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Warbreaker was one of the first books written by Sanderson, yet it still feels the same as his most recent works. The magic system revolves around “breath” - which has a similarity to peoples souls. The more “breaths” you have drawn from others (by way of them giving them to you), the more unique and powerful abilities you'll have. The way this concept is expanded on, as well as giving and taking breath to others and physical objects makes for a depth of ways to explore this idea.

This short story packs a bunch of original ideas into a familiar narrative - girl going off to school. The school, however, is on another planet and consists of diverse beings, and the route there is interrupted in ways I didn't see coming. I love the idea that this short story sets up a longer series - one I plan to check out.

The Silo series feels like a more realistic version of Fallout (the video game). This conclusion to the trilogy wraps up enough storylines and plots that just about all questions are answered - which was somewhat satisfying, but felt it was missing the same sense of mystery as part 1.

The 2nd book in the series, but the first movie to be made, The DaVinci code follows a similar line of religion vs science vs conspiracy theory as the first. In many ways I liked how many different parties there were in the conspiracy for this one, each with their own motives. The slow draw out in what could have been ended faster left me waiting a long time for the next shoe would drop.

In a future where Earth is at war with neighboring aliens on the widening frontier of mankind, recruits are no longer the young. Now the elderly enlist, with the promise of youth and longer life. The first book in the series was solid on its own, although the ending was more rushed than I expected. I probably won't listen to the next 5 in the series.

The subtitle for this book could be “How to use habit to direct human behavior”. Most of the examples are less about habit on a personal level and more about them on a societal level. One example that I enjoyed was about a time in Iraq where people were collecting in a square everyday. Eventually someone would throw a loud firecracker (or worse) into the mix and everyone would flee – a dangerous situation. Rather than using force to move people out, they moved the food vendors a block away. Now the crowd couldn't hang around for hours on end, as their food habits caused them to disperse earlier.

I should not have listened to an audiobook that has “illustrated” in the title. Although this did go more into some of the order and systems involved in the konmari method, it wasn't as useful as if I'd given it the time to go through a physical copy (ironically enough).

It's weird to read so much science fiction, then read a biography that sounds like it would work there as well. Somehow Elon Musk has stayed off my radar – I don't how. His past and present have intersected with many interests of mine, from Paypal, SpaceX, Solar City and Tesla, yet I've never looked into the man himself.

Reading this was like reading the backstory of Tony Stark (Iron Man) – even to the point where Robert Downey Jr met with Musk to help flush out the character. His rise with Paypal, his management style and lack of personal empathy over action show how he's put productivity and his goals ahead of any kind of personal relationships. With the recent successes of Tesla and SpaceX, I'm looking forward to see what he does next.

This is what I was waiting for when Season 6 of the TV show ended. Compendium Three covers issues 97-144, which go from the last ~2 episodes of Season 6 up to who knows where. With how different the series has been from the comic, I'm looking forward to being surprised and annoyed in all new ways as my expectations are dashed by the writers.

One of my favorite Asimov stories so far! This one stretches the concept of time a step farther by creating eternals - effectively time police. Coupled with the idea that these eternals come different times of 10s of thousands of years, means that anyone in this role gives up their reality. But what happens when you fall in love with someone in time, when you know that time changes?

One of the best books I've ever read. When it comes to science fiction, there's a lot of the same out there. Tchaikovsky writes an entirely original story with amazing characters - not all human.

The premise is this: Earth is in the process of terraforming a new planet to make it habitable. The plan is to contaminate this new world with a genetic virus that will cause the monkies there to become more sentient in the far future. Something goes wrong (we're still in chapter 1 here) and instead a planet of insects are grown.

The most impressive part of this entire story is the focus on insect chemistry and what it would look like for a planet of intelligent spiders to rise. They face many of the same issues we do in our society today - gender rights (although the main issue is to allow males to NOT be eaten after mating), societal structures, trust, communication and math. The approach to solving these issues is entirely insect based, and some of them blew my mind.

Even though I respect Ive, I felt this biography only hit skin deep. It went over all the major events in his life, his passion for design, awards he achieved – but that's really it. I don't feel I know him anymore than before reading this.

