Prompted by a goodreads book challenge, I decided to read 20 books in 2020. Most of the books are sci-fi, some books formed part of a summer school course I did and some books I felt like I should read.
Here is a list of the books I read and a very short summary to remind myself what the book was about.
WARNING: here be spoilers
- Babylon’s ashes (The expanse book #6)
- Three body problem - I loved the opening, but it fell apart at the end with the whole geometric aliens whatever?
- The Road - Cormac McCarthy - beautiful, I loved reading this,
- Persepolis Rising (The Expanse book #7)
- Tiamat’s Wrath (The Expanse book #8) - can’t remember the specifics, but I love the expanse series!
- Juliet, Naked - not what I typically read, but it’s pleasantly written!
- Ready Player One - this brought back lots of old internet nostalgia of chatting to strangers in IRC rooms. Also makes me question the way that it’s been normalized to share so much data tied to your identity
- Semiosis - Thinking bamboo, I had to do a bit of effort to not dismiss the premise of the book, but I really enjoyed the way that biological systems are described in more human terms
- The Fifth Season - It took a while to get into it, more fantasy rather than sci-fi. Took 2 other books to decide if I wanted to read the sequels.
- Treasure Island - Great classic and it’s part of project Gutenberg!
- The left hand of darkness - A sci-fi classic, I never knew ansible referred to anything other than the devops tool. I enjoyed the book a lot! Especially the trek across the snow!
- The Obelisk Gate - So I read the 2nd book. I liked it
- The Stone Sky - Obviously I liked it, the 3rd book followed immediately!
- 1984 - Urgh, I felt like I should read this book for a while. Everyone goes on about 1984 and surveillance, but I’d say the core topic is questioning truth, does it exist, if everyone agree on a lie, is that true?
- Storm Front - some lighter reading, Harry Dresden, lame PI, but enjoyable :)
- Fool Moon - some more Harry Dresden
- Solaris - picked something of my reading list. I enjoyed the beginning and then it went nowhere.
- Enders Game - SPUD in space, I liked it!
- Grave Peril - Yeah, more Harry Dresden. Same tropes different story. Still read it, but maybe a bit of a break is needed now.
- The Long Earth - I really enjoyed this book! The premise of the book is really fascinating. I’m still deciding if I want to read the follow up?
Overall I enjoyed reading 20 books in 2020, but 20 is maybe a bit more than I normally would read.