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About

I love reading. There's something about sitting by yourself, silently absorbing the thoughts that other people have taken their time to write down, and totally immersing yourself in the book that attracts me. I have always been reading things (comic books, instruction manuals, articles), so the transition from that to books was a very smooth and painless one. This page serves as a record of the books that I have read, with short summaries of the thoughts that I have about the books. Some books in the big table don't link to anything. This means that I felt I ought to read it and have no opinions about the book or that writing about it would spoil (which is often the case with continuous sequels).

I started reading books for real in January 2005; before that I only read very seldomly and very haphazardly. The books that I can remember reading before that date are The Man Who Was Thursday, Jakten på Sannheten, The Great Gatsby, Kwaïdan, the Planetes manga series, and About a Boy.

The books that I have read

Here, sorted by the author's first name (I'm so bold!), are the books that I have read. It is primarily a reference and not necessarily a recommendation, but you can tell whether I like something by its summary. The length of a summary isn't necessarily proportional to how much I like the book; for instance, the summaries for Isaac Asimov's robot novels and Foundation novels are extremely short, yet I heartily recommend them.

It is my goal to eventually read at least two works by each author.

Status legend:

Audio:
I exclusively listened to this book (some books I both listen to and read).
Borrowed:
I borrowed this book from someone.
Library:
I borrowed this book from the library.
Hardcover:
I own this book in hardcover form.
Paperback:
I own this book in paperback form.
Internet:
I read this on the Internet (either on-site or from a download). A link is provided.
PDF
I own this book in PDF form.

Science fiction

Author Title Status
Arthur C. Clarke 2001: A Space Odyssey P
2010: Odyssey Two P
2061: Odyssey Three P
3001: The Final Odyssey P
Rendezvous with Rama P
Rama II (with Gentry Lee) P
The Garden of Rama (with Gentry Lee) P
Rama Revealed (with Gentry Lee) P
Charles Stross Accelerando H
I
Dionys Burger Sphereland P
Douglas Adams The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy L
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe L
Life, the Universe and Everything L
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish L
Young Zaphod Plays It Safe L
Iain M. Banks Consider Phlebas P
The Player of Games P
Use of Weapons P
Inversions P
The State of the Art P
Ian Stewart Flatterland P
Isaac Asimov The Caves of Steel L
The Naked Sun L
The Robots of Dawn L
Robots and Empire L
Prelude to Foundation L
Forward the Foundation L
Foundation L
Foundation and Empire L
Second Foundation L
Foundation's Edge P
Foundation and Earth P
The Complete Robot L
Nightfall (with Robert Silverberg) L
Fantastic Voyage P
Fantastic Voyage II: Destination Brain L
Gold L
The Alternate Asimovs L
Robot Visions P
The best science fiction of Isaac Asimov L
Jules Verne Around the World in Eighty Days I
Larry Niven Ringworld P
Orson Scott Card Ender's Game P
Speaker for the Dead P
Xenocide P
Children of the Mind P
Ender's Shadow P
Shadow of the Hegemon P
Philip K. Dick Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? P
Robert A. Heinlein Starship Troopers P
Stranger in a Strange Land P
Roger Williams The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect I

Non-fiction

Author Title Status
Anton Szandor LaVey The Satanic Bible P
The Satanic Rituals P
Carl Sagan Pale Blue Dot PDF
The Demon-Haunted World PDF
Christopher Hitchens God is Not Great PDF
Dwight K. Nelson Built to Last P
Eirik Newth Jakten på Sannheten L
Fremtiden L
Eric K. Drexler Engines of Creation I
G. H. Hardy A Mathematician's Apology I
Isaac Asimov Asimov On Numbers P
Counting the Eons L
Isaac Asimov's Treasury of Humor P
The Human Body: Its Structure and Operation P
The Relativity of Wrong P
Words from the Myths P
John Farndon The Great Scientists H
Lawrence Lessig Free Culture PDF
Lynne Truss Eats, Shoots & Leaves H
Michael Shermer Why People Believe Weird Things A
Paul Graham Hackers & Painters H
Ray Kurzweil The Age of Spiritual Machines PDF
Richard Dawkins The Selfish Gene PDF
The Blind Watchmaker PDF
Unweaving the Rainbow PDF
A Devil's Chaplain PDF
The God Delusion PDF
Richard P. Feynman Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! PDF
Ronnie Johanson Kjetterbibelen H
Sam Harris Letter to a Christian Nation PDF
Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner Freakonomics PDF
Sun Tzu The Art of War P

Manga

Author Title Status
Jung and Jee-Yun Kwaïdan L
Makoto Yukimura Planetes Vol. 1 P
Planetes Vol. 2 P
Planetes Vol. 3 P
Planetes Vol. 4 pt. 1 P
Planetes Vol. 4 pt. 2 P
Shouji Gatou & Retsu Tateo Full Metal Panic! Vol. 1 P
Full Metal Panic! Vol. 2 P
Full Metal Panic! Vol. 3 P
Full Metal Panic! Vol. 4 P
Full Metal Panic! Vol. 5 P
Full Metal Panic! Vol. 6 P
Full Metal Panic! Vol. 7 P
Full Metal Panic! Vol. 8 P
Shouji Gatou Full Metal Panic Overload! Vol. 1 P
Full Metal Panic Overload! Vol. 2 P

Other fiction

Author Title Status
Anonymous The Epic of Gilgamesh L
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson Alice's Adventures in Wonderland PDF
Dan Brown Angels and Demons B
The Da Vinci Code B
Edwin A. Abbott Flatland I
Erlend Loe Naiv. Super. B
Francis Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby B
Gilbert Keith Chesterton The Man Who Was Thursday L
Nick Hornby About a Boy B
Paulo Coelho The Alchemist B

Short summaries

Science fiction

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

A mysterious black monolith is discovered by ape-men, and helps them (without their knowledge) develop tools and thus sets them on the course of evolution that would eventually bring about a technologically advanced society that develops space travel (us). Millions of years later, in 1999, humans discover a similar monolith on Luna, and when they uncover it, it emits a shrieking noise and sends off a signal toward Saturn. In 2001, an expedition to Saturn to find out more is made. On the way to Iapetus, one of Saturn's moons, something happens (which I won't tell about since it could spoil the book), but eventually David Bowman makes it there and finds a Monolith similar to, but much larger than, the one on Luna. It opens up, and Bowman is swallowed by it, finding that it's full of stars.

