Books Read 2017

  1. The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI's Manufactured War on Terrorism by Trevor Aaronson
  2. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Unknown, Simon Armitage (Translator)
  3. Transformers: Robots in Disguise, Volume 1 by John Barber
  4. Transformers: Robots in Disguise, Volume 2 by John Barber
  5. Transformers: Robots in Disguise, Volume 3 by John Barber
  6. Transformers: Robots in Disguise, Volume 4 by John Barber
  7. Transformers: Robots In Disguise Volume 5 by John Barber
  8. Transformers: Robots in Disguise Volume 6 by John Barber
  9. Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman by Harold Bloom
  10. The Black Elfstone (The Fall of Shannara, #1) by Terry Brooks
  11. Enter Naomi: SST, L.A. and All That... by Joe Carducci
  12. The Nonexistent Knight by Italo Calvino
  13. The Awakening and Selected Stories by Kate Chopin
  14. 24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep by Jonathan Crary
  15. Why I Am Not a Feminist: A Feminist Manifesto by Jessa Crispin
  16. Captain Marvel (Marvel NOW!) #1 by Kelly Sue DeConnick
  17. The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
  18. Daniel Deronda by George Eliot
  19. Star Trek: Harlan Ellison's The City on the Edge of Forever: The Original Teleplay by Harlan Ellison
  20. The Communist Manifesto: A Modern Edition by Friedrich Engels
  21. Farber on Film: The Complete Film Writings by Manny Farber
  22. Essays, Speeches & Public Letters by William Faulkner
  23. The 4-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life by Tim Ferriss
  24. When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group that Predicted the Destruction of the World by Leon Festinger
  25. Clinton in Haiti: The 1994 US Invasion of Haiti by Philippe Girard
  26. Burning Britain: The History of UK Punk 1980-1984 by Ian Glasper
  27. The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
  28. A Philosophy of Tragedy by Christopher Hamilton
  29. Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation by Blake J. Harris
  30. A People's History of the French Revolution by Eric Hazan
  31. Film After Film: (Or, What Became of 21st Century Cinema?) by J. Hoberman
  32. Going Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King's Last Campaign by Michael K. Honey
  33. Reel to Real: Race, Sex, and Class at the Movies by bell hooks
  34. An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen
  35. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
  36. Perpetual Peace and Other Essays by Immanuel Kant
  37. The Future is Queer: A Science Fiction Anthology by Richard Labonté
  38. Engaging the Past: Mass Culture and the Production of Historical Knowledge by Alison Landsberg
  39. The Complete Fiction of Nella Larsen: Passing, Quicksand, and the Stories by Nella Larsen
  40. Wellsprings by Mario Vargas Llosa
  41. Identity Crisis by Brad Meltzer
  42. My Damage: The Story of a Punk Rock Survivor by Keith Morris
  43. Choosing Death: The Improbable History of Death Metal and Grindcore by Albert Mudrian
  44. A Year at the Movies: One Man's Filmgoing Odyssey by Kevin Murphy
  45. Kill All Normies: Online Culture Wars from 4chan and Tumblr to Trump and the Alt-Right by Angela Nagle
  46. Employee of the Month and Other Big Deals by Mary Jo Pehl
  47. Visual Storytellling: An Illustrated Reader by Todd James Pierce
  48. Why Be Something That You're Not: Detroit Hardcore 1979-1985 by Tony Rettman
  49. Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady by Samuel Richardson
  50. Green Gone Wrong: How Our Economy Is Undermining the Environmental Revolution by Heather Rogers
  51. Get In The Van: On The Road With Black Flag (Second Edition) by Henry Rollins
  52. American Isis: The Life and Art of Sylvia Plath by Carl Rollyson
  53. Lazarus, Vol. 1: Family by Greg Rucka
  54. Der Mond: The Art of Neon Genesis Evangelion by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
  55. Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat by J. Sakai
  56. A New Companion to Digital Humanities by Susan Schreibman
  57. The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power by Jeff Sharlet
  58. Change Agent by Daniel Suarez
  59. Letters from the Earth: Uncensored Writings by Mark Twain
  60. Saga, Vol. 1 (Saga, #1) by Brian K. Vaughan
  61. Saga, Vol. 2 (Saga, #2) by Brian K. Vaughan
  62. A Brief History of Portable Literature by Enrique Vila-Matas
  63. Dublinesque by Enrique Vila-Matas
  64. Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1: No Normal by G. Willow Wilson
  65. Ms. Marvel, Vol. 2: Generation Why by G. Willow Wilson
  66. The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople by Susan Wise Bauer
  67. How Fiction Works by James Wood
  68. No Slam Dancing, No Stage Diving, No Spikes: An Oral History of the Legendary City Gardens by Amy Yates Wuelfing
  69. What's My Name, Fool? Sports and Resistance in the United States by Dave Zirin

