Technically I have only read 1/3 of this book but coming in at a whopping 60 hours, I will count this as a book. I will continue to peck away at this, but it is too long. Not boring though...just long. I want to read more classics, but to be honest, I don't like them all that much. Just some personal pressure to say I read them and they were...ok

I love the work of William Morris...as a a designer. I had no idea he wrote a type SF-like time travel book about a perfect utopia without money or politics. It was not bad, a little slow like many of the books of this time, but not too long and I liked the simplicity of the story and his ideals.

Like the author's last name, this book was a little long, and could have been tightened up a little. I felt he was repeating a few things and not some main take home message. But overall this was my kind of analysis on what is similar about the creative people changing culture. A great pairing with the book below.

A little too much dates and dead people, but I got into the book ant this style of history after a while. It helped that I read the book above, 51 on creative geniuses AKA, polymaths. I could handled a little more analysis, but I got that from 51.

Biased but, the authors of one of my favorite series of all time (The Expanse) starting something new, something big, something different and using the same reader that I loved from before. Yes. Please.

This was excellent. I haven't read anything by Charles Burns before but his graphic novel Black Hole is quite famous and on my list. This story was super human and could really feel the characters developed even with so few words. Awesome.

This Booker Prize winner was...too beautiful and poetic? I am not sure, but it never really gelled in my brain. I kept waiting for more to come, something different, but it didn't. Might try the paper version and see of that helps. Probably not though.

Available in the KNG library!

This is book 5 in the Bobiverse series, and I love it. I thought he was winding down this series but there is definitely at least 1 more and if he can wrap up the huge story he just set up in one book I will be impressed.  High art? No. Major Awesome? Yes.

The quote says hugely enjoyable but where was that part? Other than a few random thoughts that had some decent impact, without any follow, this humble brag of a scattered diary should have remained on his bedside table. Bleh.

Available in the KNG library!

This was great and on my list for a long time. Easy and super and funny, great quotes and a real nice family story in for the ride.

Available in the KNG library!

The Culture Series Book 3 was good, but the structure was confusing. The book is made up of two narrative streams that alternate. One story moves forward chronologically and the other in reverse chronological order. Making this more complicated is a prologue and epilogue set shortly after the events of the main story, and many flashbacks within the chapters. It was confusing. The story was good...I think.

The Science Behind the Bean

This was a great little read and i learned a lot more about one of my favorite beverages...I guess I need to find the beer version next...

Available in the KNG library!

Read this on election day (finished it the day after) and it read way too much like a play-by-play guide to the next American administration. Bonkers.

Available in the KNG library!

The Strange Science of Immortality

I wanted to read a different book by this author, Beak of the Finch, but I could not find the audio. This was fun, and a lot more of a biography of the English gerontologist Aubrey de Grey, but quite good. I guess it would be nice to not die of natural causes...but I think too late for me.

How To Get By Without Even Trying

Such. An. Amazing. Book. So funny and so spot on. One you can come back to again and again. Cooper is a master BSer.

Available in the KNG library!

Hundreds of Questions You'd Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Martini 

Some interesting medical stuff but a lot of cheesy jokes. It was not too long, thankfully. The authors are cheeseballs and the interludes were bad.

Available in the KNG library!

Very current and very now, enjoyed almost all of this book but the God stuff. Hamas turned Christian so I guess he's got to preach the word a little...but hope for peace or a cessation of violence between Israel and Hammas seems even farther away after reading this.

Wow, this was surprisingly great and although I saw the movie many many years ago, I really need to rewatch because I can't remember the ending being what it was in the book at all! 

Short, but this guy writes great human-based science fiction with relatable characters and fun unique stories. This was on of them.

Hard to like this one and I see why it was liked or hated. I guess Kafkaesque is this confusing tale a world class piano player (maybe) suffering from some sort of cognitive impairment like Alzheimer's and is confused about everything and it was pretty wild and hard to get through.

More of a 2.5 but really forgettable. Not all that funny either but comedy is very subjective, so I guess not for me.

I think most of my family read this one and I can see why. Just a light but heavy read on a young man with some really bad stuff going on in his life. Relationships and trauma, but this was a really good read...unlike A Little Life, number 30 on this list.

This was both a lot of fun and a fairly scientifically accurate description of evolution. I actually got the recommendation from the evolutionary book, Wonderful Life, number 28 on this list. Solid Vonnegut.

Jesus, this book. I would never recommend this to anyone. Amazingly well written, heartbreaking, painful, and super hard to read. Despair and pain at every possible turn. hard to enjoy this much despair and hardship. Jesus, I don't know...this book is just a long-ass tome of sadness.

I was interested in his perhaps more famous book Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid which came up in book 12 (Upgrade by Blake Crouch) but read this one instead. He wrote this book because he felt people didn't get the premise of the other book, strange loops, and this was more clear. Maybe. Long it was and some parts were great, but some parts dragged on a bit. Not used to the topic, philosophy, perhaps, but overall this was a lot of fun.

I have been sitting on this book for almost 25 years and I finally read it. I think it was first recommended to me in college and I bought it aruond the same time and despite a few attempts to start it over the years, I kept putting it down and not finishing. Well, I did it and I really liked it. The very, very detailed descriptions of the Burgess shal fossils were sometimes a bit too much but the nature of history parts were fantastic. Such a good writer. Looking forward to reading more by him.

My sister made my nephew read this and he was cheesed so decided to read it too. It was fantastic. The only thing was that it was a little heavy on sex related addictions, including the author's own personal story, and I think that a little more variation would give the reader more of a dopamine comes from anything vibe. Awesome, short, and helpful read.

The Culture series book 2 continues the saga, but in a very different stand alone story. I was a little meh at the beginning, maybe because it was so different, but really got into it by the end. A very large turnaround, as I was not very into it at the beginning but was very into it at the end.