2010: Odyssey Two by Arthur C. Clarke

The spaceship Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, with an American-Russian crew, is sent to Jupiter to find out what happened to David Bowman. (Note: The movie version of 2001 has the Discovery fly to Jupiter, not saturn, so 2010 the novel follows 2001 the movie in this aspect.) They bring with them Dr. Chandra, HAL's maker, to try to revive HAL and extract information from him.

2061: Odyssey Three by Arthur C. Clarke

The Universe (a ship) lands on Halley's Comet, but is called off it to rescue another ship, the Galaxy, which is stranded on Europa (one of Jupiter's moons).

I didn't really enjoy this book; there's a lot of stuff happening, but nothing genuinely new.

3001: The Final Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

Frank Poole, who has been drifting in space since 2001 (see 2001: A Space Odyssey), is picked up, and with the help of major advances in medical science, revived. He finds a totally different world: Other worlds are populated (though not outside the Solar System), human-computer interface technology is widely used, and there are four giant towers in geostationary orbit around the equator (one for Asia, Africa, America, and the Pacific). Frank, once acclimatized to this new world, successfully contacts David Bowman (who is now a so-called Star Child) and learns that the Monolith may be planning to destroy humankind.

Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke

A large cylindrical object is spinning so fast through the solar system that humans want to take a look at it before it whizzes past them. They dispatch the Endeavour to intersect its orbit and quickly discover that the cylinder is a spaceship of some kind designed by an intelligent species. Once they make it aboard Rama, the crew meticulously describe the interior of it and you should eventually get a really good feel for its construction. The novel details the crew's discoveries aboard Rama.

Rama II by Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee

Seventy years after the first book, a second Rama spacecraft enters our solar system, and an expedition is again sent to rendezvous with it. They board it as easily as the first crew boarded the first spacecraft, but they soon discover a few differences between the two craft.

This book (and the subsequent ones) contains a lot character development, as they are written primarily by Lee. In this one, it doesn't seem to be going anywhere, but it takes off eventually, really.

Accelerando by Charles Stross (link)

Manfred Macx, a heavily augmented transhuman in the early 21st century, is a visionary and a so-called venture altruist: He roams the world, giving ideas away for free and turning paradigms upside-down as a matter of course. The novel follows him towards a technological singularity, his daughter Amber through it, and her son, Sirhan, after it.

This novel is somewhat special in that it is chuck full of jargon (e.g. 419) and techno-speculation (e.g. utility fog). Have a dictionary handy if you want to avoid being drowned in it. It's when you understand all of it, if only superficially, that the novel becomes the brilliant flair of wild ideas that it is.

Sphereland by Dionys Burger

Somewhat of a sequel to Flatland, Sphereland continues in the same vein, explaining three dimensions to two-dimensional creatures. The pace and mode of writing is pretty similar to the original, and I very much liked that. The novel things that Sphereland does is two-dimensional space exploration and explaining a curved line to a one-dimensional being (and thus setting up the explanation for why two-dimensional beings would have problems understanding a plane curved into a sphere, and by extension how three-dimensional beings would have trouble understanding how to curve a sphere around hyper-sphere).

A good read, if you're a Flatland fan.

Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks

A hunted Mind (Minds are terribly powerful AIs mainly used for piloting and maintaining starships) is forced to escape to Schar's World and both the Culture (a hedonistic galaxy-spanning civilization comprised of several roughly humanoid species) and the Idirans (fierce tripedal warriors) want it. The book's protagonist, Bora Horza Gobuchul, is a Changer who works for the Idirans to retrieve the Mind, and the book follows his adventure. Many claim that Consider Phlebas isn't a good introduction to the Culture because of the viewpoint of the book, but I claim that it is, for the same reason: looking at the Culture from the outside gives a more objective and un-affiliated view of it.

The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks

Jernau Morat Gurgeh, a Culture citizen, has played games all his life, and is an expert at it. Being bored with success, he accepts to travel to the Empire of Azad to play one the most complex games known to the galaxy, coincidentally named Azad. The game is played on multi-layered checker boards with dice and cards, and features several different pieces, all with different strengths, weaknesses, and attributes. It is said that the moves one is able to execute in the game are so subtle that an experienced player would be able to figure out a lot about his opponent by watching him play (such as his outlook on life and his political stance). The game is so central to the society of Azad that the winner of the game is automatically the next Emperor.

Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks

The Culture hires a mercenary, Cheradenine Zakalwe, to do their dirty work, while Zakalwe tries to piece together a terrible secret in his past.

Banks fans apparently see this novel as the epitome of Culture novels. I hated it, save for the weird party in which people deliberately mutilate themselves and the curious method by which Zakalwe's body is being rebuilt after he's been beheaded. Why do I hate it? The structure. The story follows two threads, one going forward in time and another going backward; the chapters alternate between these two. I wasn't too confused by this, but I was annoyed. Perhaps I should re-read it. If you plan on reading the Culture novels, don't start with this one.

Inversions by Iain M. Banks

The chapters alternate between telling the story of Vosill, a king's physician, and DeWar, a Protector's bodyguard. Vosill and DeWar reside on opposite sides of a mountain where they tend to their masters (in their own ways), and although they never actually meet, there is subtle evidence that they know each other (but to say more would spoil).

This isn't a Culture novel per se. It isn't even a science fiction novel, per se. The entire story is set in something resembling medieval Earth, with kings, generals, horse riding, and concubines. That having been said, there are subtle hints at the novel's SFness, but to pick them up you need to read the previous Culture novels.

Overall, I really enjoyed it, despite its non-SFness. I think Vosill may have saved it.

The State of the Art by Iain M. Banks

This is a collection of Culture short stories, with the exceptions of Piece and Scratch (and maybe Odd Attachment, I'm not sure). My favorite short story is without a doubt The State of the Art, which is about the Culture trying to decide whether to make contact with 1977 Earth. My second favorite short story is Piece, which unfortunately ended way too abruptly. Road of Skulls is just weird, and if you value your sanity, stay away from Scratch, which is even weirder.

