danny@danielredding.com:~$ cat books.txt
Books Mostly sci-fi and LitRPG. # Favorites * Stories of Your Life and Others - Ted Chiang Excellent collection of stories including the source for the movie "Arrival" * Dragon's Egg - Robert L. Forward Such a good story. I felt genuinely interested in this alien species and their growth * Advent - Xander Boyce An interesting Post-Apocalyptic LitRPG series. Good mechanics and characters * Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky Also read the sequels. Really excellent writing but a bit technical. Amazing ability to imagine new types of life. * We Are Legion (We Are Bob) - Dennis E. Taylor Start of the Bobiverse. Fun, a bit silly in parts, but excellent and easy to read while still being serious about scifi * Contact - Carl Sagan OG sci-fi of course. The whole book is a bit impersonal but still good. The ending contains an excellent idea. * Wyrms - Orson Scott Card Probably the most underrated story I know of. Orson Scott Card is my favorite author most of the time. This story is original, witty, unique characters, intense scenes, and new ideas. * The Inner Game of Tennis - W. Timothy Gallwey A good book about learning. All of this is pretty apparent to me but it's obvious that most people don't know this about physical skills. # Sci-fi * The Enderverse - Orson Scott Card Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind, Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadows in Flight — plus the First Formic War books with Aaron Johnston (Earth Unaware, Earth Afire, Earth Awakens, The Swarm, The Hive). My favorite author. Excellent serious writing that still pulls me in. Xenocide and Speaker for the Dead stand out as under appreciated. * The Worthing Saga - Orson Scott Card A fascinating book on several levels. Really brings to reality the problems of having power. * The Martian / Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir Excellent new sci-fi writing that is fun but intended-realistic. * Dune - Frank Herbert I liked this because I like looking into the simple things, deeper - which is what this whole book is about one person doing. * Ready Player One / Ready Player Two - Ernest Cline RP1 is fun and exciting. RP2 is more serious and harder to swallow. Good concepts though. * Foundation - Isaac Asimov I had a hard time getting past the first one. Good stuff though. * The Forever War / Forever Peace - Joe Haldeman * Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C. Clarke A classic. Good writing interesting concepts. * The Interdependency trilogy - John Scalzi The Collapsing Empire, The Consuming Fire, The Last Emperox. This series was interesting and fun. Not something I'd repeat but good. * Consider Phlebas - Iain M. Banks Ah this is a difficult book. Wide story, multiple threads, converging on one scene basically. There's a weird scene in the middle that I basically hated. I liked it overall but it didn't add much to my life or thoughts. I'm working on Player of Games now. Hopefully it's better. * Hell Divers - Nicholas Sansbury Smith I grew tired of this but managed to finish it. Not a bad idea but it really doesn't seem to work for me. * Outland / Earthside - Dennis E. Taylor The writing in this somehow feels subpar to me but I love the concept and how this plays out. Hard for me to track all the different characters in audiobook. It's probably a better hardcover. * Freedom's Landing series - Anne McCaffrey Ah a true pet favorite of mine. I love the "fresh start - explore - buildup - expand" pattern. Story is good, lots of fun characters. An excellent blend of things. I've read the whole series a few times now. I haven't read her better known works. True story my mom sold books on eBay when I was a teenager and somehow I remember just seeing the cover of this book. I remembered it years later, googled until I found the book, and somehow it was a good one. * The Genesis Fleet - Jack Campbell Vanguard, Ascendant, Triumphant. * 1632 series - Eric Flint (with David Weber) 1632, 1633, 1634: The Baltic War. Truly a great couple of books. The 3rd one is where I start getting lost. Gets a bit too heavy into historical power structures that I don't understand. But the first 2 really set up a good story and world building approach that feels genuinely interesting and unique. The key idea is this: a small WV mining town is transported back in time to 1632 Germany. There's a war going on and the good ol' boys from WV setup shop. It really reiterates what America is all about and makes you feel good about patriotism again. * Starship Troopers - Robert A. Heinlein Another classic. I liked this much more than I expected actually. The movie itself is pretty good for different reasons but the book is an excellent read. * A Princess of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter of Mars is what most people would know from this series I think. Decent read. Fun, good imagination maybe a bit simplistic from the perspective of some side characters. * The Machine Stops - E.M. Forster Good, if a bit depressing maybe. * Junk - Les Bohem A pretty wild book I must say. Gritty and visceral maybe. Very interesting though. * Sovereign - Jeff Hirsch * Infinite - Jeremy Robinson Pretty good. Maybe a bit reductive seeing as the main character 1 shots AGI in a year but can't seem to crack some sort of encryption. * Breakthrough - Michael C. Grumley Couldn't finish this. I think I just got bored with the genre or something. Probably will pick it up again. * The Adventures of Tom Stranger, Interdimensional Insurance Agent - Larry Correia Fun read, unserious as you can imagine. # LitRPG & progression fantasy * Advent / Temper - Xander Boyce See favorites. Temper is the follow-up in the series. * Ether Collapse series - Ryan DeBruyn Equalize, Equatorial, Excise, Emulation, Earthdom Good read. Like the world building. It does weigh down as you go a bit but