Reading

A listing of the books I've read since the beginning of 2004. I only bother because I get so little reading time these days that I figure I'll be lucky to add more than twenty titles a year.

• Ignobel Prizes
• Marc Abrahams
• Science / Humor
• I'm not done yet, but this book is awesome.

• Ubik
• Philip K. Dick
• Science Fiction
• Interesting.

• The Universe In A Nutshell
• Stephen Hawking
• Science
• Not nearly as good as I'd hoped it would be. All of the cute figures and diagrams gave it a very Cosmos feel, but the text had nowhere near the depth or interest. It's a shame, because the topics alone should have made the book fascinating.

• Fast Food Nation
• The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
• Eric Schlosser
• Culture / Society
• This book did not shock me; I've long been aware of the way our food is prepared and distributed, not least because many years back I spent a couple of years working at a McDonald's. It also wasn't as ravingly left-wing as some had portrayed it to be, at least not until the last chapter. Up until then, it was pretty much a description of what happens and how it affects workers.

• Guns, Germs, and Steel
• The Fates of Human Socities
• Jared Diamond
• Science / History
• An interesting look at the development of humanity and how geographic bounty may explain why some societies completely overran others. I did find the writing to be a bit on the dull side, which helps explain why it took me four months to finally get to the end of the book, but the ideas were compelling and well argued.

• Metaplanetary
• Tony Daniel
• Science Fiction
• I've been a fan of Tony Daniel ever since reading his short story collection The Robot's Twilight Companion, and this book didn't disappoint. In this tale, thirty-first century humanity is plunged into civil war as conflict erupts between the physically interlinked Inner System and the remote Outer Planets. (This title is part one of a two-part series.)

• Red White & Liberal
• How Left is Right and Right is Wrong
• Alan Colmes
• Politics
• An intelligent, reasoned, and above all reasonable exploration of liberal thought and views. The text is refreshingly free of venom and Colmes indulges in minimal partisan sniping, choosing instead to focus on what makes liberalism attractive and how it can improve society.

• Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them
• A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right
• Al Franken
• Politics
• I found this to be a bit too vitriolic for my tastes, although it is loaded with facts (actual facts, not opinions) that are worth knowing. The chapter on the Paul Wellstone memorial service was outstanding and almost worth the price of the book. Of course, since this was a Christmas present, that's easy for me to say.

• Faster
• The Acceleration of Just About Everything
• James Gleick
• Science / Society
• As fast a read as its title would suggest, and a fascinating look at the way in which society's pace continues to accelerate, leaving us all feeling more pressed for time.

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