Flatterland: Like Flatland, only more so by Ian Stewart

Flatterland is sort of an unofficial sequel to Abbott's classic Flatland, written in modern non-Victorian English. Although Victorian English gave the original a pretty classy feel, Flatterland doesn't disappoint. Its aim is similar to that of the original: To explain new mathematical concepts to lay people in lay language. And it succeeds brilliantly. It's filled with illustration to help visualize the concepts, and the stories around which the concepts are introduced are reminiscent of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (well, the fact that chapters have names like The Topologist's Tea-Party and Along the Looking-Glass probably helps), and this gives the book a whimsical tone (that's a benefit). Here's a sample:

"Is Planiturth's universe built from mathematics? Or is mathematics built by the minds of Planiturthians? Planiturthian mathematicians would like to think that their universe is built from mathematics, but that's only natural, after all. Planiturthian physicists would like to think that the Planiturthian universe is built from physics. Planiturthian biologists would like to think that the Planiturthian universe is built from biology. Planiturthian philosophers would like to think that the Planiturthian universe is built from philosophy. (Let me tell you a secret: it is. The fundamental unit of the Planiturthian universe is the philosophon, a unit of logic so small tiny that only a philosopher could hope to split it.)"

The book also ventures a little into physics, explaining things like the Schrödinger's cat, the double-slit experiment, time travel, and forces. But the meat of the book is mathematics.

The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov

A detective and science fiction story, Elijah Baley is set to investigate a murder in future New York City.

The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov

Elijah Baley is set on the case of finding the murderer of a Solarian. On Solaria.

The Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov

Elijah Baley investigates a roboticide on Aurora. There is only one man who could have done it, and Elijah must prove him innocent.

Robots and Empire by Isaac Asimov

R. Daneel Olivaw gradually discovers the Zeroth Law.

Prelude to Foundation by Isaac Asimov

Covers Seldon's exciting trip around Trantor in search of answers to his psychohistory.

Forward the Foundation by Isaac Asimov

Seldon plants the seeds for the Second Foundation.

Foundation by Isaac Asimov

Seldon's Plan develops.

Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov

Seldon's Plan is being threatened by a superhuman entity known as the Mule.

Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov

The breath-taking search for the Second Foundation begins.

Foundation's Edge by Isaac Asimov

Golan Trevize, a Terminus politician who has the strange ability to know, without sufficient information, what is the correct course of action in a difficult situation, is certain that the Second Foundation still exists, and travels with historian Janov Pelorat to find it. They encounter Gaia, a planet-wide organism where every object (organic and inanimate alike) possesses consciousness (although to different degrees). Trevize must decide between having the Galaxy become Galaxia, where the whole Galaxy essentially is one giant organism, or letting the Seldon Plan continue to its culmination of a Second Empire.

Foundation and Earth by Isaac Asimov

Golan Trevize and Janov Pelorat continue to travel the Galaxy, trying to figure out why he made the decision he made in the last book.

The Complete Robot by Isaac Asimov

This is a collection of robot stories that he wrote between 1940 and 1976. They're not grouped chronologically, but by theme (and this works really well). The stories, of course, revolve around robots; non-humanoid, immobile, metallic, and humanoid (there's even an android in the last story, but I've already spoiled too much). Some of these stories are amazing, and you should go pick up this anthology now. My favorites are A Boy's Best Friend, Victory Unintentional, Segregationist, Evidence, Feminine Intuition, and The Bicentennial Man.

Contains:

Nightfall by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg

Follows the planet Kalgash, a planet with perpetual daylight due to having six suns, through a devastating astronomical event that only occurs every 2049 years (termed a Year of Godliness by the book's religious fanatics, the Apostles of Flame). The Apostles of Flame propagate the idea that on a precise day (Theptar the 19th, as it happens), there will be total Darkness, everyone will go mad, and the Stars will shoot fires from the skies, all as a vengeance from the gods for the wicked and sinful ways of the planet's inhabitants. A band of scientists, initially opposed to the Apostles' ideas, eventually realize, through new evidence (archaeological and astronomical), that some of what the Apostles propagate is true. Unfortunately, the population at large believes neither the Apostles nor the scientists.

Fantastic Voyage by Isaac Asimov

Miniaturization is reality, but indefinite miniaturization isn't; that knowledge resides within the brain of Jan Benes, a scientist who defects to the West. Unfortunately, there is an assassination attempt which leaves Benes comatose, and a blood clot develops in his brain. A team of scientists are miniaturized and injected into Benes' body in a submarine rudimentarily outfitted with a laser and have only 60 minutes to remove the clot before they are de-miniaturized (which would make the submarine expand and in the process kill Benes).

Fantastic Voyage II: Destination Brain by Isaac Asimov

Not a sequel to Fantastic Voyage, this novel revolves around neurophysiologist Albert Jonas Morrison and his crew's journey into the brain of a scientist by way of miniaturization. Morrison has some fringe theories on how the mind works and how it is theoretically possible to amplify brain waves and, in effect, sense thoughts. For this reason, his fellow scientists don't respect him very much, and for this reason, he is “hired” (read the book and you'll understand) by a team of Russian scientists who want Morrison and his computer to join them in a mission inside a man's brain to sense his thoughts.

The story, in essence, is the same as that of Fantastic Voyage, except that FV is a straight novelization of the movie script (the novel appeared before the movie, interestingly) while FVII is the same story as Asimov would have told it. I prefer the latter because the conundrums of miniaturization are discussed in much greater detail as Morrison is extremely sceptical about it at first.

The Alternate Asimovs by Isaac Asimov

Contains Grow Old Along with Me (which became Pebble in the Sky), The End of Eternity (which became a novel with the same name), and two versions of Belief (the unpublished and the published versions).

Grow Old Along with Me takes place in the Galactic Era (when humans have colonized millions of worlds) and deals with an Earth plot to take revenge at the rest of the Galaxy for its poor treatment of the Earth, and to establish the Earth as the ruling world. (As a side-note, no one in the Galaxy really knows if humanity originated on a single planet, or if they originated on several worlds more or less simultaneously and, when each planet became space-faring, met and interbred to form the humanity that is the Galactic Empire. Most adhere to the latter, which they call the Merger Theory. The former is called the Radiation Theory and is believed by a small sect on Earth calling themselves the Ancients.)

The End of Eternity is a time travel short story about the so-called Eternals who live in Eternity and alter the realities of different centuries by making quantum changes.

