Essential Reading List 2002

Science Fiction

• A Deepness In The Sky, Vernor Vinge
• A Fire Upon The Deep,
• Marooned In Realtime,
• True Names
• Titan, John Varley
• Wizard,
• Demon
• Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
• The Diamond Age
• Zodiac
• Cryptonomicon
• Neuromancer, William Gibson
• Virtual Light
• Idoru

Philosophy of Mathematics

• The Mathematical Experience, Davis & Hersh
• Descartes Dream, Davis and Hersh
• What Is Mathematics Really?, Hersh
• Flatland, Edwinn Abbot

Complexity

• Chaos, James Gleick
• Hidden Order, John Holland

Various Topics

• Adventures Of A Mathematician, S. Ulam
• The Education of a Mathematician, Philip Davis
• My Brain Is Open, Bruce Schechter
• The Revolt of the Angels, Anatole France
• The Discovery Of Heaven, Harry Mulisch
• The Man Who Loved Only Numbers, Paul "I didn't respect Erdos" Hoffman
• Black Holes And Baby Universes, Stephen Hawking
• The Universe In A Nutshell, Stephen Hawking
• The Future of Spacetime, Hawking et al.
• Evil Inside Human Violence And Cruelty, Roy Baumeister

My Essential Reading List 2003

Bertrand Russell

• Common Sense and Nuclear Warfare
• The Scientific Outlook
• Why I Am Not A Christian
• The Conquest of Happiness
• Marriage and Morals

Child Rearing

• Guiding The Gifted Child, Webb, Meckstroth and Tolan
• The Manipulative Child, Swihart and Cotter
• How To Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk, Faber and Mazlish

Various

• Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond
• Stupid White Men, Michael Moore
• Censored 2001, Philips & Project Censored
• Civil Disobedience and Other Essays, Henry David Thoreau

Biographical

• October Sky, Homer H. Hickam Jr.
• The Prison Diary of Ho Chi Minh, Salisbury (Trans)

Classics

• Faust, Goethe
• Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift
• The Plague, Albert Camus
• Moby Dick, Herman Melville

Science Fiction

• Back to the Moon, Homer H. Hickam Jr.
• We, Yevgeny Zamyatin
• Red Thunder, John Varley
• The Sheep Look Up, John Brunner
• The Shockwave Rider, John Brunner

Essential Reading List 2004

Science Fiction

• Wyrms, Orson Scott Card
• The Stone That Never Came Down, John Brunner
• The Book of Ptath, A. E. van Vogt
• Fallen Angels, Niven, Pournelle & Flynn
• The Mote in Go's Eye, Pournelle & Niven
• Gateway, Frederik Pohl
• The Other End of Time, Frederik Pohl
• Beyond the Blue Event Horizon, Frederik Pohl
• Heechee Rendezvous, Frederik Pohl
• The Annals of the Heechee, Frederik Pohl
• Friday, Robert A. Heinlein

Biographical

• True History of the Kelly Gang, Peter Carey
• An Autobiography, M. K. Gandhi
• The Life of Mahatma Gandhi, Louis Fischer

Various

• Quicksilver, Neal Stephenson

Essential Reading List 2005

Science Fiction and Fantasy

• Iron Sunrise, Charles Stross
• The Family Trade, Charles Stross
• Pattern Recognition, William Gibson
• The Golden Globe, John Varley
• Starship Troopers, Robert Heinlein
• The John Varley Reader, John Varley
• Year's Best Science Fiction 4, Hartwell and Cramer ed
• The World of Null-A, A. E. van Vogt
• The Pawns of Null-A, A. E. van Vogt
• Null-A Three, A. E. van Vogt
• The Weapon Shops of Isher, A. E. van Vogt
• Tyranopolis, A. E. van Vogt
• The Starchild Trilogy, Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson

Various

• An Anthropologist on Mars, Oliver Sacks
• The Island of the Colorblind, Oliver Sacks
• The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat, Oliver Sacks
• Under the Banner of Heaven, Jon Krakauer
• One for the Road, Tony Horwitz

