Mike's Reading List 📚
This is my attempt to capture the books that I have read or will read soon. It was previously based soley on my library borrowing history and my Kindle purchases as recorded by Amazon, but I recently found an older booklist that I was maintaining. Unfortunately that list does not contain dates, so I am slotting them in at some period after their release.
As I go forward I may also add my thoughts on each book as well. Right now that's a bit of a daunting task since there are quite a few.
Coming Up:
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📘 Fall, or Dodge in Hell
By: Neal Stephenson, Acquired: May 2026
This book is meaty. Not in the culinary sense, but there’s a lot of it. In typical? Stephenson style, a lot of description of scenes. But it rewards you by making all that relevant later! I’m about 1/3 of the way through.
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📘 Fahrenheit-182: A Humorous and Inspirational Memoir by Mark Hoppus of Blink-182
By: Mark Hoppus, Dan Ozzi, Acquired: May 2025
another blink-182 member’s book, now we just wait for Tom to write one.
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📘 Can I Say: Living Large, Cheating Death, and Drums, Drums, Drums
By: Travis Barker, Gavin Edwards, Acquired: April 2025
I picked this up mostly so my son (a drummer and huge blink-182 fan) could read it, but I’ll eventually get to it also.
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📘 Me, But Better: The Science and Promise of Personality Change
By: Olga Khazan, Acquired: March 2025
I heard the author on a podcast and was super interested to read it. I’m about 1/4 of the way through (a hold came up on another fiction book I needed to burn through) but it’s just starting to get into the details of the subject.
The Author spends a bit of time establishing the motivation behind creating this work, and how it relates to their job and experiments they’ve tried before. They relate life experiences that kind of paint a picture of how they got to ‘where they were’ as an adult, and why they want to change things. While I can’t relate to every aspect of their childhood, I can relate to trying to backfill the timeline that gives some explanation of where I am and why I feel the way I do/react to things in the world the way I do.
Looking forward to making more progress on this one once I burn through my holds on borrowed books.
Read:
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📘 Across the Sand
Series: The Sand Chronicles #2
By: Hugh Howey, Acquired: April 2026
Across the Sand picked up where book 1 left off, and developed a lot more of this world that was hinted at in the first one. There were a lot of different ways/avenues that could be explored after the first book, and I honestly didn’t see this angle coming. It was satisfying, I will read the third book when it’s published, but I’m not like staying awake all night.
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📘 Permutation City
By: Greg Egan, Acquired: March 2026
This was another interesting exploration into the nature of consciousness, what it means to ‘live’ in a virtual world (or many virtual worlds). I liked it — it did not have a huge payoff at the end, but it was an interesting journey. the timeline jumped around a bit, so you need to pay attention to the date provided with each chapter.
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📘 Accelerando
By: Charles Stross, Acquired: January 2026
I didn’t know this when I started, but I wasn’t quite prepared for this book.
It starts out as a vaguely weird, interesting story. But as the timeline progresses (and makes a few leaps ahead) it goes bananas. In a good way.
As soon as I got done reading it, I wanted to start over from the beginning.
I’m still trying to wrap my head around it, and I don’t want to spoil anything because I want you to read it also.
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📘 The Left Hand of Darkness
By: Ursula K. Le Guin, Acquired: January 2026
I really liked this one. not flash-bang whizz sci-fi, but more an exploration of society, dynamics, government, even a bit of predestination? And a touching story about human connection.
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📘 Iron Sunrise
By: Charles Stross, Acquired: December 2025
Iron Sunrise is the second book, and the scale of the conflict is much bigger than in Singularity Sky. It was a bit different but I really liked it. I became attached to some of the characters in this one, they won’t be back in the third book and I’m a bit bummed about that.
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📘 Singularity Sky
By: Charles Stross, Acquired: November 2025
Singularity Sky is the first book in a pair that is quite different from stuff I’ve read before (and very different from what I’ve read lately). Initially it struck me as inane, and I wasn’t sure that I could continue with it. But it settled down into a comprehensible story and I really enjoyed it. I immediately got the second book.
