This is a list, sorta'. And it’s in some kind of order, the order I’ve acquired them, but not really. I’ve also left out some, mostly the ones I didn’t like or were nothing more than airport terminal reads.

On Deck (Books that will never be finished?)

Ulysses by James Joyce

One sentence at a time sitting. Is that a rational approach to reading a book?

A Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov

Hmm?

Light Educational Fun

Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know by Malcolm Gladwell

This should be on my re-read list. There are times when I think, “I knew that, I just didn’t know I knew that.” Or, maybe I just want you to think I’m smart like Malcolm.

A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins

This one caused quite a bit of a stir in my mind. The idea that locomotion is a key ingredient in intelligence and how that will relate to AI is an area that is so important, not to mention the entire concept of ‘model, predict, focus on the exception’. So much knowledge, so little time.

The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease by Daniel Lieberman

Learning is fun, and slimy and gross. Are you healthy? Be grateful, very grateful.

The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century by Ian Mortimer

I only just started this one, so more thoughts later.

Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake

Another I’ve just stuck my toe into.

On-a-Run

Myths, Lies, and Half-Truths of Language Usage by John McWhorter (or anything he writes)

This book makes you smarter, or at the least makes it easier to appear smarter.

The Elements of Eloquence: Secrets of the Perfect Turn of Phrase by Mark Forsyth

I ingested this and I am entertained. I am entertained and thus I am engaged. I am engaged and thus I am educated.

Maybe I like etymology?

The Story of Human Language by John McWhorter

He knows how to use words, I don’t.

The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll Through the Hidden Connections of the English Language by Mark Forsyth

The Vikings named Starbucks?

Knowledge is Power

but you can’t use it to run the toaster

Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor

Gobsmacked I am.

The World Before Us: The New Science Behind Our Human Origins by Tom Higham

And by no means new.

Forgotten Peoples of the Ancient World by Philip Matyszak

Layers of people?

The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome by Susan Wise Bauer

Ya, this one is not so light, but is chock full of fascinating bits of knowledge. It brings home the idea that democracy is the worst form of government short of everything that came before it.

The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World by Robert Garland

Ok, ancient life might have been only half-horrible.

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate - Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben

Our ability to underestimate never ceases to amaze me. Go hug a tree, no seriously.

What If? : Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe

Now we’re cooking with gas. Can you cook dinner with nitromethane?

The Search for Exoplanets: What Astronomers Know by Joshua N. Winn

“I can see for miles and miles and miles…” doesn’t even begin to describe.

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany by William L. Shirer

To me this felt much like a fly-on-the-wall read. Oh yea, also as heavy as it gets.

The Nuremberg Trial by John Tusa, Ann Tusa

It’s beyond unfortunate that it took WWII to bring about the greatest feat of rationality.

The “I Didn’t Expect That” Category

Micromegas by Voltaire

Funny how it is, when you read a classic only to discover that there is a reason the book keeps getting read decades, or even centuries later. I assumed this one to be less approachable, maybe more arcane. You know, from judging a book by its cover…

This is Liteature

A Burnt Out Case by Graham Green “I feel discomfort, therefore I am alive”, the motto for the 2020’s?

“The pouches under his eyes were like purses that contained the smuggled memories of a disappointing life.”

…‘till Dad takes the keys to the T-Bird away

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Dark, fun, and quite colorful. Just so damn good.

The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (and the rest of The Wheel of Time.)

This man’s imagination is remarkable. Damn you Amazon.

Hunt for Red October & Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy

Love me some action.

The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth

Classic action works too.

Sci-Fi that should be Horror

or stories to scare your kids (jk, don’t let your kids read these.)

The Killing Star by George Zebrowski, Charles Pellegrino

Goodbye cruel world.

The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

Can I have my sleep back? Thanks Geoff.

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

“Wait, what?” - I didn’t know I need to be afraid, and I haven’t read the rest of the trilogy yet.

or Truth as Horror

Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety by Eric Schlosser

Sci-Fi, Glorious Sci-Fi

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

I won’t say the word, no I won’t. I don’t need to, this book has a pizza driver who works for the mafia.

Ubik by Philip K. Dick

Another one that I’m so glad I picked up.

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

I love it when an author does scifi right - Stretch my imagination, but keep it real.

Seveneves: A Novel by Neal Stephenson

Again, grand ideas presented within the bounds of reason make for great storytelling.

Hyperion by Dan Simmons

I cried for Rachel.

Strange world, crime is

American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century by Maureen Callahan

None of us fit into molds, not even the most broken of us.

Nut Jobs: Cracking California’s Strangest $10 Million Dollar Heist by Marc Fennell

People will steal anything.?

Narconomics: How to Run a Drug Cartel by Tom Wainwright

Crime and humanity; can’t have one without the other it seems.

Mind Stretchy

The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory by Brian Greene

I’ve read this one twice.

The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality by Brian Greene

And read this one.

The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos by Brian Greene

And after I read this one 3 or 4 times I realized I’ve read it an infinite number of times. Wait, I think I’m reading it right now. Yay me.

Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality by Max Tegmark

Would we ever be capable of inventing an AI that was not able to be aware of it’s artifical nature?

Haven’t gotten to

Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst by Robert Sapolsky

If the lectures on youtube are any indication this is going to be an eye opener. Some people are great at professing, Sapolsky is on that list.

So many more…

Do you have a recommendation ?

update history

  • 2/20/23
  • add: Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst by Robert Sapolsky
  • edit: minor fixes
  • 4/21/23 add A Burnt Out Case by Graham Green
  • 5/20/23 add Elements of Elequence: Secrets of the Perfect Turn of Phrase by Mark Forsyth
  • 5/20/23 add Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor
  • 5/20/23 add The World Before Us: The New Science Behind Our Human Origins by Tom Higham
  • 5/20/23 add Forgotten Peoples of the Ancient World by Philip Matyszak
  • 5/20/23 add Ulysses by James Joyce
  • 5/20/23 add Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety by Eric Schlosser