What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

My undergraduate degree is Electrical Engineering, but the most important thing I learned was not anything about Maxwell’s Equations or electrons and holes - it was how to view the world in order to ask questions about it. That’s what Munroe does so brilliantly on his blog, What If? This book is a collection of posts from What If? and a few extra questions. The negative compared to the website is that there aren’t mouse-over jokes (although sometimes he puts that in there as a caption). The positive is that if you have the book, you have it forever. The website may or may not exist in a few years. I recommend for any scientific types in your life and anyone who likes to explore.

Love Hina, Vol. 12 by Ken Akamatsu

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The book continues where the last one left off: with Kanako desperate to get intimate (physically and emotionally) with her adopted brother. While not biological incest, I still am not completely comfortable with it. Of course, coupled with the fact that she’s constantly doing what would be considered rapist behavior - impersonating others to get in bed/kiss/etc with him, tying him up, refusing to take “no” as an answer - it’s a bit much.

I only have a bit of free time each day - usually no more than about two hours when you add it all up. So whichever of my hobbies tends to catch fire is the one that gets the majority of the attention. 2013 was a pretty good year for video games, but in 2014 I did not play very many. By contrast, 2014 was an AWESOME year for reading. I track my reading on Goodreads for a variety of reasons including having conversations around books (most people I know don’t read and those that do read different books than I do). I looked at previous years and decided I’ve give myself a goal of reading 23 books.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

While the first book was a satire of reality TV (including the wrap up episode), this book is about the importance of controlling messaging and of revolution. Collins explores how The Capital controls what the districts see and know in an effort to limit the likelihood of rebellion. Having seen the Arab Spring and movements like the 99%, it’s clear that this book is one of the more realistic science fiction rebellion portrayals. (It really drives home the lack of the info wars in the canon star wars movies. Where are the accusations that the rebels are terrorists? )

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As I mentioned in my first status update, I’d always dismissed The Hunger Games as a European Battle Royale. And, superficially, it appears to be an apt comparison. High school kids are forced to battle each other until only one is left. With all the white-washing and remaking of Japanese movies and TV shows (still upset at the possibility of Keanu Reeves as Spike Speigel) I didn’t want to give it a chance. Then I got The Hunger Games as part of an audio book humble bundle. The entire trilogy plus a bunch of other books for a minimum of $15. So if it sucked, I wouldn’t feel gypped. (As of now I’ve only listened to the first book, so no series spoilers in the comments, please)

Jumper by Steven Gould

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Quick note: If you don’t like sci-fi - you can probably still enjoy this book. The main character can teleport and that’s it. The reasons, science, etc are not explored. It’s just a plot device and the rest of the story is pretty much devoid of anything sci-fi.

Boy this kid really starts off in a crap sack world. It’s no wonder this was the most banned book in the 90s.

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde My rating: 3 of 5 stars

My brother Dan recommends a lot of stuff to me. I don’t always have the time or money to get to it right away, but when it comes to books, music, and comics I’m usually very in sync his recommendations. (At least when it comes to his recommendations to me, it’s been a bit spotty in the other direction) Examples of good recommendations include World War Z, Chew, Jonathan Hickman’s body of work, and Lucky Boys Confusion. Dan recommended the Thursday Next novels years ago. (At least five because it was way before Scarlett) I recently got a $10 credit on B&N Nook books so I went and grabbed the first book, The Eyre Affair.

Homeland by Cory Doctorow

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Cory Doctorow - you upset me so much. Your books continue to rock. But, recently, you’ve gotten too real with your stories. They are still awesome stories. But they upset me because they make me feel impotent. All the ideas in Little Brother, For the Win, Homeland, and even Makers just remind us how stuck the system; how our momentary wins are usually negated within days and months.(eg The Occupy Movement) Please take a break and write something like DAOINMK or EST again.

The Intern’s Handbook: A Thriller by Shane Kuhn

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is a meta-fiction work of art. It is told from two perspectives - that of an assassin writing a guide book to future assassins at his firm, HR, Inc and that of an FBI investigation into our main character. The premise is that the firm takes advantage of interns being unnoticed, but key to any business to allow them to assassinate some very powerful people. Our main character, John Lago is on his final mission because he’s 25 and, in his words, “that’s the oldest someone will accept that you would work for free.”

It’s nice for once to see an innocuous use of all the data these sites collect about us. Goodreads.com creates an infographic based on what user data tells them about gender and reading in 2014.