I’ve read several very positive comments about Project Hail Mary from a few different sources, so I’m going to add it to my reading list when I’m in the mood for some sci-fi.
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This is where I take a contrarian view because only focusing on “The classics” can turn a student off of reading. Better to get them reading something that interests them than to begrudgingly choke down a classic.
Same goes for writing assignments. Having students write about books that they didn’t like serves little purpose. Since practice makes perfect, better for them to write about subjects for which they have a passion.
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Lot of great books on this list. But it is almost comical that despite being quite long there isn’t a single female author or person of color.
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i frankly pay no attention to or care about checkbox reading.
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The list is a product of the times: the time of the list’s creation, and the times the books were written. There are competing lists, easily found, that prevent a more contemporary idea of what is “great”. Go find that. That modern sensitivities are different than historical ones does not devalue the past.
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I’m rereading The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. I’m on book six of fourteen so far after starting in Fall 2021.
I’m also reading Essentialism and listening to Presence.
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The question in the thread was what are you reading.
Had the primary focus been recommendations, I’d have included S.A. Chakraborty’s Daevabad trilogy and N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy. Good stuff!
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Welcome. At different points in time I might have listed Kathy Reichs, Candy Carson, Sarah Thebarge, or Amie Parnes as the author of a book I was reading. Or it might have been C.S. Lewis, Trevin Wax, or Bernie Chowdhury. And stories by Robert B. Parker, Daniel Suarez, and more recently, Andy Weir, have been a welcome distraction from all the tech I had to read over the years.
For a tech forum we are a fairly diverse group of people. Don’t judge us too quickly by the books we are currently reading.
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Two or three people in this thread mentioned Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.
I just finished it yesteday and it was a great read, I finished it in less than a week as it was such a page turner. It reminded me of Seveneves which is another great Sci-fi book I thoroughly enjoyed.
For those who read any of the 2, what would you recommend in the same vein?
I am at a turning point and yearning for more.
From what I quickly researched upon closing the book, a good candidate would be the Bobiverse series (We are legion, etc…). Any opinion or alternative?
If you are a fan of “space opera” there is Peter F. Hamilton. But he generally writes trilogies, not standalone novels, and each volume may exceed a thousand pages. The audible versions can run close to 40 hours.
If you like “just over the horizon” technical fiction try Daniel Suarez. I’d start with "Daemon and “Freedom”. (Both comprise his first novel that was split due to length) When written they predicted tech that is just now starting to emerge. “Kill Decision” is another of my favorites. His latest “Delta V” takes you astroid mining.
And a recent favorite of mine are the Expanse novels by James S. A. Corey. No warp drives, aliens, droids, or wookies.
A few years ago around the time I read Seveneves, I read Aiden Tchaikovsky’s two book series Children of Time and Children of Ruin — intelligence in a surprising form.
The four-volume Hyperion Cantos series by Dan Simmons is another set of books I didn’t want to put down.
Then there is the challenging Three-Body Problem series of four books from Cixin Liu, a trilogy+1.
Beyond Weird by Philip Ball.
If you are at all interested in the interpretation of Quantum Mechanics you’ll enjoy this book.
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Actually, there was at least one - the Star Wars book mentioned several comments above.
Perhaps since there are a number of people here with diverse interests, in particular people who seem to enjoy sci-fi and epic fantasy, you may have some recommendations of books you’ve enjoyed that meet your criteria?
Two women authors on my list of recent reads.
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I think it was mentioned on here already, but I’m also working through The Stormlight Archive series by Brandon Sanderson. I love epic fantasy stories, so I can’t believe I just discovered these books. I’m completely enthralled!
For those who like fantasy novels mixed with a little post-apocalyptic vibe, I highly recommend the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews (a pen name of husband-wife writing team).
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screenshot for the win! 
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Rather boring here
Python Pocket Reference by Mark Lutz almost daily
The Last Cow in the Chute by David Larsen
Just finished Short Story Murphy’s law by Doug Smith
Just started
Merchants of Doubt Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway
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The audiobook version of Project Hail Mary is wonderful.
The producers added a few, umm, special audio effects that make the conversation between the narrator and the alien feel like you’re there with them.
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I’d concur on the audiobook Hail Mary - very well done.
Now listening to Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell, winner of a Costa book award and brilliantly told biography. Reading CS Lewis’ Letters to Malcolm Chiefly on Prayer. An insight into an amazing intellect.
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“sorry if I lower the level here…”
Oh please… hold my Big Gulp®!
Tom Clancy - Jack Ryan series
Randy Wayne White - Doc Ford series
Lee Child - Jack Reacher series (now I know why Tom Cruise shouldn’t play Jack)
Dan Brown - Robert Langdon series
I know these are all “empty calories” reading, but I believe reading should take you somewhere you want to go. Perhaps that is why reading the “Classics” in school is wasted on so many. Coming back to those books a decade later seemed easier to get what they meant.
Also reading the “Take Control” series to work my way up to the “Field Guide” series. I understand this “David” guy is kind of a big deal!
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