Reading List 2006

Historical and Biographical

• A Short History of Ireland, Roger Chauvire
• The Tunnels of Cu Chi, Mangold and Penycate
• Blood on the Wattle, Bruce Elder
• Black Barty, Aubrey Burl
• Genius: Richard Feynman and Modern Physics, James Gleick
• The Missionary Position, Christopher Hitchens
• Lionheart: A Journey of the Human Spirit, Jesse Martin
• Failed States, Noam Chomsky
• Imperial Ambitions, Noam Chomsky
• Marching Powder, Rusty Young
• Why Weren't We Told?, Henry Reynolds
• Razor, Larry Writer

Various

• Bait and Switch, Barbara Ehrenreich
• The Intelligent Australian Investor, Chris Leithner
• Working With Monsters, John Clarke
• How to Lose Friends and Infuriate Your Boss, Jonar Nader
• To the Elephant Graveyard, Tarquin Hall
• Stephen Hawking's Universe: The Cosmos Explained, David Filkin
• The Riemann Hypothesis: The greatest unsolved problem in mathematics., Karl Sabbagh
• The Female Brain, Louann Brizendine
• The Ethical Slut, Easton and Liszt

Fiction

• Count Zero, William Gibson
• Robots, Dann and Dozois ed.
• All Tomorrow's Parties, William Gibson
• The Child Garden, Geof Ryman
• Accelerando, Charles Stross
• The Hidden Family, Charles Stross
• Turing's Delirium, Edmundo Paz Soldán
• Rainbow's End, Vernor Vinge
• Red Lightning, John Varley

Reading List 2007

Historical and Biographical

• The Trial of Henry Kissinger, Christopher Hitchens
• The Music of the Primes, Marcus du Sautoy
• The Salmon of Doubt, Douglas Adams

Various

• The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins
• God is Not Great, Christopher Hitchens
• The Large, the Small and the Human Mind, Roger Penrose
• Not Even Wrong, Peter Woit

Fiction

• Burning Chrome, William Gibson
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a trilogy in four parts, Douglas Adams
• Glasshouse, Charles Stross
• My Uncle Oswald, Roald Dahl
• Mammoth, John Varley
• Switch Bitch, Roald Dahl
• The Road, Cormac McCarthy
• Trading in Danger, Elizabeth Moon
• Old Man's War, John Scalzi
• Ophiuchi Hotline, John Varley
• Omega, Jack McDevitt
• Over to You, Roald Dahl
• Idlewild, Nick Sagan
• The Algebraist, Iain Banks
• The Jennifer Morgue, Charles Stross
• The Atrocity Archives, Charles Stross

Reading List 2008

Historical and Biographical

• Between Worlds, Bill Richardson

Various

• Musicophilia, Oliver Sacks
• Black Holes and Time Warps, Kip Thorne
• The Future of Success, Robert Reich
• Nemesis, Chalmers Johnson
• Blowback, Chalmers Johnson
• Life, Interrupted, James McConnel
• The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein
• Driving Force: The Natural Magic of Magnets, James Livingston

Fiction

• Starfish, Peter Watts
• Spook Country, William Gibson
• Halting State, Charles Stross
• Hominids, Robert Sawyer
• Humans, Robert Sawyer
• Look to Windward, Iain Banks
• The Clan Corporate, Charles Stross
• PopCo, Scarlett Thomas
• Bridge of Birds, Barry Hughart

Reading List 2009

Fiction

• Under Milk Wood, Dylan Thomas
• Gentlemen of the Road, Michael Chabon
• The Yiddish Policemen's Union, Michael Chabon
• McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales, ed. Michael Chabon
• The Last Colony, John Scalzi
• The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge, Vernor Vinge
• Little Brother, Cory Doctorow
• Dark Space, Marianne de Pierres
• Peace and War, Joe Haldeman

Historical and Biographical

• The Unfinished Game, Keith Devlin
• Open Veins of Latin America, Eduardo Galeano

Various

• Drinking, Smoking & Screwing, Sara Nickles ed.
• Happier, Tal Ben-Shahar
• Authentic Happiness, Martin Seligman
• Escape From Cubicle Nation, Pamela Slim
• Distracted, Maggie Jackson
• The 4-Hour Work Week, Timothy Ferriss
• The Magic of Thinking Big, David
• Vagabonding, Rolf Potts

Last Modified August 2009