A List of What I've Been Reading.

I’m really big on reading. My commute to work is an hour to and an hour from so I get at least two hours of reading in five days a week. Not to mention all the short stories I sneak while at work and whatever I get to on the weekends. Now, being in school definitely cuts into my recreational reading but I’ve been trying to keep track to see how many books I can manage in a year. So far I’ve only read five science fiction books.

1. The Man In The High Castle by Philip K. Dick – I’m a huge fan of PKD. Most of you are probably familiar with at least one of the several movies based on his writing. Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly are just a few of more popular ones. Of course, if you liked the movies it might not mean that you’ll like the writing. Dick’s style is borderline surreal, oftentimes his narrators don’t know if they’re experiencing reality or something else, and the movies based on his work have generally had a lot of plot changes. I finally got around to reading The Man In The High Castle because there was an Amazon pilot of it. I know, I know that contradicts what I just said. But the pilot was amazing and even if I know I’ll dislike it I always have to experience all the mediums of something I’ve enjoyed. It’s a quirk that’s pretty terrible for my husband who often winds up watching really bad adaptations with me.
2. To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis – This book is hilarious. I wasn’t expecting that. It takes place in a universe that Willis has set several other books and short stories and they aren’t nearly this funny. It deals with time travel so you know that things can get confused and provide hilarious misunderstandings. Apparently if you want to get into the Oxford Time Travel stories (as they’re called) To Say Nothing of the Dog is not the one to start with because it’s the only one that is comedic. That being said I found the humor subtle and refreshing. There were times when I was literally laughing out loud on the train.
3. Dangerous Visions by Harlan Ellison – This is an anthology so it’s a little harder to discuss in terms of liking it. However, I’ll run the risk of contradicting myself at some later point by saying that I really enjoyed it. Sure there were some short stories that I found kind of boring or way too long for what they were, but on the whole everything was easy to invest in. The thing I found particularly attractive about this collection was that each short story came with an introduction by Ellison (often relating anecdotes about the author) and a closing statement by the author about the piece. Ellison’s introductions were informative and easy to read and it’s always nice to get a view of an artist as a person. The closing statements were good for me because I just enjoy hearing writers talk about their work.
4. Neuromancer by William Gibson – So, maybe I’m cheating a little with this one because I was doing my annual reread of this iconic work of cyberpunk. Still it deserves to be noted. Neuromancer is one of my favorite novels. As in whenever I have to contemplate what book I would like to have with me while stranded somewhere it’s always in my top five. This book is responsible for so much that changed in the sci-fi literary genre in the 80s. Despite some outdated looks on technology it still holds up. It has one of the first hacker-hero characters which quickly developed into a character archetype. Neuromancer is quintessential to my personal canon of works that effected by development as a fan.
5. The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin – Alright, so this is also cheating since I’m in the middle of reading this. I guess I’m just a cheater. This book is on the ballot to win a Hugo Award (controversy regarding the awards this year aside) and with good reason. Originally written in Chinese I can’t speak for the translation quality but I don’t find the prose hard to understand at all. There’s a lot of scientific and mathematical jargon, but that’s par for the course with lots of science fiction. It’s a book I’m excited to add to my list of books I’ve finished this year.

What books have you read recently that you would recommend to someone?