Tuesday, December 31, 2013

2013 Books Read

End of the year, so time for my annual accounting. Here are the books I read in 2013.

The Book List
  1. Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed
  2. Paranormality: Why We See What Isn't There by Professor Richard Wiseman
  3. Edge of the Universe: A Voyage to the Cosmic Horizon and Beyond by Paul Halpern
  4. The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail -- But Some Don't by Nate Silver
  5. The Theoretical Minimum: What You Need to Know to Start Doing Physics by Leonard Susskind and George Hrabovsky
  6. War of the Worldviews: Where Science and Spirituality Meet -- and Do Not by Leonard Mlodinow and Deepak Chopra
  7. The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis
  8. Save Our Science by Anissa Ramirez
  9. Existence by David Brin
  10. Red Planet Blues by Robert J. Sawyer
  11. Time Reborn: From the Crisis in Physics to the Future of the Universe by Lee Smolin
  12. Libriomancer by Jim C. Hines
  13. The Nerdist Way: How to Reach the Next Level (In Real Life) by Chris Hardwick
  14. Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America by Barbara Ehrenreich
  15. America Again: Re-discovering the Greatness We Never Weren't by Stephen Colbert
  16. Bones of the Old Ones by Howard Andrew Jones
  17. The Gospel of Falling Down: The Beauty of Failure, in an Age of Success by Mark Townsend
  18. The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University by Kevin Roose
  19. Happy This Year!: The Secret to Getting Happy Once and For All by Will Bowen
  20. Eternal Life: A New Vision by Bishop John Shelby Spong
  21. Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris
  22. Shadow Ops: Control Point by Myke Cole
  23. Being Logical: A Guide to Good Thinking by D.Q. McInerny
  24. Popper by Frederic Raphael
  25. Logic: A Brief Insight by Graham Priest
  26. Physics in Mind: A Quantum View of the Brain by Werner R. Loewenstein
  27. What We Talk About When We Talk About God by Rob Bell
  28. Writing Fantasy Heroes edited by Jason M. Waltz
  29. Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl
  30. The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence by Ray Kurzweil
  31. Religion for Atheists by Alain de Botton
  32. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin
  33. Shadow Ops: Fortress Frontier by Myke Cole
  34. Redshirts by John Scalzi
  35. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
  36. Future Science: Essays from the Cutting Edge edited by Max Brockman
  37. The Companions by R.A. Salvatore
  38. The Godborn by Paul S. Kemp
  39. The Case for God by Karen Armstrong
  40. Letters to a Young Scientist by Edward O. Wilson
  41. What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets by Michael Sandel
  42. Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman
  43. Brilliant Blunders: From Darwin to Einstein by Mario Livio
  44. The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Steven Pinker
  45. Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson
  46. Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom by Sylvia Libow Martinez & Gary S. Stager
  47. Still Foolin' 'Em by Billy Crystal
  48. The Logical Leap: Induction in Physics by David Harriman and Leonard Peikoff
  49. Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach
  50. What's Next: Dispatches from the Future of Science edited by Max Brockman
  51. Star Wars: Scoundrels by Timothy Zahn
  52. Codex Born by Jim Hines
  53. Meditations on Mystery: Science, Paradox, and Contemplative Spirituality by George W. Wolfe
  54. Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
Analysis

Format:
  • Audiobooks: 22
  • Kindle: 18
    • Kindle Singles (mini-books/solo essays): 1
    • Kindle Lending Library: 5
  • Dead tree books: 14
Subjects:
  • Total Fiction: 15
    • Science Fiction: 4
    • Fantasy: 11
      • Urban/Modern Fantasy: 4
      • Traditional Fantasy: 4
      • Sword & Sorcery: 2
      • Young Adult: 1
      • Steampunk: 0
  • Non-Fiction: 39
    • Science: 17
      • Physics: 9
      • Psychology: 8
      • Biology: 5
      • Technology: 4
      • Math/Statistics: 3
    • Religion: 11
    • History: 5
    • Politics: 4
    • Education: 2
    • Economics: 4
    • Business: 2
    • Philosophy: 10
    • Humor: 4
    • Writing: 1
These numbers don't quite match up, because some books cover multiple areas, and so I've included them in all relevant categories. So, for example, a book on the psychological foundations of religious belief (of which I read a few this year) would fall in both Psychology and Religion categories.

The History

And for anyone who is interested in looking into the past to see some of my previous book lists...
Prior to 2008, I didn't keep a precise record, so they aren't listed anywhere.