Seeing where humanity could go
How I want to spend eternity.
A perfect book. A story that is both realistic and amazing.
I love the idea of being able to transfer your will to robot agents.
The wonder of discovery as you travel the universe. Don’t worry if you have to skip some of the early math talk.
We feel the need to be hunting and gathering
A perfect gift for any father-to-be.
When we think of company towns, we think of those in the late 1800s, but this is their future.
As in math, seeing society in the small helps you understand it in the large.
Humanity is unevenly falling apart in the face of calamity—you can get tea but not coffee.
If you like books about pandemics, the immigrant experience, New York, and late 1980s midwestern shopping malls, this one is for you.
The closest way to experience what life must have been like in the past
I love the portrait of disarray at the end of WWI.
Life was brutal.
He is an amazing storyteller, and like with The Count of Monte Cristo, the book is so long that you feel like you are living a dual life between reality and the tale.
A person just like you decides to go west in the 1870s.
Think about all the knowledge people used to have; how to sail, but also how to skin a goat.
Awesome. 17-year-old kid during the siege of Leningrad.
Historical epic covering the dawn of religion in the Middle East. It takes so long to read that it becomes part of your daily consciousness. I planned to raid the Canaanites in the neighboring subdivision and started worshiping Baal.
About the Spartans. Those people were nuts.
A world so far from mine, and he died only five years before I was born.
Feeling spooked in my own home
A movie can’t capture how scary it is to be hunted while without sight because you are watching the people. In the book, you are the people.
A good little horror book. A virus makes it impossible for humans to eat animals, so society normalizes cannibalism. Great ending.
If you’ve ever worked at a grocery store, this hits the nail on the head.
Alien apocalypse with a relatable protagonist and good writing.
You read just a little at a time, and it stimulates you
No plot, just the experience of the last two humans (could also be under apocalypse).
A man looking back on his life of failure.
Probably my favorite book right now.
You spend eternity in the Borges library, looking for the story of your life.
I don’t normally like magical realism, a guy can talk to cats, and I don’t know why I liked this book so much, but I really did.
I think we all want to start over knowing everything we know now
He was a more careful child the subsequent times through.
If you suddenly woke up back in your college dorm, how much would you recognize? Would you still go to classes, or even remember what and where they were?
When I think comedy, I don't think books, but these surprised me
It's the funniest thing I've experienced in a long time. If you don't mind weird, check it out.
World War II. My favorite part is him taking it personally when the enemy tries to shoot him down.
It’s about robot goals and how interacting robots get into deadlock. It also rings true for anyone who has dealt with large bureaucracies.
A family where members inherit magical powers but somehow can’t figure out how to profit from them.
Some other books that I particularly enjoyed
Spiders on a distant planet build a technological civilization.
US collapses in future dystopia.
A guy wakes up from cryosleep alone on a spaceship. The ship contains a system that lets you live simulated lives. He wins the superbowl three times and does much cooler things.
What happens if/when the American southwest runs critically low on water.
Society collapse experienced in Southeast Asia; you get to root for Hock Seng.
Nuclear apocalypse. My next soccer team is going to be called “Army of Excellence.”
From the 1950s but still feels fresh. I knew I didn’t trust them plants.
An alien bamboo plant is a main character. Cool to see another kind of intelligence.
We can have some movies too
One of the truest movies about relationships I've ever seen.
Realistic depiction of a robot companion.
I liked it better than the original, but I saw this version first.
The best social commentary I've seen. And he was Jesus!
Those aren’t mountains.
Long, slow, and in Russian, but it captures a mysteriousness of the world that we all wish was on the surface.
You have to be in the mood for a long movie that wanders from place to place, but I loved it.
You will want to rewatch it as soon as it ends.