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📘 Woken Furies
By: Richard K. Morgan, Acquired: October 2025
Finished book three of the Takeshi Kovacs trilogy. He was a little difficult to deal with in this one. A lot has happened since the end of the events in Broken Angels, and Kovacs had a lot going on.
This was an interesting blend of revealing information about his younger life, his reaction to traumatic events, and how he channels this into a cause that he doesn’t fully believe in, but also serves some of personal interests.
It was a satisfying end, or at least, a satisfying conclusion to this era. I think I’m going to need something a lot lighter for my next book.
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📘 Broken Angels
By: Richard K. Morgan, Acquired: September 2025
The second book in the Takeshi Kovacs series, this one is more about planetary conflict and the interaction of governments with corporations. I did enjoy learning more about the Martians and how humanity was/is affected by discovering their technology - and boy! There are some big discoveries in this one. (also more sex scenes to skip past - ugh)
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📘 Altered Carbon
By: Richard K. Morgan, Acquired: August 2025
I have to admit, I think I’ve read this one before? In paperback, soon after it was released (2002). At the time I didn’t know it was (going to be?) a trilogy, so I read it again with the intent to continue on to books two and three.
As dystopian noir science fiction goes, this series might be at the extent of the noir that I’m comfortable with. It’s a bit too ‘gritty’ and I really don’t ever appreciate sex scenes, especially ones that are so explicity described (I skipped over a few). The premise is interesting enough that I will continue on the next two books.
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📘 Snowglobe 2
Series: The Snowglobe Duology #2
By: Soyoung Park, Acquired: July 2025
I wrapped this one up pretty quickly. I … did not super enjoy it? It was satisfying as it explained some of the ‘magical’ aspects that I found weird in the first book, but ultimately I didn’t really get absorbed and feel good at the end.
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📘 Moon of the Turning Leaves
By: Waubgeshig Rice, Acquired: July 2025
A sequel to Moon of the Crusted Snow, which I honestly didn’t think would have a sequel? But it was recommended to me by some algorithm and I’m glad.
It picks up on where the first book left off, plus ten years. As post-apocalypses go, that usually means quite a difference. It’s enough time to represent an abandonment of hope to ‘return to the old world’ but also to spark some wonder about ‘what happened to everyone else?’
It answers those questions. The end was a mix of happiness and sadness, hope and forlorn. As all good post-apoc is, I suppose. Will there be a third book? the door does seem to be open.
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📘 Beacon 23
By: Hugh Howey, Acquired: July 2025
Another Hugh Howey book, I had a hold on this one for a while and when it came up, I burned through it pretty quickly. I also didn’t know that a tv series was made from it.
It’s an interesting story, a lighthouse keeper in space. Everything you think about manning a lifehouse, the loneliness and psychological effects of isolation play out here. It was good. I am almost hesitant to see what the show did with the premise (also apparently the show was abruptly canceled after two seasons)
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📘 Sand
Series: The Sand Chronicles #1
By: Hugh Howey, Acquired: June 2025
Finished this one pretty quickly. It’s an interesting new universe that he’s created here. There’s a lot of exposition explaining what the characters in the book do, because it’s something we can’t relate to. That can get a bit weary. But it doesn’t hit you with an ‘as you know bob’ download up front.
There’s also a family at the core of the story, and (several) mysteries. So there’s something deeper than the world and the tech. The book wraps up a primary conflict for this installment, and sets up to address another in the next.
I might not zoom right to the next book; this one was written in 2014, the next was released in 2022. Not sure how long I want to wait on the next cliffhanger before the third book is completed.
