Below are my favorite reads from 2016.

Fiction

  • Lord of All Things by Andreas Eschbach – This book had a lot of new-to-me ideas and the sci-fi was integrated nicely into a story I enjoyed. One of the things that stands out is that tradeoffs exist with every choice.
  • Seveneves by Neal Stephenson – Amazing concepts that my mind keeps turning over. I love Neal Stephenson and this is yet another mind-expanding novel from him. This book really hit him as Elon Musk started speaking more publicly about getting off Earth.
  • Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang – I don’t tend to read many short stories, but I’m glad I read this collection. About half the stories were really good and still have me thinking.

Series

Non-fiction

  • Them: Adventures with Extremists by Jon Ronson – A great story in the midst of a very extreme 2016.
  • Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character by Richard Feynman – This is my new standard for an autobiography. Entertaining and interesting throughout, with great insights into this curious character. I particularly liked that he didn’t want more money because it would allow him to afford mistress, which he knew would ruin his life.
  • Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood by Michael Lewis – I would recommend this to any new father. It’s short and funny with Michael Lewis plainly saying so many things I had thought. I’ve used his question “what percentage of the parenting does each parent do?” several times now. He says that fathers do much less than mothers but there’s a lot of social stigma to admitting that, which made me feel better.
  • When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times by Pema Chodron – This book dovetailed nicely with my efforts to control my emotions. I read no more than one chapter at a time because it’s heavy, introspective stuff. I was thrilled that I read this beeok when I saw Derek Sivers mention Pema Chodron in his about now pages post.

That’s my not-so-short list of favorites from 2016. I hope 2017 will be filled with as many great stories.

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