Bookshelf

Books I loved.

Reading

Bookshelf

Fun

Fiction

Ken Liu translations

Broken Stars; Invisible Planets

Speculative fiction in translation.

Fun

Fiction

Terra Ignota

Ada Palmer

Dense political, philosophical science fiction.

Fun

Fiction

China Mieville

New Crobuzon; Embassytown

Strange cities, weird systems, and speculative texture.

Fun

Fiction

Peter Watts

Rifters; Blindsight

Hard-edged science fiction with biological and cognitive bite.

Technical-ish

Infrastructure

The Box

Marc Levinson

Containers, logistics, and the infrastructure hidden inside ordinary abundance.

Technical-ish

Systems

Energy and Civilization

Vaclav Smil

Energy as a deep constraint on civilization and technical possibility.

Eclectica

Fraud

Lying for Money

Dan Davies

A useful taxonomy of scams, institutions, and trust.

Eclectica

History

Trees in Paradise

Jared Farmer

California trees, landscape, identity, and constructed nature.

Eclectica

Business

Becoming Trader Joe

Joe Coulombe

Retail, taste, constraints, and differentiated strategy.

Inspiring

Materials

Material World

Ed Conway

A tour through the physical materials that modern life depends on.

Inspiring

Materials

The Fabric of Civilization

Virginia Postrel

Textiles as technology, culture, industry, and infrastructure.

Inspiring

Fiction

Mars Trilogy

Kim Stanley Robinson

Terraforming, institutions, infrastructure, and long civilizational projects.