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📘 Death's End
Series: Three-Body Problem Series #3
By: Cixin Liu, Acquired: May 2025
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📘 The Dark Forest
Series: Three-Body Problem Series #2
By: Cixin Liu, Acquired: April 2025
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📘 Molly Fyde and the Fight for Peace
Series: The Bern Saga #4
By: Hugh Howey, Acquired: April 2025
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📘 Molly Fyde and the Blood of Billions
Series: The Bern Saga #3
By: Hugh Howey, Acquired: April 2025
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📘 The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music—A Memoir of Dreams, Music and Legendary Collaborations
By: Dave Grohl, Acquired: April 2025
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📘 1984
By: George Orwell, Acquired: January 2025
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📘 Molly Fyde and the Land of Light
Series: The Bern Saga #2
By: Hugh Howey, Acquired: January 2025
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📘 BZRK Reloaded
Series: BZRK #2
By: Michael Grant, Acquired: January 2025
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📘 System Collapse
Series: Murderbot Diaries #7
By: Martha Wells, Acquired: December 2024
The final murderbot book. Bittersweet for me, as I want to keep reading and reading and reading these stories.
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📘 Molly Fyde and the Parsona Rescue
Series: The Bern Saga #1
By: Hugh C. Howey, Acquired: December 2024
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📘 Fugitive Telemetry
Series: Murderbot Diaries #6
By: Martha Wells, Acquired: December 2024
I purchased books one through six in a compendium and read them as quickly as possible.
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📘 Network Effect
Series: Murderbot Diaries #5
By: Martha Wells, Acquired: December 2024
I purchased books one through six in a compendium and read them as quickly as possible.
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📘 Exit Strategy
Series: Murderbot Diaries #4
By: Martha Wells, Acquired: December 2024
I purchased books one through six in a compendium and read them as quickly as possible.
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📘 Rogue Protocol
Series: Murderbot Diaries #3
By: Martha Wells, Acquired: December 2024
I purchased books one through six in a compendium and read them as quickly as possible.
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📘 Artificial Condition
Series: Murderbot Diaries #2
By: Martha Wells, Acquired: December 2024
I purchased books one through six in a compendium and read them as quickly as possible.
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📘 All Systems Red
Series: Murderbot Diaries #1
By: Martha Wells, Acquired: December 2024
I purchased books one through six in a compendium and read them as quickly as possible.
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📘 Snowglobe
Series: The Snowglobe Duology #1
By: Soyoung Park, Acquired: October 2024
This story is an interesting premise; the world is a frozen tundra, and there are two distinct classes of people - those who live out in the cold, and those who live inside of an enormous domed city called Snowglobe. The outsiders want to find a way inside, and the insiders sustain themselves by essentially living reality-tv style lives to entertain those on the outside.
As the book went on, angles were developed that I wasn’t expecting, which kept it interesting. The only confusing thing for me is an element of magic… or unexplained technical ability, that I wasn’t expecting.
