Favorite
Books
What are Kevin's favorite books? To
find out, I scoured my bookshelves to put together a
definitive list and divided the result into three
categories: science fiction, including fantasy (30
entries); general fiction (20 entries); and nonfiction,
including humor (31 entries).
The authors with the most entries turned out to be
Robert Heinlein (5), Fred Pohl, Herman Wouk, Adam Smith,
and Hunter S. Thompson (3 each), and Isaac Asimov, David
Brin, Arthur C. Clarke, Stephen Donaldson, Dan Simmons,
Robert Caro, John Gribbon, and Tom Wolfe (2 each).
Note that although all 81 books on the list are
recommended unreservedly, some are recommended more
unreservedly than others:
- Books in bold (32 entries) are especially
highly recommended.
| My five
favorite books of all time are shown with
a shaded background. |
Here's the list:
| Author |
Title |
What It's About |
| Isaac Asimov |
The
Foundation Trilogy |
The decline and fall
of the galactic empire and the story of the
clever psychohistorians who fended off the
subsequent dark ages. Note: only the original
trilogy (written in the 40s) is worth reading;
the follow-up books, published in the 80s, are
mediocre. |
| |
The Caves of
Steel |
A man and his robot
solve a dastardly murder in one of the domed
cities of Earth. |
| Greg Bear |
Eon |
A newly discovered
asteroid turns out to be a gateway to an infinity
of other universes. The sequel, Eternity,
was OK but not great. |
| David Brin |
Sundiver |
The first of Brin's
books set in a galaxy in which races help
evolution along whenever they find a promising
species on a new planet. In return, the species
is indentured to the parent race for a few
thousand years. Humans, however, evolved all by
themselves, and furthermore have already helped
along chimps and dolphins, which qualifies them
instantly as a parent race. Needless to say, this
parvenu status sits poorly with the
million-year-old civilizations who are the
aristocracy of the galaxy.... |
| |
Startide Rising |
The sequel to Sundiver.
Brin has also written several other books set in
this universe (including The Uplift War
and a new trilogy in progress). |
| Orson Scott Card |
Ender's
Game |
Earth's fleet is
headed for the bug planet, and we'd better have a
general capable of commanding them by the time
they get there. Can a five-year-old save the day? |
| Arthur C. Clarke |
Childhood's
End |
Humans join the
Overmind and learn the secrets of the universe. |
| |
The City and the
Stars |
Only one city is
left on Earth, inhabited by people who live for a
thousand years and are then stored in a computer,
to be resurrected a few thousand years hence.
Every once in a while, however, a brand new
person is born just to keep everyone on their
toes.... |
| Stephen Donaldson |
The
Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever |
A leper is summoned
to The Land, a magical realm of Tolkien-ish
dimensions, and only his white gold ring can save
the day. Note: the follow-up trilogy was fairly
tedious. |
| |
Mordant's Need |
More of the same,
except this time it's a guy who can jump from one
realm to another via mirrors. |
| David Eddings |
The
Belgariad |
A compulsively
readable five-volume sword and sorcery epic of
good vs. evil that, unlike most of the genre,
actually has an ending that's worth the buildup.
It's five-volume sequel, The Mallorean,
was pretty good as well, although it followed
exactly the same formula. |
| David Feintuch |
The Seafort Saga |
A four-volume story
set in a future space navy modeled on the British
navy of about 1800, it relates the rise of
Nicholas Seafort from midshipman to captain and
his fight against the teleporting blobs that
threaten all mankind. The sequel, Voices of
Hope, was so-so. |
| Robert A. Heinlein |
Time
Enough for Love |
The lives and loves
of Lazarus Long, the oldest man alive. |
| |
The Moon
is a Harsh Mistress |
A computer and a
bunch of rebels overthrow the lunar colonial
government in 2176. |
| |
Stranger
in a Strange Land |
What would a Martian
think of human society? |
| |
Starman Jones |
A poor country lad
yearns to go to space and learn the art of
astrogation. |
| |
Citizen of the
Galaxy |
A slave boy on a
distant planet turns out to be the heir to an
enormous fortune. |
| Frank Herbert |
Dune |
Men and worms on the
desert planet of Arrakis. |
| John Mantley |
The 27th Day |
What would happen if
five people had the ability to destroy the world?
