Tuesday, January 2, 2018

Reading log, 2017

The year 2017 marks when I caved and got a smartphone. Nevertheless, I still found time to read ordinary books.

My favorite from the year is Lord of Light, by Roger Zelazny (1969), a science fiction novel about planetary colonists who possess god-like technological capabilities and literally turn themselves into gods to be worshiped by people lacking those technologies. However, my one-sentence synopsis fails to capture the poetic beauty of the writing. That said, this book is not for everyone.

A more general recommendation is City of Thieves, by David Benioff (2008). It's about two young men in Stalingrad during the siege of World War 2 and their mission to procure a dozen eggs for a wedding cake for a Russian general's daughter.

Lastly, I'll point out that every book I read in 2017 was by an author I had never read before. This wasn't my original intention, but by summer it had become a thing and I kept the streak going. Towards the end of the year, I scoured my file of reading suggestions to find new authors, leading me to read a romance novel (!) set in pre-revolution eighteenth century France (These Old Shades, by Georgette Heyer (1926)) and Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1852)—both of which were great reads.

  • Daniel Suarez
    Daemon (2009)

  • Roger Zelazny
    Lord of Light (1967)

  • Malcolm Gladwell
    Outliers (2008)

  • Anthony Williams
    C++ Concurrency in Action (2012)

  • Charles C. Mann
    1941: New Relelations of the Americas Before Columbus (2005)

  • David Benioff
    City of Thieves (2008)

  • Michael Lewis
    The Undoing Project (2016)

  • Mary Shelley
    Frankenstein (1818)

  • James M. Cain
    The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934)

  • Robert Montgomery
    Sheppard Lee (1836)

  • Dashiell Hammett
    Red Harvest (1929)

  • Georgette Heyer
    These Old Shades (1926)

  • Harriet Beecher Stowe
    Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852)

First time to read author