📚 Bookshelf
I'm a dyslexic software engineer and reading has always been a bit of a chore, with the exception of a few books.
2025 (10 books)
I had a goal to read more books this year. And I did better than I had expected to but Murderbot really helped to inflate my numbers 😜
The Harry Potter books
I needed something simple and easy to read so I could get back into the habit of reading again and as per my Disclaimer I got mine from a local charity shop. The only problem now is I feel I need to finish the series. I'm currently on book 4.
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Unseen Academicals - Terry Pratchett
I had tried to start reading this back last year but for one reason or another I just stopped. This time though it was the third book for the year and I was in a better place to give it the attention it deserved. Yet another fantastic chapter in the Discworld series.
The Murderbot Diaries Vol. 1 - Martha Wells
It was my 50th birthday this year and on the run up to my actual birthday my Wife decided to give me 50 gifts over 50 days. To be honest I wanted to get this in the new year anyway but I was a little worried because I've not really tried sci-fi books before so I wasn't sure I'd like it. I needn't have worried It was amazing I couldn't put it down and read both stories in 48 hours which is unheard of for me even if they are really short.
The Murderbot Diaries Vol. 2 - Martha Wells
After seeing how fast I got through the first volume the Wife went and got Volume 2 as soon as she could and gave it to me on my Birthday, I finished it in less than 24 hours.
The Murderbot Diaries Vol. 3 - Martha Wells
Christmas Day I got Vol. 3 and finished Fugitive Telemetry before dinner, but I'm having trouble with System Collapse because I know that I'm missing a part of the story, Network Effect sits between them and I still haven't got a copy yet.
2024 (1 book)
red team blues - Cory Doctorow
Can't remember what made me want to try reading Corys books, probably because I started reading his RSS feed, and well you have to start somewhere with a new author. It was a good first book and I'm probably going to read the other two books in the series.
In the past
The Rats Trilogy - James Herbert
A book I started for no other reason than the cover looked cool, mine was the October 1980 reprint with the massive Rat on the cover. I finished it, knew there was a second book, knew I wanted to read it and did so immediately. If I remember correctly I didn't know about Domain when I finished Lair but when I found out I went straight out to my local WHSmith and got a copy.
As a side note "The Rats" was published the year before I was born.
Watchers - Dean R. Koontz
I started reading this because I liked a girl in school, she was reading it and during a free period I was told to read a book (I had a tendency to disrupt when bored). She offered me her copy to keep me occupied, and I was hooked and it gave me a reason to speak to her. First by asking if I could borrow her copy to read during free periods, and after I got my own copy to talk to her about the story. Luckily I also enjoyed the book.
Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
This was a recommendation from my dad, after the success of getting me to read a Diskworld book, he opted to get me to read Good Omens. It did not disappoint.
Halo series
The Halo series was an odd one. When I met my wife, she was driving lorries around the country and I was unemployed so I used to go on trips with her and to while away the hours I'd read to her. Not exactly the most romantic books to read to your future life partner but she knew I had trouble reading aloud so a simple Y.A. fiction book that I could at least be interested in would do the job.
Halo: Ghosts of Onyx (out of print)
The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead - Max Brooks
A book that fed into my interest in self-sufficiency and my love of zombie apocalypses.
World War Z - Max Brooks
Well after you've read the survival guide you just have to read this.
The Millennium Trilogy - Stieg Larsson
Well everyone was reading them at the time and I just liked them.
The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
When I was little this was the book my dad chose to read to me as a bed time story. It was also this book that I found out that different reprints of books may not be edited the same way. It got confusing when my dad was reading to me from one copy and I was supposed to be following a long in another.
The Diskworld Series - Terry Pratchett
There are a lot of Diskworld books just pick one and enjoy it, just don't start with "The Colour Of Magic" or "The Light Fantastic".
The earliest book in the series that I'd recommend is Mort, even Pratchett said that is where he went from a string of jokes held together by a story to a properly funny story.
To be fair if it was written by Terry Pratchett It's a safe bet it'll be a good read, or I'm a librarians uncle.
The Harry Potter series - J.K. Rowling
Again everyone was reading them and they are fun books to read, but...
In recent years Rowling has made comments that for me are a good argument for La mort de l'auteur.
I like the books, oh no they were written by a TERF/Racist or something else that lands them on a "Problematic Authors" list. What I'm saying is you can enjoy a book for the story. But if the person that wrote it isn't the sort of person you want to support, make sure you get the book in a way that does not benefit them. Second-hand book stores are your friend here or even a library.