Silo series

Thinking In Systems: A Primer by Donella Meadows My 17 year old son bought it for me for my birthday. I've been enjoying it a lot. I do in fact like thinking in systems and learning more about it, and reading it in a more generalized fashion than I tend to in the computer science world has provided a refreshing perspective. It's all very approachable, nothing very complex, but gives names and discreet patterns to things I intuitively understood but previously wouldn't articulate easily. Definitely one of my favourite gifts in a long time. Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang I read bits of this to my wife at night occasionally. One of the first trips we went on together was camping on a little island, and I had Kafka on the Shore (Haruki Murakami) with me which I suggested I read to her in the evening. She really liked it and I've done it since. I wish I did it more often. Anyway, Stories of Your Life and Others is a wonderful collection. I've read it a few times, not always completely, and I enjoy it. Story of your life is the standout. It's what the movie Arrival is based on, which I consider one of the best scifi movies of all time. It's a beautiful story.…

Wool aka Silo series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silo_%28series%29 A dystopian future where people live in a Silo (a skyscraper but underground). What I found especially nice is how the author tried to make it realistic and portray people and work fields (machinist, IT, etc) as they really are without to much buffing. The IT department in this story plays a really big role and it is portrayed as I've seen real IT departments, with the old, stubborn, autistic 'this is my kingdom' sysadmin boss down to the 'stupid' intern. It's just to real. The first chapters are a little off compared to the rest of the books as it was released as novella's at first via Kindle and later written into 3 books. But every bit is as awesome as the other. Edit: I think this mismatches on your fun/non-dystopian critaria that I just now read. But a good read anyways. Otherwise definitely Hyperion cantos as already mentioned. Although also not without drama it sure is a hell lot of mindboggling world's to plunge into!