I just don't think too much and it's fun. * Towers of Heaven / Collect the World - Cameron Milan Excellent read. I've gone through Towers of Heaven twice at least. Post-apocalyptic. * Oh, Great! I Was Reincarnated as a Farmer - Benjamin Kerei Plus the sequel, Oh, Great! I Discovered How to Cultivate a Farmer in 52 Easy Steps. Fun sort of story. Take your hacker mindset everywhere and this is basically what you get. * All the Skills - Honour Rae * The Ten Realms - Michael Chatfield Made it through The Third Realm before it lost me. * Divergence -> Dispute run - Sean Oswald Divergence, Collapse, Countdown, Resistance, Contention, Control, Dispute. * Dungeon World - Jonathan Brooks From my Audible review: found it after Advent, which was incredible — this is decent by comparison, but worth a listen. I got lost after a bit. Was hard to keep going but I liked the initial setup pretty well. * Reborn: Apocalypse - L.M. Kerr # Mystery, thriller & classics * Agatha Christie And Then There Were None, The Moving Finger, The Murder at the Vicarage, Crooked House, plus a good chunk of Poirot's Finest Cases. A lot of original work here that you may not realize is the basis for many many modern story lines. Excellent writing. * Pendergast books - Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child Relic, Reliquary, The Cabinet of Curiosities. Unique, darkish feel, a bit of sci-fi. Good writing. * Harry Potter (complete series) - J.K. Rowling I first started reading these as a teenager. I was completely engrossed. Technical sort of magic world but simple enough to get into. Story and characters are awesome. Scene building and writing is excellent. Good fun all the way around. * The Chronicles of Narnia (complete) - C.S. Lewis The Magicians Nephew and The Silver Chair are my favorites and it's such a shame no one has made a decent movie about them save the BBC versions. * The Tales of Alvin Maker - Orson Scott Card Seventh Son through The Crystal City — all six. A unique series. It takes on American style folktale quality. * Animal Farm - George Orwell Was an interesting read. Now I know why everyone teaches base on this. It's short and digestible while spoon-feeding concepts. * Midnight for Charlie Bone - Jenny Nimmo A beautiful series. Explores a world of endowments and power struggles. Terrible aunts and amazing friends. The specific feel of this is a small English town with bookshops and tea and history. * The Island of the Blue Dolphins - Scott O'Dell I read this as a child and loved the story even though it was a bit sad. * The Way Things Really Work - A silly thing explaining lots of terrible things in fun ways. Like, why the DMV sucks. :P # Nonfiction * The Way Things Work - David Macaulay A fun reference sort of book with simplified drawings of different objects and processes. * Freakonomics / Think Like a Freak - Levitt & Dubner Good stuff. Lots of interesting perspectives and methods for analysis are in these. * The Art of Learning - Josh Waitzkin * The Singularity Is Nearer - Ray Kurzweil Ray is amazing and somehow the most accurate of prophets. * Elon Musk - Walter Isaacson A good peek into the mind of a very successful person. Reminds me of Steve Jobs. * Steve Jobs - Walter Isaacson Excellent look into the history and mind of an extremely smart person who had a dramatic influence on the growth of personal computing. * The Innovator's Dilemma - Clayton M. Christensen This guides a lot of my thinking about the future and investing. Though mostly I've arrived where I am independently of anything else. * Zero to One - Peter Thiel An excellent glimpse into Peter's mind and helps me think a bit about business. Though I don't manage funds or anything. * Thinking in Systems - Donella H. Meadows Got what I needed without finishing it. Seems like a lot repeats. Should have applied more systems :P * Options Trading - T.R. Lawrence Yeah this is a generic investing self help book. Good overview of a specific pattern trade. I haven't decided to implement this since I believe pretty hard in specific things and usually invest that way. * Sampled, took the good parts: Why We Sleep, Mindset, Staring at the Sun, The Headspace Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness, The 3-Day Effect. I don't find mindfulness that interesting. Nor do I find death a compelling thing to consider motivationally. Sleep is interesting though and I should probably finish that. # Couldn't finish * The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas Ran out of time before I ran out of book. It's absurdly long but excellent writing. * The Overstory - Richard Powers IDK why I couldn't get into this. * The Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson This is high fantasy and so many people love it but I...just can't get into it. * Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert A. Heinlein Good book. A bit odd in the beginning and that's probably why I couldn't finish it. I tend to get weird about religion. * The Lost Gate - Orson Scott Card This is the only book by OSC that I couldn't really even get into. * Artemis - Andy Weir IDK the moon base lost appeal to me. * The Keeper Chronicles - JA Andrews This is long and it feels long the whole way. # Unsorted * Hatchet - Gary Paulsen * The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien * The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien * The Silmarillion - J.R.R. Tolkien * Bridge to Terabithia - Katherine Paterson * Animorphs (series) - K.A. Applegate * The Inheritance Cycle (Eragon) - Christopher Paolini * Jurassic Park / The Lost World - Michael Crichton * Redwall (series) - Brian Jacques * The Boxcar Children (series) - Gertrude Chandler Warner * The Hardy Boys (series) - Franklin W. Dixon * Nancy Drew (series) - Carolyn Keene * Dinotopia / The World Beneath - James Gurney * The Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis * The Bible