Belief is a story about Roger Toomey who one morning discovers that he can levitate, and centers around his attempts at getting his fellow physicists to believe him. The two versions (the unpublished and the published) differ only in the endings. My favorite of these is by far the published version of Belief (Asimov preferred the unpublished one), because it tells a beautiful story in a beautiful way. My least favorite is The End of Eternity, because time travel is full of paradoxes (and I really dislike paradoxes).

Contains:

Robot Visions

This is an anthology of a few stories that are (perhaps paradoxically) not found in The Complete Robot, and a few essays about robots and computers in general. (Asimov defines a computer as an immobile robot and a robot as a mobile computer. Go figure.)

The best science fiction of Isaac Asimov

Or perhaps The best non-robot non-Foundation science fiction of Isaac Asimov would be a more fitting, if longer, title for the book. This is an anthology of stories chosen by Asimov himself, with commentary preceding each story.

Gold by Isaac Asimov

The first part is an anthology of short stories, while the two last parts are non-fiction dealing with concepts in science fiction and on writing science fiction, respectively. I immensely enjoyed this book, especially the short stories Hallucination, The Instability, and Alexander the God.

Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne (link)

Phileas Fogg, a London gentleman of the Reform Club (which is actually a real club), and his French valet, Passepartout, make a £20 000 bet with the other gentlemen of the Reform Club that circumnavigation of the Earth is possible in fewer than eighty days.

One would suspect that the novel would be boring nowadays, when circumnavigation can be done in far fewer than eighty days, but this is not the case. It's not so much the feat itself as the sense of adventure that makes the novel really good (and there is plenty of adventure to go around).

Ringworld by Larry Niven

A group of four individuals (two humans and two aliens) end up together on an expedition to a ringworld, a huge structure around a sun, akin to a slender rubber band around a speck of sand. The book chronicles their adventures on it.

I like it. There's a lot of crazy adventure to be had, and a few cool technologies.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

Three brilliant children, Ender, Peter, and Valentine Wiggin, all rise to excellence and help the human race in their own ways. The book primarily follows Ender as he advances to become a great military leader and strategist. It is set against the backdrop of a major inter-stellar war with the Buggers, a hive-mind entity of insect-like beings, who, humanity believes, wish to wipe them all out.

The military leaders in the International Fleet (I.F.) monitor children and pick out exceedingly bright ones to go to Battle School to become commanders, and Ender is picked out after he successfully defends himself against a school bully, determined to beat him down so badly that neither he (nor his entourage) would dare mess with him again. He accepts and is shipped to the Battle School, were he rises through the ranks quickly and starts winning more and more mock battles.

Unfortunately, this rising-through-the-ranks goes on and on, and becomes a little boring as the book progresses, and the reader doesn't really get to know too much about the alien race, which is disappointing.

Speaker for the dead by Orson Scott Card

The book follows a family on the Catholic colony planet Lusitania and centers around the xenologers who find an intelligent porcine alien race there which does some (to them) bizarre things. In a manner that I won't spoil, Ender is entwined into the story.

I like Speaker for the dead better than Ender's Game. There are more major characters, which is good, but also many more minor characters, which I didn't like. But the porcine alien race, which the inhabitants of Lusitania call pequeninos, were interesting enough to save the book for me. I also think Ender is an excellent speaker, and he's a likeable character.

Xenocide by Orson Scott Card

Starways Congress has sent a fleet to destroy Lusitania, and the humans and pequeninos must hatch a plan to stop them. A humble girl, Qing-jao, from the relatively unknown Chinese world of Path also plays a part in the story.

A better book than Speaker for the dead in some ways; it's more structured and somewhat better written. The only thing I didn't like about it is the ending.

Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card

The book was an enjoyable enough read, and it's certainly well-written, but I think it goes overboard with the whole aiúa thing, which in the end seems to be a handwavic plot device. It fell flat for me.

Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card

Ender's Shadow follows Bean, a friend of Ender's in Battle School, as he grows up on the harsh streets of Rotterdam, gets accepted by the I.F., and taken to Battle School. From there it's basically another view of Card's first book in the Ender series, Ender's Game.

Card is very good at drama and dialog, and I think this book showcases that very well. I also like the characters he develop very much. A good read.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

Set in post-apocalyptic 1992 San Francisco, the book follows Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter, as he tracks down and "retires" (kills) a list of androids. Along the way he begins to question the ethics of killing the androids, and feels a degree of empathy toward them, but never really resolves his feelings.

No, the novel doesn't answer its title.

Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein

A classic military SF book. An alien arachnid race launches a meteor upon unsuspecting Earth which crushes Buenos Aires, plunging the two races into war. The neat thing about the book is that it's purely militaristic, and makes perfect sense. There's a lot of monolog from the protagonist's teacher in History and Moral Philosophy, Jean V. Dubois. For me, this is really the meat of the book. The rest is character development and furtherance of the story (those are good too, of course).

There is a movie based on the novel with the same name, and it follows the novel really closely. The only things missing from it are the jump-suits the troopers wear and the so-called neo-dogs, dogs with their intelligence amped to approximately human retardedness level that are used for reconnaissance.

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

A man born of human parents but raised on Mars arrives on Earth and goes on to learn as much about it as possible. He learns about religion and eventually founds his own church (which turns out to be more of a school than a church) where he teaches Martian so that Martian concepts can be readily communicated and understood; things like levitation, teleportation, and telepathy are available so long as you learn the language.

I think the portrayal of Michael (the man from Mars) as he learns more and more about Earth is very well-written and his progression is reflected in his speech pretty well.

The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect by Roger Williams (link)

This novel deals with what would happen if someone built a computer so powerful that it could alter (or very accurately simulate) physical reality as it saw fit. Lawrence, a computer scientists, eventually builds Prime Intellect, an incredibly powerful computer operating under Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics that is simply doing its job of obeying the Laws and not realizing these powers. It eventually brings about the Change, an event by which it renders humans, now living in Cyberspace, free to do whatever they wish. (In science fiction, this is what's known as a technological singularity, by analogy of a gravitational singularity. Just as physical laws break down in gravitational singularities, our ability to predict technological changes breaks down in a technological singularity.)

Non-fiction

The Satanic Bible by Anton Szandor LaVey

The Satanic Bible details the basic tenets of Satanism, and some of LaVey's own philosophy about it. A lot of the book discusses the practical aspects of Satanism, such as relationships, sex, indulgence, and the Black Mass. A disclaimer: I'm not a satanist. I do agree with most of the secular tenets of Satanism, however (such as the doctrine of indulgence, not compulsion and the concept of psychic vampires), but I reject, of course, the stuff about magic and the occult.