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📘 The Three-Body Problem
Series: Three-Body Problem Series #1
By: Cixin Liu, Acquired: October 2024
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📘 BZRK
Series: BZRK #1
By: Michael Grant, Acquired: October 2024
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📘 The Last Star
Series: The 5th Wave #3
By: Rick Yancey, Acquired: October 2024
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📘 The Infinite Sea
Series: The 5th Wave #2
By: Rick Yancey, Acquired: September 2024
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📘 The 5th Wave
Series: The 5th Wave #1
By: Rick Yancey, Acquired: September 2024
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📘 The Shade of the Moon
Series: Life As We Knew It Series #4
By: Susan Beth Pfeffer, Acquired: August 2024
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📘 This World We Live In
Series: Life As We Knew It Series #3
By: Susan Beth Pfeffer, Acquired: August 2024
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📘 The Dead and the Gone
Series: Life As We Knew It Series #2
By: Susan Beth Pfeffer, Acquired: August 2024
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📘 Life as We Knew It
Series: Life As We Knew It Series #1
By: Susan Beth Pfeffer, Acquired: August 2024
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📘 Sixty Days and Counting
Series: Science in the Capital #3
By: Kim Stanley Robinson, Acquired: July 2024
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📘 Fifty Degrees Below
Series: Science in the Capital #2
By: Kim Stanley Robinson, Acquired: July 2024
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📘 Upgrade: A Novel
By: Blake Crouch, Acquired: June 2024
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📘 Forty Signs of Rain
Series: Science in the Capital #1
By: Kim Stanley Robinson, Acquired: June 2024
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📘 The End of the World Running Club
By: Adrian J. Walker, Acquired: June 2024
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📘 MaddAddam
Series: MaddAddam Trilogy #3
By: Margaret Atwood, Acquired: June 2024
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📘 The Year of the Flood
Series: MaddAddam Trilogy #2
By: Margaret Atwood, Acquired: May 2024
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📘 Oryx and Crake
Series: MaddAddam Trilogy #1
By: Margaret Atwood, Acquired: May 2024
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📘 Snow Crash
By: Neal Stephenson, Acquired: April 2024
This represents the most recent time I read this book. In the 90s, I read it in paperback.
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📘 Artemis: A Novel
By: Andy Weir, Acquired: April 2024
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📘 Ready Player One
By: Ernest Cline, Acquired: April 2024
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📘 Dust
Series: The Silo Series #3
By: Hugh Howey, Acquired: March 2024
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📘 Shift
Series: The Silo Series #2
By: Hugh Howey, Acquired: March 2024
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📘 Wool
Series: The Silo Series #3
By: Hugh Howey, Acquired: March 2024
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📘 Blackfish City: A Novel
By: Sam J. Miller, Acquired: January 2024
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📘 Feed
By: M. T. Anderson, Acquired: January 2024
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📘 The Rig
By: Joe Ducie, Acquired: January 2024
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📘 Consider Phlebas
Series: Culture #1
By: Iain M. Banks, Acquired: December 2023
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📘 Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow: A novel
By: Gabrielle Zevin, Acquired: December 2023
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📘 The Glass Hotel: A novel
By: Emily St. John Mandel, Acquired: November 2023
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📘 The Stone Sky
Series: The Broken Earth #3
By: N. K. Jemisin, Acquired: November 2023
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📘 The Obelisk Gate
Series: The Broken Earth #2
By: N. K. Jemisin, Acquired: November 2023
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📘 The Singer's Gun (Vintage Contemporaries)
By: Emily St. John Mandel, Acquired: October 2023
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📘 Sea of Tranquility: A novel
By: Emily St. John Mandel, Acquired: October 2023
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📘 The Fifth Season
Series: The Broken Earth #1
By: N. K. Jemisin, Acquired: October 2023
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📘 Seveneves: A Novel
By: Neal Stephenson, Acquired: September 2023
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📘 Severance: A Novel
By: Ling Ma, Acquired: September 2023
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📘 Afterland
By: Lauren Beukes, Acquired: August 2023
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📘 The Book of M: A Novel
By: Peng Shepherd, Acquired: August 2023
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📘 Blindness
By: José Saramago, Acquired: August 2023
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📘 I Am Legend
By: Richard Matheson, Acquired: August 2023
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📘 The Book of Strange New Things: A Novel
By: Michel Faber, Acquired: August 2023
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📘 The Drowned World: A Novel (50th Anniversary Edition)
By: J. G. Ballard, Acquired: August 2023
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📘 The Girl With All the Gifts
By: M. R. Carey, Acquired: August 2023
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📘 A Song for a New Day
By: Sarah Pinsker, Acquired: May 2023
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📘 The Road: Pulitzer Prize Winner (Vintage International)
