When I started my deep dive into sci-fi reading a couple of years back, a friend of mine, Andrew Schmitt, recommended that I read Neuromancer by William Gibson. While some shy away from a classic written 30 years ago, I looked at it as required reading if I wanted to really understand the genre. Plus, the book came highly recommended, which has become one of the key criteria in screening my extensive reading list that I’ve been stumbling through this year.

To say that Neuromancer is a classic sci-fi novel is an understatement. It really needs to be required reading for anyone venturing into the genre. In addition to coining the term “cyberspace”, there are many other themes that have been taken forward in other science fiction works. As I was reading the book, I could see how the book influenced classic science fiction movies like The Matrix. The themes present in other books are too numerous to mention.

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According to my standards, I’ve read quite a few books over the last three years. When I decided to increase my rate of reading, I relied a lot on the Amazon recommendation engine (which I pretend to hate) to fill my reading list. That worked well for the first year or so, but this year I decided to populate my reading list as much as possible with books recommended by trusted sources or written by authors I like. Since I really enjoyed the Silo series by Hugh Howey, I decided to add his next book titled Sand to the list.

I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I approached Sand with a bit of trepidation. The premise of a society mired in dirt and grit didn’t seem like it would make for much of a story. However, since I liked Wool so much, I figured I should give it a shot. Hugh Howey didn’t let me down.

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One of the criteria I used to build my 2015 reading list was selecting books by authors I’d previously read and liked. Since I enjoyed the Origin Mystery Series by A.G. Riddle (all three books in the series made my Must Read list), adding Departure to my 2015 reading list was a no-brainer. I also liked that the book was stand-alone and not part of another series or trilogy.

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A little over two years ago, I decided to start reading again. I put a heavy emphasis on science fiction as I wanted to develop better insight into where technology was heading. It’s amazing how much technology we use in our every day life has been depicted or foreshadowed in science fiction novels.

One of the first novels I read was Avogadro Corp by William Hertling. It’s a great novel depicting what happens when artificial intelligence (AI) runs amok. Since then, I’ve had an interest in reading and learning more about AI. It should come as no surprise then that Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson showed up in my Amazon recommendations. It fit with my science fiction and AI themes, so I added it to my 2014 reading list. It finally made it to the top of my queue last month.

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“Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.”
-Mark Twain

I’ve read a number of non-fiction books, and a few have lived up to Twain’s quote. Most notable are Charlie Wilson’s War about the Afghan conflict in the 1980’s and The Money and the Power about the history and emergence of Las Vegas.

My latest non-fiction read, Hatching Twitter by Nick Bilton is another “truth is stranger than fiction” account of the founding and growth of Twitter.

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It’s hard for a book that comes so highly recommended to meet expectations, let alone surpass them. The Martian by Andy Weir is one such book. It lived up to its billing and more.

I added the book to my reading list after it appeared in the Amazon recommendation engine, but it was a review of the book by Brad Feld that piqued my interest. I’ve picked up a few other strong science fiction reads through Brad’s blog. and his favorable review encouraged me to move it ahead of other titles on my 2014 reading list.

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