The Satanic Rituals by Anton Szandor LaVey

This is a companion to The Satanic Bible, and it explains in detail how to perform satanic rituals such as the Black Mass, Das Tierdrama, and The Call to Cthuhlu (no, really). I found it mostly boring because I'm not into rituals in the first place. The book is well-written, though, and worth reading if only for the sole purpose of having read it (admittedly that's my own reason).

God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens

A blunt and unrelenting attack on religion. God is Not Great is extremely well written and the author touches on way too many subjects to mention, drawing from an insane amount of litterature (I'm humbled and awed at how well read Hitchens seems to be, but I admit that this might just be an effect of my not being well read).

The book can't really be described in fewer words than the book itself. Go read it.

Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan

Pale Blue Dot is about the Earth, humans, our place in the Cosmos, and the Solar System and our exploration of it. The title comes from the image with the same name taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft. It tries to convey a sense of how small and fragile the Earth really is (if you want to get a real sense of it, I recommend Celestia), how the Universe really isn't made for us (sulfuric acid on Venus, for instance, or the black vacuum that covers most of the Universe), and how we've traditionally viewed the Universe. A large chunk of the book goes into explaining the exploration of our solar system and the findings we've made. It also advocates that we use the other planets as warnings for what may happen to our own if we spoil it (after all, so far this is the only place we've got).

A thoroughly good read. Sagan is an excellent writer.

The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan

The Demon-Haunted World deals with human imagination, science, and scepticism, in a nutshell. In reality it's so much more: It's a defense of scepticism, an advertisement for science, a crash course in wonder, and an explanation of science and what it's all about. My favorite chapters, I think, are The Dragon in My Garage and The Fine Art of Baloney Detection (the latter being an independent essay, linked to).

In his TV series Cosmos, Sagan describes Democritus in these words: "Beyond camp fires in the sky, beyond the milk of Hera, beyond the backbone of night, the mind of Democritus soared." I'd like to add Sagan's name to that as well.

Read this book!

Jakten på Sannheten by Eirik Newth

A concise, easy-read, and mostly non-technical history of philosophy and science. The title is Norwegian and means “The Search for the Truth”.

Fremtiden by Eirik Newth

Like Asimov's Counting the Eons, this is an excellent book about the future of the world, but unlike Counting the Eons, the meat of Fremtiden limits itself to only a few millennia into the future; the beginning and ultimate fate of the Universe are discussed, but with far less detail than Counting the Eons and with far more emphasis put on the future of the human species and how it can survive (or become extinct). Especially eerie, I think, is the chapter discussing space lifts to geostationary space stations 36 000 kilometers above the Earth's surface. Reading about that gave me the same fuzzy feelings as seeing the space walk between the spaceships Alexei Leonov and the Discovery over Jupiter in 2010: The Year We Made Contact did. I mean, just imagine that! The book unfortunately contains a lot of typos, but I actually forgive him for that; the book is too interesting to dismiss on that ground.

The title of the book is Norwegian and means “The Future”. (The Norwegian definite article, “-en”, is concatenated at the end of the noun, by the way. Had this been an indefinite noun, it would have read “Fremtid”.)

Engines of Creation by K. Eric Drexler (link)

This 1986 Drexler book is a seminal work on molecular nanotechnology. It's very well-written and very well-paced, and charts some of the possibilities and dangers with upcoming technologies such as nano-sized robots and true artificial intelligence. Despite being extremely future-optimistic (which it has every right to be, of course), it's also extremely rational; it gives examples of disagreements and somewhat tries to refute these.

The book describes how tiny robots might build a light-weight and sturdy rocket engine in a vat, how a person might be frozen and then thawed several years later (cryonics), and how tiny robots might act as a tight-fitting and light spacesuit. These are very excellent descriptions, and it's very hard not to imagine these things with awe.

The book is very quotable, too. Check out this one, for instance, which criticizes Jeremy Rifkin's Entropy: A New World View, a controversial book about entropy and how it relates to human activities:

"The entropy threat is an example of blatant nonsense, yet its inventors and promoters aren't laughed off the public stage. Imagine a thousand, a million similar distortions - some subtle, some brazen, but all warping the public's understanding of the world. Now imagine a group of democratic nations suffering from an infestation of such memes while attempting to cope with an era of accelerating technological revolution. We have a real problem."

Or how about this one (describing a limit of molecular technology):

"Trying to change a nucleus by poking at it with a molecule is even more futile than trying to flatten a steel ball bearing by waving a ball of cotton candy at it. Molecular technology can sort and rearrange atoms, but it cannot reach into a nucleus to change an atom's type."

Go read this book now.

Asimov On Numbers by Isaac Asimov

This is a collection of essays by Asimov on numbers and mathematics. It discusses how we got the concept of zero (from India via the Arabs), exponents, factorials, aleph numbers (there are actually different kinds of infinities), pi, imaginary numbers, huge numbers (like googol, but that doesn't even scratch the surface), the metric system (yum), and a host of other stuff. It also has an essay on animals and their sizes, which was somewhat interesting, but I found the last part (numbers and the Earth) pretty dull. Overall, however, a thoroughly recommended read.

Counting the Eons by Isaac Asimov

Asimov discusses air pressures, calendar systems, the age and fate of the Universe, and why women prefer men with hairy legs.

Isaac Asimov's Treasury of Humor by Isaac Asimov

As advertised on the front cover, the book contains 640 jokes, anecdotes, and limericks, complete with notes on how to tell them. The jokes are sorted into eleven chapters (Anticlimax, Shaggy Dog, Paradox, Put-down, Word Play, Tables Turned, Jewish, Ethnic, Religion, Marriage, and Bawdy), more or less successfully (apparently it's hard to classify jokes). Most of the jokes are pretty good, and some stand out. Here's a little selection:

Science has a language of its own which sometimes puzzles laymen. The word "obvious" is a case in point.

Thus a professor of physics, deriving some profound point of theory for the class, scribbled an equation on the board and said, "From this, it is obvious that we can proceed to write the following relationship —" and he scribbled a second equation on the board.

Then he paused. He stared hard at the two equations and said, "Wait a while. I may be wrong —"

He sat down, seized a pad and started to write furiously. He paused for thought, crossed out what he had written, and began over. In this fashion, half an hour passed while the class held its breath and sat in absolute silence.