Books Read In 2014

  1. Breathing Machine, A Memoir of Computers by Leigh Alexander
  2. Clipping Through: One Mad Week In Video Games by Leigh Alexander
  3. And Eternity by Piers Anthony
  4. vN by Madeline Ashby
  5. The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood
  6. The Boss by Abigail Barnette
  7. Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter by Tom Bissell
  8. Between Parentheses: Essays, Articles and Speeches, 1998-2003 by Roberto Bolano
  9. Fetish Sex: A Complete Guide to Sexual Fetishes by Violet Blue
  10. Borges On Writing by Jorge Luis Borges
  11. It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens by danah boyd
  12. The High Druid's Blade: The Defenders of Shannara by Terry Brooks
  13. Witch Wraith: The Dark Legacy of Shannara by Terry Brooks
  14. If On A Winter's Night A Traveler by Italo Calvino
  15. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
  16. The Divine Comedy by Dante
  17. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
  18. This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz
  19. How To Read A Poem by Terry Eagleton
  20. A Case Of Hysteria by Sigmund Freud
  21. The Fear Of An Illusion by Sigmund Freud
  22. No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State by Glenn Greenwald
  23. Bootleg: The Secret History of the Other Recording Industry by Clinton Heylin
  24. Never Let Me Go by Kazou Ishiguro
  25. Devilish by Maureen Johnson
  26. Critique Of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant
  27. Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil
  28. Collected Sonnets by Edna St. Vincent Millay
  29. Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss
  30. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami
  31. The Trial And Death Of Socrates by Plato
  32. Rouge Code by Mark Russinovich
  33. Trojan Horse by Mark Russinovich
  34. Zero Day by Mark Russinovich
  35. Dimension Of Miracles by Robert Sheckley
  36. Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety by Eric Schlosser
  37. Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson
  38. Influx by Daniel Suarez
  39. Seeing Ourselves Through Technology: How We Use Selfies, Blogs and Wearable Devices to See and Shape Ourselves by Jill Walker Rettberg
  40. The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet by Neil Degrasse Tyson
  41. Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries by Neil Degrasse Tyson
  42. Conversations With Kurt Vonnegut by Kurt Vonnegut
  43. Palm Sunday by Kurt Vonnegut
  44. Pandora's Lunchbox: How Processed Food Took Over the American Meal by Melanie Warner
  45. A Vindication Of The Rights Of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft
  46. Come To Our Show: Punk Show Flyers From DC To Down Under

Books Read In 2013

  1. Imagined Communities by Benedict Anderson
  2. For Love Of Evil by Piers Anthony
  3. Amulet by Roberto Bolano
  4. Bloodfire Quest by Terry Brooks
  5. The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares
  6. Homeland by Cory Doctorow
  7. Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow
  8. Falling Man by Don Delillo
  9. Middlemarch by George Eliot
  10. What Lips My Lips Have Kissed: The Loves and Love Poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Carolyn Maddux
  11. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
  12. Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army by Jeremy Scahill
  13. And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut, A Life by Charles Shields
  14. Freedom by Daniel Suarez
  15. Kill Decision by Daniel Duarez
  16. In Defense of Terror: Liberty or Death in The French Revolution by Sophie Wahnich
  17. The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace
  18. A Supposedly Fun Thing I Will Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace
  19. Conversations With David Foster Wallace
  20. Enemies: A History of the FBI by Tim Weiner
  21. Hacking the Academy: New Approaches to Scholarship and Teaching from Digital Humanities Anthology

In Praise Of Daniel Suarez

An author I got turned onto by one of my students this year in Daniel Suarez. This summer, I have been listening to his books in the car and I am extremely impressed with them. Suarez writes "techno-thrillers" about modern technology and how it can be used to spy, harm, and kill us. Given the recent developments with the NSA scandal, these books are quite topical fodder. Freedom is a fantastic look at a future ruled by surveillance, online reputation, and a creepy, Google Glass looking interface to view the world. Kill Decision is about drones and what happens when they are given autonomy to kill based on algorithms.

Here are two interviews with Suarez. The first is from Adam Curry's Big Book Show and the longer one is from Leo Laporte's Triangulation netcast. Both are really good and go into great detail about Suarez's novels. I highly recommend them.