Books Read in April 2018

I managed to get through 6 books in the Month of April and almost a 7th but ran into a bit of a slowdown. Not only was April pretty busy for me both at work and at home, I was only able to find an audio copy of Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny on Youtube. This really cramped my style since I usually listen to the audible version of the book as I walk. With the audio on YouTube that meant that I needed to have and use my internet connection and I really was not feeling good about draining my data plan every time I wanted to listen. With that restriction, I was only listening when I was at home on WiFi so I didn’t finish the story. I suppose if I started earlier, I might have gotten through it, but instead, I’ll have to add that to my reading list for May.

In any case, here are my ratings for the books I read in April…

• We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor, 2016 (A)
  I really enjoyed and I know that I’ll be reading the rest of the series. The concept was great – a nerd dies and cryogenically freezes his head only for his mind to be transferred into an AI that is sent out in a space colonization race. A lot of neat concepts and entertaining action had me reading (listening) through the entire 370 pages in a day. I would totally love if they made this a movie.
• Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance, 2016 (A-)
  This was a nice read and I really enjoyed the relationship description between the author and his grandmother. There are some good insights in this book that kept me reading along.
• Daughter of the Empire by Raymond Feist and Janny Wurts, 1987 (A-)
  Feist does it again in the start of the Servant of the Empire series. I enjoyed how this time we see things from a female perspective and watch her fight for respect in a male dominated society.
• Foundation by Isaac Asimov, 1951 (B+)
  Now that we’re into the Foundation proper we see how clever psychohistory can be when it predicts events and lays out directions for the Foundation leaders to follow.
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, 1953 (B+)
  I was really surprised at how short this book was. At just over 150 pages, the impact that this classic has is huge and timely as we see more institutions – colleges, universities, newspapers, and 24 hour news stations – that are censoring ideas they disagree with and trying to rewrite history. As this book points out, destroying knowledge has a high price.
• The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory by Brian Greene, 1999 (B)
  I really found myself enjoying this book even though it was extremely dense and detailed. I’ve always enjoyed science and space and this book definitely filled that role, the only reason I didn’ rate it higher was because some of it started going over my head in the middle. The first part was well put together and so was the ending, but when the author started talking about things he researched himself and the race to get published, things kinda got confusing and complicated.

Running Book List for 2018 (28)

I’ve taken to ordering this list by rating and then year since I am not differentiating among books rated the same letter grade.

• We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor, 2016 (A)
• The Rook by Daniel O’Malley, 2012 (A)
• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, 2011 (A)
• Prelude to Foundation by Isaac Asimov, 1988 (A)
• Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance, 2016 (A-)
• Daughter of the Empire by Raymond Feist and Janny Wurts, 1987 (A-)
• The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman, 2016 (B+)
• The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod, 2012 (B+)
• Forward the Foundation by Isaac Asimov, 1992 (B+)
• Silverthorn by Raymond Feist, 1985 (B+)
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, 1953 (B+)
• Foundation by Isaac Asimov, 1951 (B+)
• The Radium Girls by Kate Moore, 2016 (B)
• Touch by Claire North, 2015 (B)
• The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington, 2013 (B)
• John Dies at the End by David Wong, 2012 (B)
• No Excuses!: The Power of Self Discipline by Brian Tracy, 2010 (B)
• The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory by Brian Greene, 1999 (B)
• Darkness at Sethanon by Raymond Feist, 1986 (B)
• Magician: Master by Raymond Feist, 1982 (B)
• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, 1962 (B)
• Pebble in the Sky by Isaac Asimov, 1950 (B)
• The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, 1788 (B)
• Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, 2017 (B-)
• Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer, 2014 (B-)
• The Periodic Table by Primo Levi, 1975 (B-)
• Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley, 1818 (C+)
• Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys, 2017 (C-)

My Top Books

These lists include all the A and A- titles that I’ve read since the start of 2017.

Rated A (9)

• We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor (2016)
• The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (2014)
• The Rook by Daniel O’Malley (2012)
• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (2011)
• Elantris by Brandon Sanderson (2007)
• Prelude to Foundation by Isaac Asimov (1988)
• Gateway by Frederick Pohl (1977)
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick (1968)
• I, Robot by Isaac Asimov (1950)

Rated A- (12)

• Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance (2016)
• Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel (2016)
• Arcadia: A Novel by Iain Pears (2015)
• Red Rising by Pierce Brown (2014)
• Lock In by John Scalzi (2014)
• Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson (2009)
• Daughter of the Empire by Raymond Feist and Janny Wurts(1987)
• Heechee Rendezvous by Frederick Pohl (1985)
• Magician:Apprentice by Raymond Feist (1982)
• Beyond the Blue Event Horizon by Frederick Pohl (1980)
• Dune by Frank Herbert (1965)
• The Currents of Space by Isaac Asimov (1952)