Reading List

The Book of Dust Volume 1: La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman

Absolutely brilliant. Hard to put down, fascinating world and story.

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin. I am very excited to be reading such an influential sci-fi author that I had so far missed out on. Belated present from David.

This felt a bit "teenage fiction" in the end. It was trying very hard to be serious within the context of a super-power romp. Nonetheless, it was very well written and the conceit was very clever.

Vicious by ..

By Paul Flynn Another birthday present from Kim. 

A nice easy read. The characters were fun, diverse and the action was intense. The plot was a bit formulaic with a fairly predictable arc.

By Jackson Ford A birthday present from my parents.

Absolutely fantastic - impossible to put down. This book is packed with righteous anger and pulls no punches. The book was published in 1975 and ends with a meta-reference to the book within the book. The characters predict that their children will not understand what this book is talking about - but that's OK - that would mean they've won. Sadly, we are their children, and the book is all too relevant today.

By Joanna Russ. (Picture missing) Almost as an antidote to Cryptonomicon - a book bursting with feminist energy. A birthday present from Kim that I can't wait to get stuck into.

This book is quite the journey. The story is interesting for the first couple of hundred pages, but clearly that is where the editor gave up, as most of the remainder plods around taking a long time to get anywhere. It is certainly cool that it essentially predicts crypto currencies (though as David points out, slightly absurd to back it with gold - something most major currencies have long since abandoned!). However, the books politics - essentially "if only nerds ran the world we'd all be OK" - are past their best. We now live in that world, and Bitcoin, FB and the rest have not saved us from authoritarian government, they practically ushered it in. The book also betrays it's pre-gamer gate origins with its unapologetic gendered nonsense: nerds are men, women are for fucking, women can't get laser focused on subjects, men lack social grace. All of the women in this book serve as targets for men's affection. Despite one of the characters, America, being d

Not sure when I finished this - certainly a while ago, but must have missed updating this blog.  I reference this book in conversations practically daily. It completely revolutionised my thinking and understanding of the carbon cost of things. I think this should be mandatory reading for everyone. I think if people had read this, we wouldn't be wasting our time trying to eliminate straws and instead working how we make a sustainable international transport system. I really want to read MBL's new book - "There is no Planet B".

By Neal Stephenson. I've been meaning to read something by this author. I heard Snow Crash is very good, but this was what was available the library!

This was a scary, powerful read for me, frequently inducing a feeling not dissimilar to that of walking across a glass ceiling at the top of a very tall building, unsure if you're about to plummet to your death. This was no doubt helped by reading it at a time where I have just dropped down to a four day week to focus on things besides my work. It is essentially a philosophical argument for having a less "productive" life. This easily feels like the most radical idea I've ever heard. I've spent (& still spend) most of my life trying to "do" things. While I am pretty good at not giving my all to my employer, I instead find other things to work towards: political activism, personal projects etc. This book encourages rejecting even this, and instead following your idiorrhythm and do what it feels like you want to do in that moment, rather than what you feel like you should do. I recognise the value in the arguments made, but it is hard for me. Even

It was good enough, but not one I would recommend. The books backdrop - a changing Iran - provided an interesting setting for the book. The two lead characters had lots of depth, and there were a couple of unexpectedly emotional bits that felt very real. Ironically, it was the technology - normally the most interesting aspect of Egan's books - that was lacking. The premise was "side loading" a specific humans behaviour into a template of a human brain. It was interesting to see this intermediate technology explored (i.e. on the way to, but not yet at, uploading human consciousness into a computer - a frequent occurrence in Egan's books). However, the story wanders around before simply stopping without really saying very much about it.

By By Mike Berners-Lee (who is in fact the brother of Tim Berners-Lee, best known for inventing the internet). I am a bit late in posting this (so back dating it), but I was very excited to start reading this (spoiler alert: it does not disappoint).

By Greg Egan. Making up for a lack of fiction I've read recently with one of my favourite sci-fi authors.

By Josh Cohen Christmas present from Mark.

Loved it - a beautiful melancholic wander through a human mind. It perfectly captured the tangential trains of though and the irrelevant details that regular thought does. It also had moments of spiralling cyclic thoughts which was interesting seen put into words. Hard to put down.

By Mike McCormack. I got this for Christmas last year and only just getting round to starting it...