The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life
by Steve Leveen, 2005

While short, this won’t be worth your time if you’re already a prolific reader. Skip.

Dandelion Wine
by Ray Bradbury, 1957

Great summer read. I read this while at the beach in Florida. It is a series of related short stories about the defining events in a boy’s childhood. Good view into the boyhood psyche and a reminder about how children view the world (or at least used to; I don’t know how smartphone children view the world).

Foundation
by Isaac Asimov, 1951

I’m spreading out the reading of the Foundation series over a few months. Foundation is the first novel in what was originally a trilogy. I like Asimov’s writing and science fiction. This one deals with the evolution of an empire as innovation stagnates and leadership weakens. The Foundation is created to stave off tens of thousands of years of dark ages when the empire inevitably crumbles. I think the evolution of economics and psychology in the Foundation reads a lot like Animal Farm, by Orwell, published in 1945.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
by Steig Larsson, 2005

Some disturbing sexual situations, but a riveting mystery nonetheless. The book gets boring post-murder mystery, but 20%+ of the book is after the mystery resolution. I haven’t seen the movie, and listened to the book on tape.

How We Got to Now
by Steven Johnson, 2014

I particularly liked the conclusion of this book, in which the author points out that, in almost any innovative profession, one can follow the mainstream and make incremental progress and be accepted and useful, but perhaps not world-changing. However, it is only by combining previously disparate areas that truly innovative discoveries can be made.

A interesting theme throughout the book was that certain inventions were ripe for being invented and were often invented simultaneously by different people. After the building blocks for the invention are developed and the cultural zeitgeist aligns, the invention becomes inevitable. We remember certain inventors for becoming the first to make a useful, mass-market version of a product, but, in reality, it is likely that most/all of such inventions would have been created by someone else in swift fashion had the actual inventor failed.

The Lost World, adapted for radio by BBC Audio
Arthur Conan Doyle

Listened to the radio version on tape. I’d suggest sticking to Sherlock Holmes if interested in reading Sir Arthur. Academics, journalists, women, and white males all come out looking bad in this book, and the action/adventure isn’t very good.

What They Didn’t Teach You in Graduate School: 199 Helpful Hints for Success in Your Academic Career
by Paul Gray and David Drew, 2008

I know there’s a version 2.0 out nowadays, but the library had this version. This book took me about 2-3 hours to read. It is highly recommended for graduate students.

Rule 158: No matter how long you think it will take to (do anything in academia), it will always take longer.

Free-Range Kids: Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts with Worry
by Lenore Skenazy, 2009

Listened to this on tape. Pretty straightforward conclusion: the world is not more dangerous nowadays than it used to be, but the media is much better at making it seem like it is.