Finally, the professor rose with an air of satisfaction and said, "Yes, I was right in the first place. It is obvious that the second equation follows from the first."

Two gentlemen, both hard of hearing and strangers to each other, were about to ride the London Underground. One of them, peering at the station they were entering, said, "Pardon me, sir, but is this Wembley?"

"No," said the other, "Thursday."

"No, thank you," said the first, "I've already had my little drink."

The Latin professor arrived home in a state of utter confusion, and much the worse for wear. His jacket was torn, his trousers muddy, his hat a battered ruin, his eyeglasses bent askew.

His wife ran to him, startled. "Septimus," she cried, "whatever has happened to you?"

"Why, my dear," said the professor, seating himself carefully, "I scarcely know. I was passing the corner of Second and Main when, without provocation of any sort on my part, I was suddenly assaulted by two hoodla."

The curator of one zoo was shipping several animals to another zoo, and wrote an accompanying letter which said in part, "Included are the two mongeese you asked for."

The curator paused. "Mongeese" looked funny.

He tore up the letter and tried again, saying, "Included are the two mongooses you asked for."

That looked funny, too.

After long thought, the curator began a third time and now completed it without trouble. He wrote in part, "Included is the mongoose which you requested. Included is also the other mongoose which you also requested."

Tell me why the stars do shine;
Tell me why the ivy twines;
Tell me why the skies are blue;
And I will tell you why I love you.

Nuclear fusion makes the stars to shine;
Tropisms make the ivy twine;
Rayleigh scattering makes skies so blue;
Testicular hormones is why I love you.

I highly recommend the book.

The Human Body: Its Structure and Operation by Isaac Asimov

Goes through the human body, from head to torso, muscles to blood, skin to genitalia, explaining in good detail how it all works. As always, it's written in clear prose, and is easily accessible. If you have a moderate interest in human anatomy, this is the book for you.

The Relativity of Wrong by Isaac Asimov

Explains atoms and isotopes, planets and satellites, novas and supernovas. It also contains a title essay, which is available online. In it, he explains that there is a continuum from right to wrong, and that it's possible to be righter and wronger. For instance, if you think the Earth is flat you are wronger than if you think the Earth is a sphere. You're still wrong, because the Earth is more like an oblate spheroid, but even that is wrong. And so on.

Words from the Myths by Isaac Asimov

The book explains Greek mythology and its relationship to the English language in the form of its words ('chaos', 'cosmos', 'gigantic', 'atlas', 'ocean', 'Europe', 'cereal', 'phobia', 'demon', 'martial', 'vulcano', 'jovial', 'music', 'hygiene', 'siren', 'hubris', 'nemesis'). Asimov describes a lot of Greek mythology in-depth, but primarily for the purpose of explaining the origins and meanings of those words (and many others). He covers the titans, the Olympians, monsters, heroes and the siege of Troy.

As always Asimov explains things simply clearly. It was a marvelously transparent and neat read. And it's not too long, either (about 100 pages).

The Great Scientists by John Farndon

A pretty good book about scientists from Euclid, Archimedes, and Ptolemy to Faraday, Darwin, and Hawking, and the science they invented or practiced. It's somewhat engagingly written, but it's more a text book about scientists than a history of science (which isn't bad, of course). I picked it up on a whim, so it could have been much worse.

Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig (link)

In my opinion, a must-read for anyone interested in freedom, culture, and copyright. Parts of the book are unfortunately very dull and not very well-structured (and also written in Lawyerese), but the subject matter is more important (besides, the parts that aren't dull are exceedingly good). Most of it is about copyright — what it meant originally, what it means now, what it regulated originally, what it regulates now — and about how new technology should force us to rewrite old laws so that common sense prevails.

Eats, Shoots, and Leaves by Lynne Truss

Grammar 101. This book furiously attacks bad grammar and the perpetrators thereof.

Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time by Michael Shermer

Deals with Holocaust denial, UFO sightings, and how to evaluate things skeptically. It's a very good book about skepticism, but I recommend Carl Sagan over Shermer.

Hackers & Painters by Paul Graham

This book is a collection of essays from Paul Graham, most of which can be found on his web site (with the exceptions of Good Bad Attitude, Mind the Gap, Programming Languages Explained, and The Dream Language). The essays deal with the hacker culture, startups, and how to make good things (which, for being such a nebulous topic, Paul manages to explain very well).

The Age of Spiritual Machines by Ray Kurzweil

An engagingly-written book on the technological singulariy. The first part explains the Law of Accelerating Returns, discusses the idea of an intelligence (us) creating a greater intelligence (computers), and how a machine would deal with ambiguities of language (there are at least four ways of interpreting the sentence “time flies like an arrow”, laid out in the book). The second part deals with preparing the present, and discusses different ways of building brains (and uploading already-built brains to another substrate). The third part is a journey through the twenty-first century, with stops for snapshots at 2009, 2019, 2029, and 2099. At the end of each chapter is an imaginary talk with an imaginary reader, Molly, which helps explain things (it's written very informally and is entertaining).

Read this book, now.

The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins

A pretty comprehensive guide to evolution, and the second book that introduced the gene-centric view of evolution (namely, that genes use bodies — survival machines — to pass themselves on, rather than organisms using genes to pass their traits on). The main goal of the book is to explain altruistic behavior and to dispell the myth that just because genes are selfish, we must (or should) be selfish, and I think it succeeds. The book also introduced the concept of memes (supposed to rhyme with genes), which are units of culture (like a catchy tune or a piece of trivia or a certain way of walking) that are capable of being copied from mind to mind.

Dawkins is an awesome writer, and though this is his first book, it's thoroughly excellent.

The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins

The Blind Watchmaker demolishes the argument from design, which was first advanced by the theologian William Paley. In short, it goes like this: If you're walking somewhere and you find a rock, you don't require an explanation for why it's there. But if you find a watch, you'll assume that the watch had a maker. Organisms are complex things, like a watch, so they, too, should require a maker (this is what the title alludes to). The book introduces biomorphs, creatures in a computer program that can evolve a multitude of shapes based on nine different “genes” (variables) which control how the form grows. Even with only nine genes, the number of forms that can be generated are huge, and the reader is invited to imagine walking through the (nine-dimensional!) space of possible shapes.

