Geography

Books

Cover for The Guns, Germs, and Steel

Put me on a path to read all sorts of history, evolutionary biology, and linguistics books.

Cover for Another Day of Life

A history of Angola’s civil war as seen through the eyes of a Polish journalist.

Cover for Conquerors

The history of Portugal’s colonization in the Indian Ocean. Does a really good job of showing how out of their element the Portuguese were, how they got incredibly lucky to be able to establish a multi-century foothold in Asia.

Cover for Ringworld

Neat premise, surprisingly still holds up given it’s age

Cover for The Martian

Fun nerdy read with enough semi-realistic science to make it plausible.

Cover for Redshirts

If you’ve watched more than a season of Star Trek (any version), then you’ll probably enjoy this

Can be a little tricky to keep the Chinese names straight, but some really interesting ideas. Each book is quite different.

Cover for Project Hail Mary

After the disappointing Artemis, Andy Weir is back with a read that recaptures the nerdy fun of The Martian

Cover for Adventures on the Wine Route

A bit dated now, but some interesting stories about the French wine industry in the 80s. Drags at times with random stories though.

Cover for A City on Mars

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.

Cover for On the Road

Didn’t speak to me, but perhaps I was too young

Some good ideas, but way too long

The evolution and biology of a vastly different form of life living on a neutron star. Some interesting ideas, but should have been half the length. Written in the 80s and showing it’s age.

There are over 15 books in this series, not ready to dedicate that much time here

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