Invisible Man

1) Chris Moriarty. Spin State - relatively-hard sci-fi with decent non sci-fi elements (i.e. characters and stuff), which I think is rare. 2) Ralph Ellison. Invisible Man. I really enjoyed the writing, among other things, and how he captures short moments and scenes with sort of a hard-to-describe quality of a visual art, almost. 3) Ilya Somin. Free To Move. To me most of the book was "duh" but I think it would be a good read for people on the fence about immigration and private vs public institutions. 4) Vaclav Smil. Energy And Civilization; possibly How the World Really Works, still reading that one. Really dense and detailed examination of energy history of mankind for the former, and infrastructure of technological civilization for the latter. 5) Pluckrose & Lindsday. Cynical Theories. Good 101 on CRT and modern woke movement. 6) Alexander. New Jim Crow. Good 101 on war on drugs, although some broader social arguments the book makes straightforwardly don't seem to follow, or are contradicted by, its factual base IMHO. 7) Stephenson. Seveneves - really good hard sci-fi imho, although felt very, very long.…

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino, a great companion to the movie and expands on characters in really unique ways that make me think about them. Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson, a near future book about climate change and trying to fix it with an interesting geopolitical look of China acting like the US. I also liked Ministry of the Future but it was less fun of a read. Coddling of the American Mind by Jonathan Haidt, a reasoned look at how social media and devices are negatively impacting society and children. Borne by Jeff VanderMeer, a weird near future declinepunk with bioengineering and evil corporations. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, very short book with a glimpse into post colonial colonialism in remote locations. Wanted to read a book about Congo. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, a portrait of a character in a time I didn’t experience.

Older Stuff: The Bible/Quran, The Republic (Plato), The Social Contract (Rousseau), Tao Te Ching (Laozi), Brothers Karamazov (Dostoevsky), History of the Peloponnesian War (Thucydides) Newer Stuff: Nine Stories (Salinger), The Razor's Edge (Maugham), Nausea (Sartre), Siddartha (Hesse), Road to Serfdom (Hayek), The Book (Watts), Design of Everyday Things (Norman), Atlas Shrugged (Rand), Invisible Man (Ellison), Debunking Economics (Keen), Blood Meridian (McCarthy), The Center Cannot Hold (Saks), This Time Is Different (Reinhart/Rogoff), Infinite Jest (Wallace), Calvin and Hobbes (Watterson) All of these books are well written and have given me some perspective on interesting people/situations/ways of thinking.