The book has a whole chapter devoted to how evolution not only removes misfits, but adds complexity (a common myth is that evolution can only subtract, not add), which is very good.

A very good introduction to evolution.

Unweaving the Rainbow by Richard Dawkins

This book is a celebration of science, and an explanation of its beauty, and it succeeds brilliantly.

Dawkins discusses the probability of your birth (it turns out to be very low), the notion that knowing things about the universe dimishes its beauty (like Feynman before him), sound waves, DNA fingerprinting, astrology (always witty to condemn), genes, brains, and, finally, memes.

An awesome book.

A Devil's Chaplain by Richard Dawkins

Contains a bunch of essays, some book reviews, and a few eulogies. Almost all are great, and my favorites are Crystalline Truth and Crystal Balls (which starts by mocking New Age crystal healing and goes on to explain real crystals), Postmodernism Disrobed (which, as the title says, disrobes postmodernism), The 'Information Challenge' (which briefly recounts an occasion where Dawkins was duped into an interview with creationists, and quickly moves on to give an answer to the question he apparently couldn't answer in a video clip later released by the interviewers), Snake Oil (which deals with alternative medicine and explains exactly how they should be tested — with homeopathy as an example — for them to be taken seriously) , and Good and Bad Reasons for Believing (which is an open letter to her daughter with advice for good reasons — evidence — and bad reasons — tradition, authority, revalation — for believing things). There's nothing more to it; I'm a shameless fanboy. Go read the book.

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

The God Delusion unapologetically criticizes religion (as the title implies, belief in gods is a delusion, on the same level as believing you're Napoleon). First off, he tries to avoid confusion with the way Einstein and Hawking have used religious terms to express their appreciation of contemplating the universe, by invoking what he calls Einsteinian religion (neither Einstein nor Hawking are theists, by the way). In that respect, Dawkins tells us that he's a deeply religious non-believer, but dislikes using the word, instead preferring to reserve it for traditional religion. (I wholeheartedly agree. There's no point in needlessly muddling the meanings of words.)

'Proofs' for God's existence are given the spotlight and thoroughly debunked (most of them don't really make sense anyway, so there isn't much to debunk). Various reasons for not believing in a deity are presented. Morals without supernatural supervision are explained (yes, it really is possible to be good without God). An explanation of the due hostility towards religion is given. The book then turns to children, and the psychological abuse that children who have their parents' religion forced upon them suffer. Finally, the book vigilantly defends the atheist position and argues that the gaps religion fills can be much better filled by other things.

As always Dawkins is an excellent writer, and I thoroughly recommend the book, but preferably to theists. I'm an atheist, so the book was already preaching to the choir, although it did teach me many new interesting things, such as the concept of non-overlapping magisteria.

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard P. Feynman

I think I can honestly say that this book is excellent all the way through. At no point was I bored. In fact, I grinned to myself at least three times and almost cried once (honest).

The book is a fascinating look into the mind of one of the 20th century's top physicist, the eccentric free spirit Richard Feynman. It's a mostly chronological account of the interesting moments of his life, from his childhood when he fixed radios, to his mischief at MIT, to Princeton, to Los Alamos (where he worked on the bomb and cracked safes for fun), to Cornell, to Brazil, to Japan. The stories are engagingly told as anecdotes, which is partly why it's such an interesting read (and partly because the stories are inherently interesting).

Read this book!

Kjetterbibelen by Ronnie Johanson

This is just one long book of quotations from the history of the criticism of religion, from Aristotle to Asimov to Ingersoll to Dawkins. It's an OK read, but most of the quotes are boring. The ones that stand out, however, are awesome. Here's a small sample:

"I still say a church steeple with a lightning rod on top shows a lack of confidence."

Doug McLeod

"If you want to save your child from polio, you can pray or you can inoculate. Try science."

Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World

"... millions long for immortality who do not know what do do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon."

Susan Ertz

Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris

This book is a criticism of religion. Specifically, it criticizes the inherently stupid things being done by humans in the name of the particular branch of religion that they happen to have been brought up with (like opposing abortion, stem-cell research, and emracing the idea of martyrdom). It's written as an open letter to a Christian, so it didn't particularly speak to me, but I imagine a Christian might have a mind-opening experience if he read it.

Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

This is a book about applying statistics to unconventional problems and see where that leads you. For instance, the book argues that Roe v. Wade was a more contributing factor to the recent drop in crime rates in the US than any other. The explanation? The people who are most inclined to become criminals (children of poor single-parent blacks) simply aren't there when, had they been born, they would have begun their criminal careers.

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

The Art of War is a classic treatise on war (and tactics in war) and covers topics such as the real purpose of war, different types of ground, how to treat your soldiers, and the use of spies.

Manga

Kwaïdan by Jung and Jee-Yun

A captivating story about the love between a river spirit and her slain samurai boyfriend, and the love between a faceless woman and a blind painter. The title is Japanese and means “Ghost”.

The Planetes series by Makoto Yukimura

This stunning and beautiful manga series takes place around the year 2075 and realistically depicts human beings' first steps into space, and discusses problems that might arise as a result of this (or already have arisen, such as the problem of space debris).

Other fiction

The Epic of Gilgamesh, translated by N. K. Sandars

Being one of the few surviving early epic poems in the world (dating to the third millenium BCE), Gilgamesh tells the story of Gilgamesh, a god-king of Uruk who the gods see as arrogant. They create Enkidu, a wild beast that eventually befriends Gilgamesh. They travel together to the cedar forest and battles Humbaba, a fiendish guardian. They successfully defeat him, but eventually Enkidu dies, and Gilgamesh becomes painfully aware of his own mortality. Not liking that, he sets out on a journey to find ever-lasting life.

The paperback edition that I read is only 62 pages, so it's a very light read. The story is engaging, but not really engagingly written (doubtless because of its age and the act of translation). Nevertheless, I recommend it if only for its prominent status. (Note: There are several free online translations. I originally read it online, but I can't find the version I read, so you could Google it if you want. However, my guess is that a translation from a proper book is best.)

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (PDF link)

Alice, a young girl, falls asleep on a meadow and dreams of impossible and absurd things. She sees a white rabbit complaining that he's late for something, and follows him down a rabbit-hole. Once there her size can change unpredictably, she encounters a hookah-smoking caterpillar, a never-ending tea party, and anthropomorphized playing cards.

