So many books that I used to care deeply about, I don't anymore.

So many books that I used to care deeply about were written by dudes who are not worth my energy or attention.

I read a lot, but rarely do I finish a book and think "wow, that's one of my favorite books I've ever read."

And so I'm stuck. What do I even like anymore?

So I'm putting more time and energy in to this than I probably should.

and I think it'll become a blog post? But I'm going to start it here.

I'm not going to do a ranked list, because I think that's impossible Comparing some of the books on this list to one another just doesn't make sense.

I'm only going to include books that I *enjoyed* rather than just things I found *useful*. I think. Maybe.

I'm only going to include books that 1) I've read in the last ten years, or 2) if I read it more than 10 years ago, it was fundamental enough to me that I still revisit it, even if I have not re-read it.

I think I have to start with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

I've written a lot about what this book means to me, and I won't re-hash it here. You can read some of that on my blog: https://ajroach42.com/towel-day/ but CW for all kinds of heavy things.

HHGG is a book that meant a lot to a younger me, helped me through a lot, and has a lot of passages that absolutely hold up today (even though I have not been able to just re-read it.)

Emergent Strategy -

Emergent Strategy is a work of non-fiction by adrienne maree brown, which was one of the most challenging things I've ever read.

It is, nominally, about organizing, and it provides a ton of super useful organizing advice, all hard won. Our makerspace is absolutely covered in quotes from this work and other works by brown.

But also, this book was very much not written for me. Several passages of the book seem specifically crafted to cause people like me (white, male, nerd) drop it and run.

I'm glad I didn't. It was an incredibly rewarding book, and it's probably the work of prose I recommend to other people most often.

Mr. Penumbra's 24 hour bookstore by Robin Sloan

I read this for the first time about 10 years ago, and it has stuck with me enough that I've re-read it since then and I revisit passages from it and essays from the author on a regular basis.

It's a book about uncovering a secret society obsessed with immortality, and then instead of doing a Dan Brown it does something else.

I dunno, it's a very human book. There's a shoehorned lovestory that I could take or leave, but the main premise about our place in the universe is really truly wonderful.

I'm a half hour in and I've only gotten 3 down.

And those were the easiest 3!

Shit, this is going to take a while.

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet (and series, really A Closed and Common Orbit on top, but read 'em all) and A Psalm for the Wild Built/A Prayer for the Crown Shy definitely belong on this list.

These are two unrelated series of books by Becky Chambers.

A psalm for the wild built and a Prayer for the crown shy are novellas about a monk who tires of their life and decides to hike for a while, meets a robot, becomes the human ambassador to the robots, and then fucks around on a beach.

They are peaceful, hopeful meditations on purpose and meaning, and they're beautiful.

The other books are part of the Wayfarers series, which is a group of 4 loosely connected science fiction books about some people who kind of know one another in deep space. In spite of all the big flashy science fiction, the stories themselves are very small and personal, and the characters are very real.

All the books are worthwhile, but I think A Closed and Common Orbit was the best of them. It's a small, sweet, intimate little thing about two very different people who suddenly find themselves intertwined.

Record of a Spaceborn Few, the third book in the series, was emotionally devastating for me in ways that I wasn't expecting and was ill equipped to manage. It fucked me up.

They're some of the best books I've read in my life, and could easily unseat any of the books I've ever held as my "favorite" if I ever took the time to really think about it.

The Lost Cause - Cory Doctorow

I debated for a while if I was going to include a Doctorow book on this list at all, and then once I decided I probably would, I debated which one it would be.

And then I remembered The Lost Cause.

Cory has had a role in shaping a lot of how I view computer, and technology, and the relationship between people and technology and how messy all of that is. Many of his books are loosely disguised manifestos, a lot of them are targeted at the YA Audience.

Quickly, I will talk about some books that aren't The Lost Cause:

Little Brother was a great read when I was in the right demo for it. It's a little dated now, but the hook is still Correct in ways that are mostly scary. Homeland (the big sequel to Little Brother) was written at a time when it felt like things might get better, but otherwise is very good. If you've never read any Doctorow, these are fine places to start.

Pirate Cinema and For The Win are also YA novels about technology and people. FTW is also about the financial crisis. Pirate Cinema is also about copyright.

The book I most strongly considered putting on this list before I remembered The Lost Cause was Makers, which... It was published in like 2008 or so, and it feels dated throughout, but it's also very much about *today* in ways that result in me thinking about it and referencing it fairly often.

But then I remembered The Lost Cause, which I read late last year. The Lost Cause is set in a near future CA, and is about climate change disasters, MAGA extremists, immigration, refugees, and perseverance.

It's the bleakest hopeful book I've ever read, and just absolutely full of interesting ideas about how people might relate to one another.

But it's also a Doctorow novel, which means every third page is a lecture on some political ideology, or some technological idea. Many of these lectures are absolutely vital to the plot, but that doesn't make them any less lectures.

Neuromancer - Gibson

I don't actually have much to say about this one. I really enjoyed it. I've enjoyed pretty much everything of Gibson's that I've read, but this was the first. It's atmospheric and moody and just a lot of fun to read.

The Princess Bride - William Goldman

If you've only ever seen the movie, do yourself a favor and read the book. It's conceit (that it is an abridgement of a much longer and more boring novel, to bring it in line with the more streamlined and adventurous version that the author's father would read him when he was sick) is beautifully executed.

The big blaming Stephen King for blocking publication of the sequel is equally wonderful.

The whole thing is good and wholesome and full of fun little ribs and asides that it just lives in my head all the time.

And, of course, the movie was a delight too.

Meddling Kids - Edgar Cantero

It got billed in the US as something like 'The Scooby Gang is all grown up and now the great old ones are angry' which ... I mean, it nearly is that.

It's more like The Famous Five are mostly grown up, severely fucked from everything they lived through (those that did) and now they have to stop the apocalypse.

It blends traditional mystery and horror elements well. It's not clear if there are actually any supernatural elements in the story until very near the end when it becomes clear if there are any supernatural elements in the story, repeatedly, in a couple of fun ways.

It was a good inversion of a lot of what I expect out of horror and mystery, and I really dug it.

Cat's Cradle by Vonnegut, but feel free to swap in a bunch of his other novels here because I love most of them.

If you've read any Vonnegut, you know what to expect. If you haven't... well, it's a bleak novel about the last survivors at the end of the world passing the time before they're all dead (largely by their own hands) that will make you laugh occasionally.

It is, somehow, not the only one of Vonnegut's novels that is at least partially about the last survivors at the end of the world passing the time before they're all dead.

This was a theme of his.

I should really read the handful of his books that I never did. The ones that I have are all pretty wonderful.

@ajroach42 I think you've got 4 or 5 of my likely list - HHTTG, Becky Chambers, Lost Cause is perfect for this era, and I am right in the middle of reading the Vonnegut that I skipped past as younger me (who would have picked Cat's Cradle too) - Bluebeard might be my new favorite, or might just be the most recent I've read.

I think Discworld would still be on my list, Small Gods or Jingo or Soul Music? But probably 3 of my remaining would be Leguin.