Recommendations
What book should I read next?
Nobody actually asked this, but I'm going to make some recommendations anyway, because I'm in a mood to dispense wisdom, and I think that recommending books to read is about as wise as it gets.
So if you're looking for general life advice, then I recommend David Allen's Getting Things Done. Saying it changed my life is something of an exaggeration, but it certainly turned me from someone who had a long list of projects and not a lot of success in finishing them into someone who, by and large, manages an insanely busy calendar of stuff, gets projects finished, and doesn't go mad in the process.
If you're looking for a good graphic novel, I reckon you can't go far wrong with Saga or The Unwritten. Saga is still running, as far as I know, but there are two or three collections already, and The Unwritten has about eight collections, and is one of the better comics I've read in years. It's up there, to some degree, with Sandman. Saga is a sort of science-fiction, science-fantasy setup, detailing the life of a child whose parents were on opposite sides of a long, long war. The Unwritten is about a guy who's part Christopher Robin, part Harry Potter, and his quest to find out if he's real or fictional.
And if you're looking for a novel, well, Ann Lackey's Ancillary Justice is pretty thoroughly stonking. The point of view character is one avatar of a multi-selfed artificially intelligent spacecraft, who has a rough time perceiving gender signals, and therefore calls everyone "she". There are elements of the Left Hand of Darkness in it, and a bit of the feeling of Charles Stross' work on Saturn's Children, and maybe a bit of C J Cherryh. It's very much worth your time.
Posted by Drew Shiel at September 13, 2014 9:07 PM
