Three Stars
I enjoyed these
Books
Nerdy, detail-oriented look into what it would really take to have humans living in space. Gets a bit bogged down in legal/governance details, but I enjoyed the exploration of biological and logistical issues.
This took a long while to read. Drags a bit in the middle, but finishes strong.
Read right these right before the show came out, still waiting for the next book, though I’ve mostly lost interest after how the show ended.
Haven’t gotten around to book 3 yet
Silly fun
A bit dated now, but some interesting stories about the French wine industry in the 80s. Drags at times with random stories though.
Hard sci-fi with some interesting ideas for an alien ecosystem. Pairs well with Parasite Rex
Easy reading, but gets repetitive after a while
Bob’s consciousness is uploaded into a spaceship’s, which heads out to explore the universe. Breezy reading, with style reminiscent of The Martian at times.
Space antics with realistic physics. Quality dips midway through, but first few books are great. I haven’t watched the show yet.
Final book jumps quite a bit ahead in time, can be skipped
Light and easy popcorn fantasy
Quick series with some interesting ideas (human hive minds, vampires in space).
Read this right before I started working at Microsoft.
Fun read, but turns out it’s mostly fake.
The two books are interesting takes on foreign intelligence. The third book is skippable.
Basically a 300-page long New Yorker article about the history of the semiconductor industry
There are over 15 books in this series, not ready to dedicate that much time here
Read the Spanish translation because I was traveling and ran out of books
Series starts strong, though the most recent books were just OK. Waiting on the final five books to be written.
A good idea, but this is a New Yorker article worth of content stretched into a book.
Modern retelling of David Copperfield set in Appalachia
Quite ahead of it’s time for 1997, tells the story of the emergence of an AI through email exchanges.
Don't mistake this for a book about FTX, the focus here is Sam Bankman-Fried. Worthwhile if you're interested in his story and the genesis of FTX. more »
Plot-driven and entertaining, I enjoyed them at the time. There are additional books out now, but haven’t felt the need to continue.
I read the Portuguese (Portugal) translations of these
A parallel world where Neanderthals won instead of us.
tldr: Break big projects into small manageable tasks, understand the odds, and plan carefully
There are five more books in the series that I haven’t gotten around to
I embarked on this (silly) goal to read ten Spanish-language books in 2023, but stupidly picked this 555-page monster with plenty of challenging Castilian vocabulary as my first book. Unsurprisingly, my reading speed in Spanish is far slower than English, and I discovered how much of my love of books is due to reading quickly. I kept on pausing this book to read other quick (English language) reads, so it took me about a year and half to finish this. I enjoyed the book, though my Spanish isn’t quite at the level to fully appreciate the quality of the writing.
Portuguese translation
Much more comics-focused than Understanding Comics
I haven’t played the games or watched the show, but the books are enjoyable enough if you like the genre.
If you like Stephenson’s other books, you’ll probably like this as well.
Considered an absolute masterpiece, these were crazy dense and I wasn’t in a time of my life where I had the spare brainpower to fully appreciate.
The first book is definitely worth reading, the rest are quite different.
Could have been edited down a bit, but overall was a fun series to read
Can be a little tricky to keep the Chinese names straight, but some really interesting ideas. Each book is quite different.
If a book about capitalism within a fantasy world sounds like a good time, then this book is for you.
Portuguese translation
Popcorn read that is pretty much what you expect from the title. Enjoyable read, but I’m surprised it was nominated for the Hugo.
Not as good as the first, but if you love dinosaurs…
Title sounds like a a cheesy romance, but it’s actually a true story about exploration in the Amazon jungle.
First book in the new series by the authors of The Expanse, shows promise.
This was a long series of posts on kuro5hin, eventually made into a book
Good intro to the benefits of fasting, in case (like me) you have to convince people you’re not crazy for not eating six times a day
I know a lot of people that love this 10-book series, but I wasn’t a fan of the first, though the second was better
Came very highly recommended, many likened it to Ready Player One, which isn’t a great comparison. Though both books lean heavily into nostalgic video games, this book is really about relationships, romantic and platonic. Not a bad read, but didn’t live up to the hype for me.
Heart’s in the right place I guess, but the authors got super lucky buying bonds when rates were high in the 80s so good luck replicating that