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Head On by John Scalzi – Following the events of Lock In, where we learn that people afflicted with Haden’s Syndrome can inhabit “threep” robot bodies to interact with the world, we’re introduced to a brutal professional sport only playable if you’re in a threep. And just as the league is about to expand and investors are lined up, a player mysteriously dies. FBI Agent Chris Shane follows the case through a monumental conspiracy, and while the total body count is impressive, they do eventually figure out all the details. While this wasn’t as good as Lock In for sheer sci-fi inventiveness, it’s a well-done procedural with a lot of layers to it.
Book of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks by Bethany Keeley - A “best-of” compilation of “hilarious” misuses of quotation marks, mostly on “hand-written” signs. Shorter than reading the whole blog but more substantial than a Buzzfeed article, this filled an amusing but forgettable niche.
Underachiever's Manifesto by Ray Bennett - Despite the comedic tone and general presentation of laziness, this is actually some pretty good advice about taking things sensibly, avoiding perfectionism, and having reasonable balance in your life. (Basically, do enough to get things done, but learn to be content with that.) It’s also short, likely because the author thought the massive padding that goes into many self-help books was dumb and too much work.
What's It Like In Space? By Ariel Waldman - Another blog-post style book, this one a compilation of short anecdotes from astronauts describing what being in space is like. (And random artwork of astronauts there to disguise the fact that there isn’t actually much to the book.) I didn’t know that you can’t burp in space, though—unless you push off from something to fake-out your stomach into thinking there’s gravity. I re-read this to ARR over the course of a few weeks, and he was entertained.
Crap Dates by Rhodri Marsden – Told in tweet format, a compilation of people’s three-sentence bad date stories. Unsurprisingly, there are a lot of terrible people. The thing is, the ones where somebody shows up and is a run-of-the-mill jerk, it’s fine, whatever. The ones where you’re scratching your head trying to figure out what on Earth was the train of thought that led to this series of events…those are the really good ones.
Answers to Questions You’ve Never Asked by Joseph Pisenti - A series of thought experiments which are clearly “I wondered about this thing, and did a bunch of research, so here’s some answers about it.” (The author runs a Youtube channel called RealLifeLore.) The finance questions were boring to me, though the geography/history ones were amusing, and a thorough review of the US presidents with associated trivia made a good last third of the book. (He is not kind to the current president, rightfully so.) Random but interesting.
The Origins of Names, Words, and Everything In Between by Patrick Foote - Some of these are more fascinating than others, and there are a couple of places where he could have just stopped, rather than coming up with a creative way of saying “we don’t actually know where this came from.” Also, his personal theories would be more interesting if this was actually an academic paper; as a trivia book they’re no more valid than what I might come up with. He’s also a YouTuber (“Word Origins” is his channel) and his writing could have used a few more edits. Fun material, middling presentation on middling research.
Book of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks by Bethany Keeley - A “best-of” compilation of “hilarious” misuses of quotation marks, mostly on “hand-written” signs. Shorter than reading the whole blog but more substantial than a Buzzfeed article, this filled an amusing but forgettable niche.
Underachiever's Manifesto by Ray Bennett - Despite the comedic tone and general presentation of laziness, this is actually some pretty good advice about taking things sensibly, avoiding perfectionism, and having reasonable balance in your life. (Basically, do enough to get things done, but learn to be content with that.) It’s also short, likely because the author thought the massive padding that goes into many self-help books was dumb and too much work.
What's It Like In Space? By Ariel Waldman - Another blog-post style book, this one a compilation of short anecdotes from astronauts describing what being in space is like. (And random artwork of astronauts there to disguise the fact that there isn’t actually much to the book.) I didn’t know that you can’t burp in space, though—unless you push off from something to fake-out your stomach into thinking there’s gravity. I re-read this to ARR over the course of a few weeks, and he was entertained.
Crap Dates by Rhodri Marsden – Told in tweet format, a compilation of people’s three-sentence bad date stories. Unsurprisingly, there are a lot of terrible people. The thing is, the ones where somebody shows up and is a run-of-the-mill jerk, it’s fine, whatever. The ones where you’re scratching your head trying to figure out what on Earth was the train of thought that led to this series of events…those are the really good ones.
Answers to Questions You’ve Never Asked by Joseph Pisenti - A series of thought experiments which are clearly “I wondered about this thing, and did a bunch of research, so here’s some answers about it.” (The author runs a Youtube channel called RealLifeLore.) The finance questions were boring to me, though the geography/history ones were amusing, and a thorough review of the US presidents with associated trivia made a good last third of the book. (He is not kind to the current president, rightfully so.) Random but interesting.
The Origins of Names, Words, and Everything In Between by Patrick Foote - Some of these are more fascinating than others, and there are a couple of places where he could have just stopped, rather than coming up with a creative way of saying “we don’t actually know where this came from.” Also, his personal theories would be more interesting if this was actually an academic paper; as a trivia book they’re no more valid than what I might come up with. He’s also a YouTuber (“Word Origins” is his channel) and his writing could have used a few more edits. Fun material, middling presentation on middling research.