By: Cormac McCarthy, Acquired: May 2023
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📘 World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
By: Max Brooks, Acquired: May 2023
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📘 California: A Novel
By: Edan Lepucki, Acquired: May 2023
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📘 Looking for Jake: Stories
By: China Miéville, Acquired: May 2023
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📘 The Book of Joan: A Novel
By: Lidia Yuknavitch, Acquired: May 2023
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📘 The City & The City: A Novel
By: China Miéville, Acquired: May 2023
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📘 The Country of Ice Cream Star: A Novel
By: Sandra Newman, Acquired: May 2023
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📘 The Dog Stars
By: Peter Heller, Acquired: May 2023
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📘 The City of Mirrors: A Novel
Series: The Passage Trilogy #3
By: Justin Cronin, Acquired: January 2023
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📘 The Twelve
Series: The Passage Trilogy #2
By: Justin Cronin, Acquired: January 2023
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📘 Embassytown: A Novel
By: China Mieville, Acquired: January 2023
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📘 Moon of the Crusted Snow: A Novel
By: Waubgeshig Rice, Acquired: January 2023
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📘 The Last: A Novel
By: Hanna Jameson, Acquired: January 2023
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📘 Cloud Atlas (20th Anniversary Edition): A Novel
By: David Mitchell, Acquired: January 2023
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📘 The Passage: A Novel
Series: The Passage Trilogy #1
By: Justin Cronin, Acquired: January 2023
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📘 Station Eleven: A Novel
By: Emily St. John Mandel, Acquired: September 2022
I loved this book. It’s one that I truly wished would have gone on and on. But it ended quite satisfyingly.
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📘 Termination Shock: A Mind-Expanding Thriller on Climate Change
By: Neal Stephenson, Acquired: September 2022
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📘 Iron Council
Series: Bas-Lag #3
By: China Miéville, Acquired: November 2021
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📘 The Scar
Series: Bas-Lag #2
By: China Miéville, Acquired: November 2021
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📘 High-Rise: A Novel
By: J. G. Ballard, Acquired: November 2021
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📘 Perdido Street Station
Series: Bas-Lag #1
By: China Miéville, Acquired: November 2021
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📘 When Gravity Fails
Series: Budayeen Cycle #1
By: George Alec Effinger, Acquired: November 2021
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📘 The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (Bantam Spectra Book)
By: Neal Stephenson, Acquired: February 2021
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📘 Agency
Series: The Jackpot Trilogy #2
By: William Gibson, Acquired: February 2021
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📘 The Peripheral
Series: The Jackpot Trilogy #1
By: William Gibson, Acquired: February 2021
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📘 Count Zero
Series: Sprawl Trilogy #2
By: William Gibson, Acquired: January 2021
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📘 Mona Lisa Overdrive: A Novel
Series: Sprawl Trilogy #3
By: William Gibson, Acquired: January 2021
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📘 Neuromancer
Series: Sprawl Trilogy #1
By: William Gibson, Acquired: January 2021
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📘 Spook Country
Series: Blue Ant #2
By: William Gibson, Acquired: November 2020
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📘 Zero History
Series: Blue Ant #3
By: William Gibson, Acquired: November 2020
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📘 Pattern Recognition
Series: Blue Ant #1
By: William Gibson, Acquired: October 2020
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📘 The Lost Hero
Series: Heroes of Olympus #1
By: Rick Riordan, Acquired: October 2020
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📘 A Boy and His Dog
By: Harlan Ellison, Acquired: October 2020
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📘 A Scanner Darkly
By: Philip K. Dick, Acquired: October 2020
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📘 CyberStorm: An Apocalyptic Thriller
By: Matthew Mather, Acquired: October 2020
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📘 The Martian Chronicles
By: Ray Bradbury, Acquired: October 2020
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📘 The Way the World Ends (Warmer collection)
By: Jess Walter, Acquired: October 2020
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📘 Anathem
By: Neal Stephenson, Acquired: April 2020
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📘 Adulthood Is a Myth: A Sarah's Scribbles Collection
By: Sarah Andersen, Acquired: December 2018
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📘 enough
By: Patrick Rhone, Acquired: December 2018
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📘 Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
By: Carol S. Dweck, Acquired: August 2018
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📘 Thriving With Social Anxiety: Daily Strategies for Overcoming Anxiety and Building Self-Confidence
By: Hattie C. Cooper, Acquired: January 2017
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📘 Thinking, Fast and Slow
By: Daniel Kahneman, Acquired: May 2016
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📘 Poke The Box: When Was the Last Time You Did Something for the First Time?
