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Books in 2017

Last year I read quite some books, unconsciously, without much thought but entirely engrossed. It bought me peace and quiet. A big chunk of it was fiction.

As a challenge of not only equalling the amount of reading I get done, I also set myself up to expand on the topics to read. This has been hard so far.

Here is a list in reverse chronological order that I finished reading. I read 30 in all. 2 of which are audio books.

1. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

Arundhati Roy

Notes: Heart touching, soul-crushing, nostalgia-inducing, poetry filled and an ecstasy evoking read.

Fiction straying not far from facts, blurred the lines between reality and imagined. The vivid descriptions of Delhi, J&K, the people and everything about India, has left me yearning to see them for myself in the new light shone by Arundhati Roy through her words

2. Letters to a Young Poet

Rainer Maria Rilke

3. Blind Man’s Bluff

Sherry Sontag

Notes: I always enjoy military non-fiction. This did not disapoint although it didn’t match up to my expectations of submarine warfare set with the Thunder Below: The USS Barb book

4. The Songs Of Distant Earth

Arthur C. Clarke

5. Roadside Picnic

Arkady Strugatsky

6. A Chinese Life

Li Kunwu

7. Body Language

Glenn Wilson

8. Messy: How to Be Creative and Resilient in a Tidy-Minded World

Tim Harford

9. Outliers: The Story of Success

Malcolm Gladwell

10. Production-Ready Microservices

Susan J. Fowler

11. The Dispatcher

John Scalzi

12. Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS

Ben Macintyre

13. Consider Phlebas (Culture, #1)

Iain M. Banks

14. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

Charles Duhigg

Notes: Very fascinating

15. Night School (Jack Reacher #21)

Lee Child

16. Norse Mythology

Neil Gaiman

17. Make Your Bed

William H. McRaven

18. Command and Control

Eric Schlosser

19. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

Mark Manson

20. Prisoners of Geography

Tim Marshall

First forray into politics and current affairs. I would love to read more of such books.

21. A short history of nearly everything

Bill Bryson

Notes: Literally tid bits of everything that lead to modern world.

22. Skunk Works

Ben R. Rich

Notes: Nonfiction, Science, Spy planes, Engineering.

23. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Space Odyssey #1)

Arthur C. Clarke

Notes: Classic. Reminded me so much about Interstellar_the movie and_Rendezvous with rama

24. The End of All Things (Old Man’s War #6)

John Scalzi

25. The Human Division

John Scalzi

26. Zoe’s Tale (Old Man’s War, #4)

John Scalzi

27. Agent M: The Lives and Spies of MI5’s Maxwell Knight

Henry Hemming

Notes: Feels like a spy novel. Hard to believe it is nonfiction.

28. Dune (Dune Chronicles, #1)

Frank Herbert

Notes: different science fiction.

29. Lords of the Sky: Fighter Pilots and Air Combat, from the Red Baron to the F-16

Dan Hampton

Notes: Fighter jets, their evolution, the role they played in conflicts around the world from before WW1, through WW2, Vietnam war, Desert Storm (Iraq) and further.

30. The Quantum Thief (Jean le Flambeur, #1)

Hannu Rajaniemi

Notes: Different science fiction. Set in a world where souls can exist, thoughts and memories can be shared by means of mental contracts. Mind bending.


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