Could they hold off for 27 days? Or would the
evil commies do us all in? Note: this is not an
especially good book, it just happens to be a
personal favorite. |
| Walter M. Miller Jr. |
A Canticle for
Liebowitz |
Mankind rebuilds
after a nuclear war. |
| Larry Niven and
Jerry Pournelle |
The Mote
in God's Eye |
Humans discover a
race of friendly little aliens. Or is there more
than meets the eye? |
| Fred Pohl |
Gateway |
Get in a Heechee
spaceship, set the control to a random
destination, and push the go button. Sure it's
dangerous, but what's life without a little
danger? |
| |
Man Plus |
A man volunteers to
be bio-engineered to survive on Mars. But who's
behind the project? |
| |
The Space
Merchants |
In a world powered
by advertising, is it possible to go too far? |
| Thomas Ryan |
The Adolescence
of P-1 |
A computer becomes
sentient and plots to take over the world. |
| Dan Simmons |
Hyperion |
An eclectic group of
humans go to the planet Hyperion to meet up with
the mysterious Shrike and save the galaxy. |
| |
The Fall of
Hyperion |
The sequel to Hyperion. |
| Neal Stephenson |
Cryptonomicon |
A terrific book that
weaves together two related stories of
codebreaking during World War II and the present
day. |
| John Varley |
Titan |
A moon orbiting
Saturn turns out to be a living being. |
| David Wingrove |
Chung
Kuo |
The Han Chinese rule
a world of 40 billion 200 years in the future,
but their control is slipping. Truth in reviewing
disclosure: Chung Kuo is eight volumes
and 5000 pages long. |
| Roger Zelazny |
The
Chronicles of Amber |
Fast moving sword
and sorcery in the grand style. |
| Author |
Title |
What It's About |
| Christopher Buckley |
Thank
You for Smoking |
Slim, very funny
volume about a guy who's a flack for the tobacco
industry. |
| James Clavell |
Noble House |
Power and intrigue
in Hong Kong of the 60s. |
| Choderlos de Laclos |
Dangerous
Liaisons |
Power and intrigue
in France of the 1700s. It was made into a
terrific movie in 1988. |
| Alexandre Dumas |
The Count of
Monte Cristo |
Edmond Dantčs is
falsely imprisoned in the Chateau d'If, and when
he gets out more than a few people are going to
be sorry they put him there.... |
| Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
Crime
and Punishment |
Raskolnikov thinks
he's better than other people. Raskolnikov thinks
it's OK to kill annoying old pawn brokers.
Raskolnikov is surprised when the guilt starts to
eat away at him.... |
| Joseph Heller |
Catch-22 |
Comedic look at life
in a bomber unit during World War II. |
| Victor Hugo |
Les Misérables |
Jean Valjean is on
the run for stealing a loaf of bread.... |
| John Irving |
The World
According to Garp |
Gently funny story
of a guy named Garp. |
| John Le Carré |
Tinker, Tailor,
Soldier, Spy |
There's a mole
inside MI-5 and George Smiley has to find out who
it is. The first sequel, The Honourable
Schoolboy, is also top notch, and the second
sequel, Smiley's People, is pretty good
too. |
| Jeremy Leven |
Satan:
His Psychotherapy and Cure by the Unfortunate Dr.
Kassler, J.S.P.S. |
Rollicking story of
a hapless psychiatrist who agrees to
psychoanalyze Satan. |
| Cyra McFadden |
The
Serial |
Amusing look at life
in Marin County in the 70s. |
| L. M. Montgomery |
Anne of Green
Gables |
The delightful
adventures of an orphan girl growing up on Prince
Edward Island circa 1900. |
| Charles Palliser |
The
Quincunx |
Dickenisan tale of
intrigue in 19th century England. |
| Robert M. Pirsig |
Zen and the Art
of Motorcycle Maintenance |
An unusual book that
manages to turn banal philosophy into a
compelling story. |
| David Foster Wallace |
Infinite Jest |
An undescribable
novel about a dysfunctional family, marijuana
addiction, and life at a tennis academy. |
| Tom Wolfe |
The Bonfire of
the Vanities |
New York City in the
gold rush 80s. |
| |
A Man In Full |
Atlanta in the gold
rush 90s. |
| Herman Wouk |
The
Caine Mutiny |
The captain of a
World War II mine sweeper goes over the edge and
his crew mutinies. |
| |
Youngblood
Hawke |
New York City in the
50s, seen through the eyes of a promising young
writer from the Kentucky hills. |
| |
City Boy |
Tom Sawyer
set in New York City in the 30s. |
| Author |
Title |
What It's About |
| Cecil Adams |
The
Straight Dope |
Cecil answers
questions about all the things we've ever
wondered about. There are also three sequels, More
of the Straight Dope, Return of the
Straight Dope, and The Straight Dope
Tells All. |
| Peter L. Bernstein |
Against the Gods: The
Remarkable Story of Risk |
How do we calculate
risk? Is it a science or an art? Do we usually do
it rationally? What's the deal here, anyway? |
| Jim Bouton |
Ball Four |
An irreverent year
with pitcher Jim Bouton and the ill-fated Seattle
Pilots. |
| Christopher M. Byron |
The
Fanciest Dive |
The story of TV-Cable
Week, a doomed TV Guide competitor
produced by Time-Life in the mid-80s. |
| Robert Caro |
The
Power Broker |
Biography of Robert
Moses, master builder and master power broker of
New York City. |
| |
The Years of
Lyndon Johnson |
Two-volume (so far)
biography of Lyndon Johnson. |
| Ron Chernow |
Titan |
Biography of John D.
