For a shorter, more casual read I also read Dracula, which I liked a lot more than I thought I would. The best part is at the beginning, though, and it starts to drag on after halfway. It is also not very deep.

Re:Classics

[spitzig]

Nowhere near deep enough for me. I was surprised how boring it was. To me, it was mostly Victorian Era politeness(like Jane Austen).

I thought Frankenstein was MUCH better.

'The Rook' and 'Stiletto'

[hodagacz]

by Daniel O'Malley. Urban fantasy with considerable comedy set in the UK.

Software Engineering books

[Cathy344]

"Building Great Software Engineering Teams: Recruiting, Hiring, and Managing Your Team from Startup to Success", by Joshua Tyler; Apress 2015 (ISBN: 9781484211342) "Harnessing the UEFI Shell: Moving the Platform Beyond DOS", 2nd Ed., by Michael Rothman, Vincent Zimmer, & Tim Lewis; De Gruyter 2017 (ISBN: 9781501514807) "Beginning C++17: From Novice to Professional", 5th Ed., by Ivor Horton & Peter Van Weert; Apress 2018 (ISBN: 9781484233658) "Real-Time C++: Efficient Object-Oriented and Template Microcontroller Programming", 2nd Ed., by Christopher Kormanyos; Springer 2015 (ISBN: 9783662478097)

Recommend

[raind]

The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government.

A disturbing read.
https://www.amazon.com/David-Talbot/e/B0034Q2618/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1

Behave. The biology of humans at our best & wo

[anadem]

By Robert Sapolsky [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Sapolsky], professor of biology and neurology at Stanford. It's a marvelously deep but excellently and entertainingly readable discussion of causes of behavior, ranging from molecular processes in neuron synapses in the brain to societal and environmental factors.

Mostly books I keep rereading

[jd]

Doctor Who - The Dalek Masterplan I, II
Katharine Kerr - Daggerspell/Dawnspell
Fred Hoyle - The Black Cloud
Terry Pratchett - Pyramids
Alan Garner - Weirdstone of Brisingamon

Harvard - A Grammar of Akkadian
Edward de Bono's Thinking Course
1177 BC The Year Civilization Collapsed
Kurt Jensen - Coloured Petri Nets
Program Logics for Certified Compilers

Andre (Alice) Norton - The Last Planet

[mykepredko]

Just finished her "The Last Planet" 1953 - really quite enjoyed it.

You'll probably have to find it as a used book.

Personally, I find her stuff hit and miss, she tells a great tale of journey, but often the ending/conflict leaves much to be desired.

The Last Planet is one of the best and well rounded books of hers that I've read.

My List for 2018

[Anonymous Coward]

In order from most recently completed (thanks Audible):

The Fifth Season (NK Jemisin) - Okay, didn't live up to the hype. Decent fantasy novel, probably won't read the rest of the trilogy.

A Walk in the Woods (Bill Bryson) - Funny, but too short. The movie was arguably better.

Steelheart (Brandon Sanderson) - Finally found a Sanderson novel I didn't really care for. I just don't dig superhero stuff, I think.

Thrawn and Thrawn: Alliances (Tim Zahn) - Good canon additions for Thrawn. If you like Star Wars novels, I'd recommend these.

Aftermath: Star Wars (Chuck Wendig) - Awful. Don't bother.

Hard Magic (Larry Correia) - Good, but not as good as his MHI series. Similar to Steelheart, I don't dig the superhero vibe.

The Absent Superpower/The Accidental Superpower (Peter Zeihan) - Very good. His predictions are interesting, though it's the historical geopolitical perspective that I found made these books interesting reads. Would definitely recommend for anyone that likes a history of why we're in the political place we are, told from a geopolitical viewpoint.

Galaxy Outlaws (J.S. Morin) - Pretty good Firefly-esque space western/drama. Each book is short, and it copies the feel of Firefly pretty closely.

Her Brother's Keeper and Sins of Her Father (Mike Kupari) - Okay sci-fi. Would recommend, but didn't blow my socks off (We are Legion (We are Bob) did, for comparison)

A Storm of Swords (GoT book 3, G.R.R Martin) - Say what you will about Martin, I think he writes well and tells a good story. I'm taking the books in sips, though...they're bloody long, fairly dark, and a little thick.

Catalyst: A Rogue One novel (James Luceno) - This was like reading the Silmarilion for me...a little dry, but good back story for the interesting fiction.

All These Worlds and For We Are Many (Bobiverse books 2 and 3) - Good sequels, little short, not as good as the first book. Still good reads; get the whole series.

Oathbringer (Brandon Sanderson) - I think I technically read this at the end of 2017, but whatever. Sanderson is great; I didn't like this one as much as the first two, but the whole Stormlight Archive series is phenomenal. Epic fantasy at its best right now.

books

[campuscodi]

From my Goodreads, these are the 2018 books that I gave 5 stars: Fire & Blood - George RR Martin Iron Gold - Pierce Brown

Philosophy, and Elena Ferrante.

[vikingpower]

"My Brilliant Friend", by Italian (pseudonym) author Elena Ferrante. I read it in the original Italian (yes, it's a blessing to know that language well enough to read literature in it), and the book's beauty made me stop dead in my tracks, taking my breath away several times.

"Process and Reality", originally appeared in 1929, by philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, who arguably was the last of the System-Building philosophers. He stands at a scarcely-populated height, together with Leibniz, Malebranche and Spinoza. I needed Sherburne's "A Key to Whitehead's 'Process and Reality'" to see the hidden order in Whitehead's magnum opus, as "[it is a] book that in richness and suggestiveness is unsurpassed... but in opacity is monumental".
 
"The Road to Relativity", but Guttfreund and Renn, on the coming-into-being of Einstein's theories.

"The Meaning of Relativity", by Einstein himself. No comments needed.

In total around 100 books, including large swaths of the Russell and Norvig classic on Artificial Intelligence.