By: Seth Godin, Acquired: March 2016
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📘 Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder
Series: Incerto #3
By: Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Acquired: February 2016
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📘 Childhood’s End (Arthur C. Clarke Collection)
By: Arthur C. Clarke, Acquired: November 2015
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📘 GMC: Goal, Motivation, and Conflict
By: Debra Dixon, Acquired: March 2015
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📘 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works--A True Story
By: Dan Harris, Acquired: February 2015
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📘 The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety
By: Alan Watts, Acquired: February 2015
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📘 The Martian: A Novel
By: Andy Weir, Acquired: December 2014
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📘 A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: An Essay (Digital Original)
By: David Foster Wallace, Acquired: September 2014
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📘 The Elements of Style
By: William Strunk, Acquired: November 2013
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📘 Zombie Spaceship Wasteland: A Book by Patton Oswalt
By: Patton Oswalt, Acquired: July 2013
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📘 Practical Object-Oriented Design in Ruby: An Agile Primer (Addison-Wesley Professional Ruby Series)
By: Sandi Metz, Acquired: April 2013
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📘 We Are All Weird
By: Seth Godin, Acquired: March 2013
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📘 How to Think Like a Great Graphic Designer
By: Debbie Millman, Acquired: January 2013
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📘 How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character
By: Paul Tough, Acquired: September 2012
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📘 It Will Be Exhilarating
By: Dan Provost, Tom Gerhardt, Acquired: August 2012
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📘 1491 (Second Edition): New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
Series: 1491/1493 #1
By: Charles C. Mann, Acquired: July 2012
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📘 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created
Series: 1491/1493 #2
By: Charles C. Mann, Acquired: July 2012
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📘 The War of the Worlds
By: H. G. Wells, Acquired: July 2012
My son needed this one for school, and it was free on Kindle. I decided to burn through it to be able to talk to him about it if he wants.
It’s super interesting to read a ‘science fiction’ novel in a setting where we don’t even have internal combustion yet.
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📘 The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life (Learn In and Use It for Life)
By: Twyla Tharp, Acquired: May 2012
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📘 The Driver: My Dangerous Pursuit of Speed and Truth in the Outlaw Racing World
By: Alexander Roy, Acquired: May 2012
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📘 Content Strategy at Work: Real-world Stories to Strengthen Every Interactive Project
By: Margot Bloomstein, Acquired: February 2012
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📘 One Way Forward: The Outsider’s Guide to Fixing the Republic (Kindle Single)
By: Lawrence Lessig, Acquired: February 2012
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📘 The Price of Civilization: Reawakening American Virtue and Prosperity
By: Jeffrey D. Sachs, Acquired: February 2012
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📘 Steve Jobs
By: Walter Isaacson, Acquired: November 2011
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📘 The War of Art
By: Steven Pressfield, Acquired: March 2010
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📘 Quicksilver
By: Neal Stephenson, Acquired: January 2004
This was a backfill from my book list before I bought a kindle.
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📘 Cryptonomicon
By: Neal Stephenson, Acquired: January 2001
This was a backfill from my book list before I bought a kindle. I read Cryptonomicon in paperback, literally the size of a brick.
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📘 In the Beginning was the Command Line
By: Neal Stephenson, Acquired: January 2000
This was a backfill from my book list before I bought a kindle.
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📘 The Diamond Age
By: Neal Stephenson, Acquired: January 1997
This was a backfill from my book list before I bought a kindle.