Bookshelf

My Bookshelf

Below are some of the books sitting on my stack that I've been meaning to get around to reading or have recently read. I encourage you all to check some of these out, as well as offering suggestions for what else I should read next!

"Want to Read" List

Sword Art Online by Reki Kawahara

I was first introduced to this as an anime, and it quickly became one of my favorites. However, I think the books are even better, particularly the Progressive series of books.

SAO is a story about the first ever Virtual Reality MMO, in which players make use of "full dive" technology to plug their minds into the game. However, the creator of this game reveals at launch that all ten-thousand or so players currently logged in are now trapped inside the virtual world. Death in the game will cause the player's brain to be fried by the "Nerve Gear" on their heads, as will any attempt to force them out of the helmet-like controller.

The story is incredible, and brings to mind a host of moral questions. Is it okay to kill someone in self-defense in a video game, if that kills the person in real life too? Is it selfish to strive for all the best items when that means other players will miss out on them? Do the players have a responsibility to try to beat the game, the only way to make it out alive, or is it okay to live as normal a life as possible within the safety of the cities? The books are amazing, definitely worth a read.

Dexter Series by Jeff Lindsay

After debating quite a bit with myself, I decided that I like the Dexter books more than the television series. Both are amazing, but the show takes itself very seriously, whereas the books are a little lighter as we see things through the carefree narration of everyone's favorite serial killer.

Dexter is a blood spatter analyst for the Miami police department. However, he is also a serial killer with a thirst for blood. His father Harry, a cop himself, taught him to only kill those who deserved death, and how not to get caught.

The books and show share a plot for the first novel/season, and then branch off on their separate storylines. One think I like about the books is that there's a hint of the supernatural behind what makes Dexter a killer, something absent from the show. I also feel like the quality of the books is better overall, whereas the show starts off amazing and gradually gets worse season by season until the crapfest that is the conclusion of the show. That's not to say that the books are perfect - they share a similar decline - but three of them, Dearly Devoted Dexter, Dexter in the Dark, and Dexter by Design are among my favorite books of all time.

Five Nights at Freddy's: The Silver Eyes

I got on the hype train for Five Nights at Freddy's a bit late. In fact, I really only became obsessed with it recently, after FNAF 4 came out and most people had already gotten over it.

However, the book truly surprised me. The games have a rich backstory, so it stands to reason that creator Scott Cawthon could make a decent book. And while he's not exactly a "professional" writer (as you can tell by the awkward double-spacing of the pages), he tells one HELL of a story.

I loved every minute of this book. It captured the darkness of the games, but gave the danger of possessed animatronic animals real impact because they were going after characters we cared about, instead of a random security guard. The story takes place years after Freddy Fazbear's Pizza has closed down after five children went missing there, when friends of the missing decide to go back to the abandoned restaurant. There, we share in their perverted excitement at being in this secret place forgotten by the world, where they spent so much of their childhoods, with those lifeless animatronic eyes watching them...

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

I got this book as a part of Loot Crate, and immediately fell in love with it. The story is about an MMO called OASIS, which has grown extremely popular as an escape from the dystopian world they live in.

The creator of OASIS, after passing away, reveals that he will leave his entire fortune as well as ownership of the game to whoever finds his three easter eggs, hidden throughout the virtual world.

It addresses some issues we experience today, like video game addiction and wishing to escape reality through a game. Not to mention it's jam-packed with video game references and a healthy dose of eighties film and music. I highly recommend this book!

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn

Ishmael, and the two sequels, The Story of B and My Ishmael, are some of the most influential books I've ever read. It changed the way I think about the world. Ishmael is the story of a telepathic gorilla who takes it upon himself to teach one man how to see the world the way it really is. Some of the topics he covers are "Taker" and "Leaver" cultures, and the relatively stable three million year human history compared to the destructive past ten thousand years.

Shout out to my cousin Mason: I let him borrow this book in high school. He then forgot about it for years and eventually sold it. The day after he did so, I asked to have it back, but alas, it was gone. Yet without him, I wouldn't have gone online to reorder it and discovered it was a trilogy! So thank you, M-dog.

The MaddAddam Trilogy
by Margaret Atwood

I picked up the first book, Oryx & Crake, at AWP Chicago a few years ago, when Atwood was the keynote speaker, and I fell in love with the series. It does dystopia in a unique and fascinating way. Each book switches back and forth between the post-apocalyptic world and the events leading up to it. Genetic engineering is the main focus of this novel, as humans try to combat rampant disease by growing new organs and brain tissue in pigs, called "Pigoons," as well as a secret project to create the successors to the human race, the "Crakers."

The Year of the Flood is my favorite of the three, but they're all great reads, and there's an HBO show coming out about the books!

Take a Shower, Show up on Time, and Don't Steal Anything!

I listen to the Dave Ryan Show on iheartradio almost every morning, and of course I heard Dave shamelessly plugging his book every chance he got. So of course I pre-ordered it! It's a great little book, a very quick read, containing life advice and other sh*t Dave has learned during his many many years on the planet. The advice is short and sweet, and pretty good too! I very much enjoyed reading this!

The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight by Thom Harmann

This book is an eye-opener into just how our modern world is digging itself into a hole with its dependence on fossil fuels. It's not preachy, either; it presents the situation in a simple way that makes the reader truly understand the gravity of our situation as we run out of the "ancient sunlight" of the earth that has become oil and coal and other fuel sources.

Changing Planes by Ursula Le Guin

I took a test once where you input a sample of your writing and it tells you which author your style resembles. I got Ursula Le Guin, someone I'd never heard of, and immediately ordered one of her books.

This book tells of visiting different "planes" and experiencing their culture, not unlike the islands in Gulliver's Travels. Many of them are merciless forms of social satire, which I of course greatly enjoy.