Saturday, December 31, 2016

2016 Books Read

End of the year, so time for my annual accounting of books consumed for 2016!

The 2016 Book List
  1. Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs: The Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe by Lisa Randall
  2. This Will Make You Smarter by John Brockman
  3. The Koran
  4. A Night of Blacker Darkness by Dan Wells
  5. Sworn in Steel by Douglas Hulick
  6. Procrastinate on Purpose by Rory Vaden
  7. Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills (The Great Courses) by Professor Stephen Novella
  8. Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor
  9. The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert
  10. The Higgs Boson and Beyond (The Great Courses) by Sean Carroll
  11. Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of Technology by Kentaro Toyama
  12. Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future by Martin Ford
  13. The Industries of the Future by Alec Ross
  14. Common Sense by Thomas Paine
  15. The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World (The Great Courses) by Prof. Robert Garland
  16. Revisionary by Jim C. Hines
  17. Chupacabra's Song by Jim C. Hines
  18. Quantum Night by Robert J. Sawyer
  19. Future Visions: Original Science Fiction Inspired by Microsoft
  20. The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome by Susan Wise Bauer
  21. You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day
  22. Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord
  23. There Was No Jesus, There Is No God by Raphael Lataster
  24. The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems ... And Create More by Luke Dormehl
  25. Jesus Did Not Exist: A Debate Among Atheists by Raphael Lataster w/ Richard Carrier
  26. Did Jesus Exist: The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth by Bart Ehrman
  27. Answers to Aristotle: How Science and Philosophy Can Lead Us to a More Meaningful Life by Massimo Pigliucci
  28. The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself by Sean Carroll
  29. The Ark: Children of the Dead Earth (Book One) by Patrick S. Tomlinson
  30. Babylon's Ark: The Incredible Wartime Rescue of the Baghdad Zoo by Lawrence Anthony and Graham Spence
  31. Trident's Forge: Children of the Dead (Book Two) by Patrick S. Tomlinson
  32. Jesus Before the Gospels: How the Earliest Christians Remembered, Changed, and Invented Their Stories of the Savior by Bart Ehrman
  33. Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
  34. The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
  35. The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson
  36. Extraordinary Zoology: Tales from the Monsternomicon, vol. 1 by Howard Tayler
  37. Mr. Monster by Dan Wells
  38. I Don't Want to Kill You by Dan Wells
  39. Partials by Dan Wells
  40. The Devil's Only Friend by Dan Wells
  41. Necessity by Jo Walton
  42. Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help You Help Others, Do Work That Matters, and Make Smart Choices About Giving Back by William MacAskill
  43. The Lady Astronaut Club by Mary Robinette Kowal (beta reader of draft edition)
  44. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill (with commentary by Steven Barnes) (re-read)
  45. How Great Science Fiction Works (The Great Courses) by Prof. Gary K. Wolfe
  46. Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi
Breakdown

Format:
  • Audiobooks: 26
    • Audio courses: 4
  • Kindle: 13
    • Kindle shorts: 1
  • Google Docs: 1
  • Dead tree books: 6
Subjects:
  • Total Fiction: 22
    • Classics: 2
    • Science Fiction: 8
      • Young Adult: 2
    • Fantasy: 13
      • Horror: 3
  • Non-Fiction: 25
    • Science: 9
      • Physics: 3
      • Psychology: 1
      • Biology: 3
      • Technology: 4
      • Math/Statistics: 1
    • Religion: 8
    • History: 8
    • Politics: 5
    • Education: 1
    • Economics: 5
    • Business: 6
    • Philosophy: 7
    • Humor: 2
    • Writing/Creativity: 2
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 free will would fall in both Psychology and Philosophy (and possibly even Religion) categories.

Similarly, some books I read using Whispersynch-for-Voice to jump between the Amazon Kindle and Audible audiobook versions of the books, so they got double-counted in the format section. I've also included The Great Courses audios that I listen to through Audible.com. Though not actually books, I figure that a 10+ hour course on a subject contains about the same informational content, if not presented structurally in quite the same way as it would take in a written book.

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 running record of the books that I read.

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