My son read this for summer homework and I though I would revisit. Actually although I read it, it was so long ago it was basically reading it for the first time. Great book and still crazy after all these years.

Available in the KNG library!

My bread and butter back in university, I used to really enjoy and knew only big earth history (still, human history is a real dead zone in my understanding) and this was a great refresher. A lot covered in a short time but that was warned in the title.

Really more of part 2 than book 2, but both were fun and an enjoyable read. I think these would make excellent high school reading and discussion. 

This was a fun and easy read feel-good read recommended by a friend. Perhaps a little fluffier than I am used to, but I enjoyed and got into the 2 main characters (the monk and the robot). I enjoyed the use of modern gender terms (the monk is nonbinary and called Sibling Dex not Brother Dex...and that took me too long to figure out.

One of the most interesting and unique books I have ever read. The style is one of a kind. A very slow build up of characters each given a backstory in a different style of writing, and then an airplane with all it's passengers duplicates and now there are 2 people with almost the same memories...the plane landed 3 months later. Crazy and crazy...a lust read. 

Book 1 in the extensive Culture series. Constantly recommended, I have been putting this off for a while. Glad I got to it...It was a bit of a slow burn, but in the end was hooked on the characters...and surprised  a little by the ending. Looking forward to seeing where this is all going. 

I loved the movie and this oral history of one of the funniest and stupidest movies ever was a masterclass. I think this is for fans only, but luckily the movie has a lot of fans! Super good. Watch the movie. Laugh. Watch it 4 more times, and before the 6th, check this book. Audio is mostly by all the people involved in the movie. Awesome.

What really interested me in this one was that it was read by the author but it was recorded in a time, 1986, when many authors did not do that. So that was cool. The selections felt rather random and I would have preferred one story or a side story, something that was a little more connected. Some parts seemed a little hard to follow and I have read the first 2 books in his series!

Very similar to his followup book, Do the Work (one I read last year) but not quite a good. Actually very similar, but there was a few weird sections near the end where he talks about angels and religion. Felt odd and off putting for me...mostly good stuff but for that. 

Aliens have made contact but they are so much more advanced than us that it is really hard to communicate. What do you do? Send a grade school science teacher in to help. Super fun book.

Light, very short, and some great, very hidden, shots at Trump. I love John Scalzi. This short story is no Nobel Prize winner but a very enjoyable read.

A short and quick pop culture heavy read from a Cuban writer I definitely want to be friends with. Pulp crime fiction with, simulants, aliens, and crazy tech. A lot of fun. 

A series of short play-by-play reports of basements, fleeing, death, reluctance, acceptance, destruction and despair. As the news cycle moves on, and out attention elsewhere, this is a nice but tragic reminder that life moves on but tragedy remains. A heartbreaking must read.

A super human genetic upgrade in the near future where gene modification is illegal and commonplace. This was a lot of fun and ever better than one of his previous books Dark Matter (recommended to me by Mr Platt). Very sciency, and real life science at that, and just a great read. Would not be surprised if a movie or series pops up soon. 

A little too many examples and a little too Amercentric, this was however eye-opening, despite being all that unexpected...do billionaires really care? Not really. Not at all. Shocker.

A tragic story of shitty tech people in a super shitty tech world, treating a normal woman trying to make her mark like absolute shit. Not the feel good read of the summer but an honest look at a crappy part of our lives. 

I have been putting this one off since it came out but it was a strong reinforcement of the reasons why I gave up on social media and have no regrets. What an awful awful story and facebook is one of the biggest companies in the world. Sucks and glad I am not using anything from Meta anymore. Must read.

Although not quite as good as the first book and there was an unrealistic conversion of an antagonistic character for no reason, it was a very nice and fluid continuation of the story and explained more about the planet and its original residents. Back to back read was the way to go.

Man, stumbled upon this one because AppleTV is making a movie directed by Bong Joon-ho and starring Robert Pattinson, and it did not disappoint. The premise, a disposable human with unlimited clones used on a beachhead colony on a new world, sounded great. It also has the comedy and goffiness like The Martian and Bobiverse that I love. Awesome fun book. It was also the 7th book this year and that was a bonus.

Finished the sequel and was much more meh than expected. Dragged on in more parts than expected and maybe because it was so similar to the first the thrill was gone...the whodunnit character was again a little hard to guess by design. It was ok....no regrets, but might not jump on any future ones.

This murder mystery was super fun and was actually a murder mystery about a murder mystery editor who was proofreading a murder mystery. You actually get 2 books in one as you get the book in the book as well. A great premise, super well written, and a lot of fun. The only downside was I did not like the whodunnit character as I felt it was too hard to guess it was them. I am reading the sequel now...

A very short book that has come up on a few podcasts I have listened to, and touts you are your own worst enemy and obstacle in taking on or starting a new project or adventure. Definatley one to read again if I was considering a new path. Short, succinct, and to the point, it was motivating to say the least. 

This was a fun challenge and really helped me sleep better and take a step back and look at a habit that could probably be changed. I actually went over 30 days and have been drinking a lot less this year because of it. Step by step and day by day, this book makes it easy (if a tad repetitive at times. 

This was a super good book. A nonfiction story that read like a great spy novel a la Ian Fleming. I am not a war guy but this was a great history of a Japanese American who went through a horrible time in American history and the treatment/persecution of people of Japanese descent. Awesome story. (Mark Harmon is a pretty famous actor actually...)

I think this was probably closer to a 3.5 but I haven't figured out the half star yet. A very good piece of fan fiction that adds some interesting back story to some of the Three-Body cannon. Not needed is too harsh, not bad is not enough. A fun read but not as smooth or easy as the original series....still fan fiction.