Book and Author Recommendations

My taste in reading material covers a wide variety of themes and styles. I read fiction as well as non-fiction.

I fancy myself a Philosopher, and as such, I tend to read material that expands my knowledge of the universe or challenges my understanding of things.

These include both fiction and non-fiction, scientific, historical, political, art, graphic novels and some just for fun stuff.

Of course, in order to make a living I read a lot of technology books. But I find very little philosophical or "fun" value is derived from that material.

I like to recommend Authors, but I will include some books as well from my recent reads:

Authors

Isaac Asimov
Orson Scott Card
George Carlin
Arthur C. Clarke
Daniel C. Dennett
Neil Gaimen
Sam Harris
Doris Lessing
Ayn Rand
Neil Stephenson

This is just a sampling of the many authors that I enjoy reading.
Recent Books I have read (in no particlular order):

Books

The fountainhead
A book that encapsulates the basis of Ayn Rands Philosophy in an entertaining and engaging story that will remain relevent for generations to come.

Letter to A Christian Nation
Add this to your Christmas list for all the believers in your family.

The Baroque Cycle Volumes 1-3
The best way to get your history lesson for the 15th and 16th century with a focus on the development of the World Bank.

Isaac Newton, Ben Franklin, Gottfried Leibniz and many other genuine historical figures join several fictional characters to weave this tale.

Then follow future generations of the Shaftoes and Waterhouses in Cryptonomicon This guy does his homework!

Descartes' Secret Notebook
Inspired to review this book by the Boroque Cycle. Leibniz was the one who originally pursued the secret notebook after the death of Descarte. This tells the tale of a man who tries to unravel the reason behind the secret notebook and it's contents.

American Gods
Ever wonder what happens to those ancient gods that our forefathers worshoped? Well their stories are told here along with many new gods that travel among us today. Good fictional fun.

Escher on Escher
A great book for any Escher fan. This is Escher explaining his work in his own words.

Mammoth
This is another fun fiction book by John Varley. I love his style of writing and his character development.

The Flight of the Creative Class
By Richard Florida. This book attempts to understand the movement of talented individuals around the world and what attracts and repels them.

It tends to value highly educated individuals more than others, but I still think he makes some good points.

The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King
This is the best Stephen King has to offer. I was really consumed by this story when I read it and could not wait for the next books to come out. By the end I did wait for the paperbacks only because I was tired of carrying around the big, heavy hardcovers.

This is Stephen Kings Lord of the Rings.

The Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain
I read this on the recommendation from a friend. I found it on Gutenberg Press and read it as an ebook on my PDA phone.

A devilish story.

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And as a Bonus, here is a book I just picked up.

The Shadow of a Giant
This continues a set of parallel stories that Orson Scott Card has written recently to expand the Ender series of books he wrote beginning with Ender's Game and ending with Children of the mind.

Card is the 1st author I have seen write the same story over and over from different character perspectives. Enders Shadow is a re-telling of Ender's game from the perspective of a character called Bean.

If you have not read Enders Game, you should and don't stop with that book, you won't have understood the depth of this series unless you read on.

The Enders and the Homecoming series are my favorites from Orson Scott Card.

I could never really get into his Tales of Alvin Maker or his Women of Genesis series.