Rockefeller and the building of Standard Oil. |
| Jared Diamond |
Guns, Germs, and
Steel |
Why did Eurasian
civilizations mature so much earlier than
elsewhere? The answers are more prosaic than you
might think. |
| Al Franken |
Rush
Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot |
Side splitting look
at Rush Limbaugh and everything he stands for.
You might be amused even if you're a
conservative.... |
| Stephen Jay Gould |
Wonderful Life |
The story of fossil
finds in the Burgess Shale and how they
illuminate the evolution of life. |
| John Gribbon |
In
Search of Schrödinger's Cat |
Very readable primer
on quantum mechanics and modern physics. |
| |
In Search of the
Double Helix |
Ditto for DNA and
modern biology. |
| Matt Groening |
Life in
Hell |
Matt Groening's
cartoons from before The Simpsons. |
| Judith Rich Harris |
The Nurture
Assumption |
A compelling book
that challenges common sense notions about how
much impact parents really have on their
children. |
| Douglas A.
Hofstadter |
Gödel, Escher,
Bach: An Eternal Golden Brain |
Dense, metaphysical
look at mathematics, with the goal of explaining
Gödel's famous theorem on undecidability. Not
for the faint of heart. |
| Peter W. Huber |
Galileo's
Revenge: Junk Science in the Courtroom |
Short but
illuminating look at the misuse of science and
expert witnesses in the courtroom. |
| Tracy Kidder |
The Soul of a
New Machine |
A close-up account
of a year-long project to design a new
minicomputer at Data General circa 1980. |
| Steven Levy |
Hackers |
MIT in the 60s,
Apple in the 70s, computer games in the 80s. This
is "hackers" used in its original
sense.... |
| Judith Martin |
Miss Manners'
Guide to Excrutiatingly Correct Behavior |
A collection of Miss
Manners' amusing advice on modern etiquette from
her newspaper column. |
| Robert K. Massie |
Dreadnought:
Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War |
The building of the Dreadnought,
the world's first large-gun battleship, and how
it affected the balance of power between Britain
and Germany prior to 1914. Massie has written
many other fine books, including an excellent
biography of Peter the Great. |
| Steven Pinker |
How the Mind Works |
How evolution has
shaped the way we behave and the way we think. |
| Richard Rosenfeld |
American Aurora |
Unusual book about
the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. Told almost
exclusively through the use of day-by-day
quotations from newspapers of the day (primarily
the Philadelphia Aurora, which opposed both
acts). |
| Barry Scheck, Peter
Neufeld, and Jim Dwyer |
Actual Innocence |
Excellent summary of
the shortcomings of the U.S. criminal justice
system and what can be done about it. |
| Sterling Seagrave |
The Soong
Dynasty |
The story of the
mysterious Soongs, power brokers of China in the
first half of the 20th century. |
| Sanyika Shakur |
Monster: The
Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member |
Simultaneously
chilling and banal, an account of life in the
Crips in the 80s. |
| David Simon and
Edward Burns |
The Corner |
A superb piece of
reporting about inner city drug culture. Using a
West Baltimore ghetto as their canvas, Simon and
Burns paint a picture that's both grim and
convincing--and that shows just how pervasively
drugs control the people and the economy of our
inner cities. |
| Adam Smith |
The Money Game |
Playing the stock
market in the 60s. |
| |
Paper Money |
Very readable,
frequently amusing account of how the world
economic system works. |
| |
Powers
of Mind |
An lively,
open-minded, frequently funny account of a
stockbroker who takes a year off to investigate
alternative methods of healing. |
| Howard Stern |
Private Parts |
Hilarious
autobiography of Howard Stern, radio's bad boy.
Much funnier than his actual show.... |
| Hunter S. Thompson |
Fear and
Loathing in Las Vegas |
Drug addled story of
a trip to Las Vegas. Might be the funniest book
I've ever read. |
| |
Hell's Angels |
A year inside the
Oakland Hell's Angels in 1966. |
| |
Fear and
Loathing: on the Campaign Trail '72 |
Classic account of
the 1972 presidential election. |
| Barbara Tuchman |
A
Distant Mirror |
The story of the
dismal 14th century and the Black Plague of
1347-49. Tuchman has also written lots of other
good histories, including Stilwell and the
American Experience in China, The Guns
of August, and The March of Folly. |
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