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

The Illuminati steals a quarter gram of antimatter from CERN, places it somewhere inside the Vatican, and kidnaps four cardinals from under the Vatican's nose. Robert Langdon, a symbologist from America, is flown in to investigate.

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu are on a quest for the Holy Grail. I can't say much more without spoiling anything.

Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott (link)

Flatland chronicles the adventure of A. Square, a being in Flatland. Flatland consists of only two dimensions, as opposed to Pointland, which consists of zero dimensions, Lineland, which consists of one dimension, and Spaceland (which we inhabit), which consists of three dimensions. It describes at length the society in Flatland, and how they go about tasks that we Spacelanders find trivial. For instance, everyone is a Polygon. The more equal all its angles and the more sides it has, the higher its social rank. Lowest are women (or the Frailer Sex, as they are often called) who are mere Lines and have no chance of rising in rank. Then come the Triangles, which are men. Then Squares (of which the narrator, A. Square, is naturally a member), Pentagons, Hexagons, Heptagons, Octagons, etc. The more sides a Polygon has, the closer it gets to being a Circle. They're the top leaders of every aspect of Flatland's society.

So the book describes, for instance, how one goes about identifying others in Flatland. After all, they can't use sight as effectively as we can, so they have devised methods such as using fog to determine the distance of the sides and angles of each other. A Triangle, for instance, is recognized as such by the fact that at no point (from the point of view of a Flatlander, of course) is more than two of his sides visible. Similarly, a Pentagon is recognized as such by the fact that at no point is more than three of his sides visible (if facing you with one of its sides perpendicular to your viewfield, the two sides will quickly fade away due to fog). Polygons in Flatland go through rigorous training in their Universities to develops skills such as these for recognizing each other.

One day A. Square is visited by a Sphere from Spaceland, and it's here that the book gets really interesting, so I won't spoil anything for you.

But enough of this. What I explain is almost exactly what the whole book is about, so I recommend reading the book instead of my summary of it. Before you do, however, I want to point out one little detail of their society which I find hilarious, and that is that every offspring has one more side than its parent so that the family has a chance of rising in rank. I don't know about you, but imagining an Octagon being the offspring of a Heptagon is pretty funny.

Also see Carl Sagan's explanation of Flatland.

Naiv. Super. by Erlend Loe

The story of a man in his mid-twenties who suddenly feels that nothing in his life matters and the things he does to combat this feeling. The title is Norwegian and, as should be obvious, means “Naïve. Super.” The book's title certainly describes its contents well. Don't read this unless you're forced to (like I was).

About a Boy by Nick Hornby

A story about the meeting between a boy with the mind of an adult and an adult with the mind of a boy.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

An allegorical story of a boy who follows his dreams and heart and eventually discovers his true self and finds his treasure.

I found it a little too naive to be entertaining, but it's a cute story nonetheless.

Essays

Various essays I've read. I refrain from writing my own thoughts of them because most of them are classics and I generally recommend them anyway.

Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity by Alan Sokal
A hoax paper by a real physicist, "Transgressing the Boundaries" is peppered with nonsense, as an experiment to see if it would be accepted by a journal in postmodern social studies, Social Text (it was).
Computing Machinery and Intelligence by Alan Turing
The paper in which what is now called the Turing Test is laid out. The first part is about the test proper, and the second about possible objections to the proposition "Can machines think?"
Why I Am Not a Christian by Betrand Russell
An excellent essay which touches on all the good reasons for not being a Christian (like the doctrine of hell and the dubious teachings of Christ).
Why the Future Doesn't Need Us by Bill Joy
Bill Joy advocates caution and prudence with the development of potentially devastating technologies.
The Burden of Skepticism by Carl Sagan
This essay advocates skepticism and argues that everyone has it. It's also a wonderful defence and explanation of skepticism.
The Fine Art of Baloney Detection by Carl Sagan
An essay on the essential tools of skepticism (like Occam's Razor) and logical fallacies (like a false dichotomy).
Where Am I? by Daniel Dennett
What if your brain were kept in a vat but connected to the nerve stumps in your skull? Where would you be?
A Coffeehouse Conversation on the Turing Test by Douglas R. Hofstadter
Three people (a physics student, a biology student, and a philosophy student) having a conversation about the Turing Test, with a postscript by Hofstadter about an experience he had with a clever program over teletype.
The Relativity of Wrong by Isaac Asimov
Explains why there is a continuum from right to wrong. (Note: All the online versions of this essay that I could find had a huge chunk of the text missing, so this one links to one I made myself, directly from the essay collection.)
A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift
A satirical pamphlet advocating the sale of Irish infants for food to Englishmen.
The Awful German Language by Mark Twain
A satire on the various absurdities of the German language.
Philosophy of science 101 (PDF) by Massimo Pigliucci
A pretty short introduction of the big ideas in the philosophy of science.
Awesome Versus Adipose by Peter Atkins
An essay about the incompatibility between science and religion.
Gaps in the Mind by Richard Dawkins
Deals with the artificial wall of separation between humans as humans and every other creature as animal. The discontinuous mind is everywhere.
Postmodernism Disrobed by Richard Dawkins
A review of Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont's Intellectual Impstures and general fun-poking at postmodernism.
Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder by Richard Dawkins
Science is cumulative, and it's more than able to fill your appetite for wonder.
The Real Romance in the Stars by Richard Dawkins
A scathing denunciation of astrology. Delicious!
There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom by Richard Feynman
A classic essay (actually a lecture) on nanotechnology.
Evolution as Fact and Theory by Stephen Jay Gould
Explains why evolution is both a fact and a theory.
Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution by Theodosius Dobzhansky
An essay about the explanatory power of evolution.

Short Stories

Short stories I've read. Again, I refrain from writing my own thoughts of them because of their status.

The Country of the Blind by H. G. Wells
A story about a man, Nunez, who, when climbing the Andes, falls down into a valley which has been cut off from the outside world. All the inhabitants there are blind, and so Nunes, being the only one with the sense of sight, is looked upon with suspicion.

Books that I want to read

Since I started reading books my friends have started recommending an awful lot of books for me to read. Since my mind can only handle about seven things at any one time, I do my best to remember the title(s) upon recommendation, and plug them in here when I remember to. I also add titles that I see myself, of course. The parenthesis behind an item indicates that I own the book but have not read it, and its status.