Top Ten Bookish Wishes

Today’s a day for sharing the books we’d really love to own. But first, teases!

Pondering the implications of a red-hot cowpat landing on my head, I felt a surge of unease and retraced my steps. I hadn’t gone far when a massive discharge from this crater assailed the spot where I had been standing. Before there was time to reflect, an explosion from another crater propelled rocks high overhead, which buzzed as they picked up speed on descent. Feeling increasingly like a target in a shooting gallery, I called it a day and hiked back to the village. (Mountains of Fire: The Menace, Meaning, and Magic of Volcanos)

But if you decide to read further, please know that I wouldn’t put you in such a precarious predicament if I didn’t feel it was absolutely necessary. This is not an impulsive act. For months I’ve struggled with the decision to write about what’s really happening over here. Scrolling back through our digital correspondence, I can still see the invisible gaps, the moments where I wanted to include so much more, and I remember why I talked myself out of it. (Tiger Chair, Max Brooks)

“The point they’re making,” Mosscap said, pointing a metal finger at the screen, “is that complex intelligence and self-awareness arise out of an external need. A social need, an environmental need, whichever. Something pushed those creatures into needing to be more clever.” Its eyes glowed more brightly. “So, what sort of need pushed us robots into
waking up?” Dex opened their mouth, then closed it.
“Can I go pee before we have this conversation?” (Prayer for the Crown-Shy, Becky Chambers)

For the list, I’m going to look at recent additions to my Goodreads want-to-read-list which is now, worryingly, over 200 titles.

Huh. I’ve actually read the last three titles on it. That’s a…good sign, I think.

(1) The Situation Room: The Inside Story of Presidents in Crisis, George Stephanopoulous.

(2) Magic Pill: The Extraordinary Benefits and Disturbing Risks of the New Weight Loss Drugs, Johann Hari. I’m on the “lifestyle, not maintenance meds” approach to healthcare but am curious.

(3) The Year of Living Constitutionally, A.J. Jacobs. Given that the Constitution was intended to apply to the national government, not the States and certainly not to individuals, this makes my radar only because I’ve enjoyed A.J. Jacobs’ other experiments so much.

(4) Becoming C.S. Lewis: A Biography of Young Jack. Harry Lee Poe.

(5) Camino Ghosts, John Grisham. Although Grisham has gotten very lazy the last twenty years, the Camino Island setting is an interesting diversion. I’ve been in the area it was inspired by (Amelia Island, near Jacksonville & St. Augustine), so I have an especial interest in his books set there.

(6) Life on the Rocks: Building a Future for Coral Reefs, Juli Berwald

(7) The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of MEntal Illness, Johnathan Haidt. One of my favorite authors on a topic I’ve been concerned about since touchphones became a thing. I still remember being disturbed at a deep level by an article in Newsweek or something similar fifteen years ago that featured a picture of a toddler completely absorbed by a tablet.

(8) The Enchantments of Mammon: How Capitalism Became the Religion of Modernity, Eugene McCarraher, because I’m a really awkward libertarian who actively dislikes consumerism & materialism.

(9) Most Blessed of the Patriarchs: Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination, Annette Gordon-Reed

(10) Reading Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature, Azar Nafisi. This one hasn’t technically made my Goodreds TBR list because I only heard about it yesterday, but I’ve read most of her previous work save for that Nabokov title that was just translated last year.