Early on, Ronson mentions “If you worry you might be a psychopath then you aren't one” to help keep us focused. The exploration into the world of psychopaths and mental health institutes takes an interesting path – going through Scientology and the other fields to find memorable takeaways on the current state of phycology and our still limited understanding of the mind.

A time confused story tieing together world war 2 with alien abduction. As a story, it was amazing. The story about watching a war film in reverse was touching.

Some of my favorite stories center around con-men – people who find a way to take advantage of others. In the movies this is generally robbing from the rich, but back here in reality this is people praying on the weak. This book is half history lesson of scams, and half analysis of them. The constraints and structure of a con is explored and deconstructed many times over, evaluating cons of different types.

Science Fiction with an impact at one of it's highest levels. The story follows a man a future society where he works as a fireman – only firemen don't put out fires. Instead, they burn books. This heavy handed symbolism for the issues of the 1950's surrounding communism and a general fear of new ideas. It's interesting to think what kind of an affect this book had on our society.

The final installment of the Gameshouse series focuses around the big game - the game of chess between two skilled opponents where the goal is to hunt the other down. The board - the entire world. I very much enjoyed how the first two books led up to this one.

Expanding on the Gameshouse premise, the “game” for this installment focuses on “hide and go seek” – but where an entire country is the boundary and there is no time limit. The relationships made throughout the story, and hints at a larger picture.

The Gameshouse is more than a place for chess. It's a place where you can wager your skills and memories against others where the game takes place in life itself. What drew me into this story, besides the world and the main character, was the succinct conversation style. It felt as though every word was calculated and organized by the characters - which fits right into the games story.

Great introduction to graph databases – specifically Neo4j and Cypher. The approach in this book was helpful - iterating on problems and showing how one potential solution brings up new problems if you don't think it through.

At the beginning of this one, I really wasn't into it. I think that was the point. Perfect State takes a look at what would happen if you started with a somewhat boring character and shape them into a hero – but in a non-traditional short story. This could be described (and this isn't spoiling anything, as it's explained early on) as the first version of the Matrix, the one where people got everything they wanted, but where each person is in their own isolated universe. When people who have only talked to AIs decide to talk to other actual humans, things get interesting.

After hearing this one recommended everyday on Reddit, being a fan of first contact stories and seeing it on the Hugo nominees for it's year, I decided to give it a shot. It's what a lot of people consider “hard sci-fi”, but I'm slowly realizing is really just “hard to read” sci-fi. The story is very slow moving, with very little happening, and most of the exploration taking place in the descriptions of events, the types of beings and awareness.

There were a number of interesting ideas presented as well as some interesting characters, but in the end I wasn't able to connect with the story.

Minecraft had one of the fastest rises in popularity of any game in history. The meteoric rise, as well as the team behind the phenomenon was always a mystery to me. The marketing strategy used for propagating Minecraft was one of the most interesting parts of this – as that was how I learned about it initially as well. Rather than hiring a PR company, people would upload videos of their creations to Youtube, acting as both a way to learn about the game and as avenue for players to show off and build reputation.

The first of The Dresden Files series draws you into the world of Harry Dresden, a wizard in modern day Chicago who advertises his wizardly ways in the yellow pages and classified. What's involved with being a wizard now a days? Turns out it involves solving mysteries for the police that can't be explained by science as well as pursuing the occasional contract that walks through your door.

If this sounds a bit like Angel, the old WB show, well you'd be right. It's a whole lot like that. Funny enough, the audiobook is read by James Marsters, Spike from Buffy/Angel! Being a short one, it's worth reading a few. I'd still prefer Caves of Steel for the overall mystery side of things, but this was the first one in the series. The following ones were supposedly after Butcher got better at writing. Either way, a solid beginning.

It took a while to get into this one, but by halfway through I was hooked, and even impressed. I loved the idea of an AI that was limited by it's ability to control human subjects – each of which still maintained a slightly unique brain, motivation and mindset. The concept of “I” starts to be a fuzzy concept once “I” becomes a group. The gender ambiguity was also interesting – referring to each character as “she” throughout the book.