Adam's 2020 Quarantine Reading List

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+ Hammett, Dashiell. The Maltese Falcon +
+ Excellent noir detective novel. Stolen treasure, murder, dames, all + the good stuff. +
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+ Chandler, Raymond. The Big Sleep +
+ More good noir detective work. Cool cars, alcohol, mansions, hit + men, also dames. Yet more good stuff. +
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+ Lowry, Lois. The Giver +
+ Second time I got to read this. Fantastic book just the same as + before. Movie was totally carried by the fact that Jeff Bridges is + the Giver. Super thought-provoking too. +
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+ Rowling, J.K. + Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber + of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter + and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, + Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry Potter and the Deathly + Hallows +
+ Yep, all of them. I've read some of them multiple times but this was + the first time I read them all to completion myself. My dad used to + read them to me, so I only "listened" to the last couple. Always + great, always better than the movies. And I pick up more and more + forward- and backward-looking references when I read them in a row. +
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+ Miller, Rand, Miller, Robyn, Miller, David. + Myst: The Book of Atrus, Myst: The Book of Ti'ana +
+ The great first two books in the Myst novel series. My favorite is + the second, it gives all of the meat-and-potatoes lore behind the + D'ni, The Art, and The Fall that I always wanted. The first is good + too, and I recommend book-and-game nerds read + Myst: The Book of Atrus after playing Myst: Masterpiece + Edition and before playing Riven: The Sequel to Myst. +
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+ Miller, Rand. Myst: The Book of D'ni +
+ Probably my least favorite of the three Myst novels. It's + fascinating and has lots of dark themes like enslavement. I + recommend reading this one after Riven and before Myst III: Exile. +
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+ Paulsen, Gary. Hatchet +
+ The last time I read this was probably in the sixth grade, and it + was one of the few books I was really glued to then. It's still a + great story about survival, nature, getting mauled by moose, etc. +
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+ Grisham, John. Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer +
+ Also a re-read for me. I kind of sort of wanted to be a lawyer + growing up and this book was the "I can do it too!" book. It's still + a good crime, evidence, trial style lawyer book. I need to read the + sequels. +
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+ Wells, H.G. + The Time Machine, The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Invisible Man +
+ These are three of my favorite H.G. Wells novels. + The Time Machine is super weird though and now that I'm + re-reading it I'm picking up on a ton of Communist undertones. + Dr. Moreau is fantastic. I love all books that take place + on a desert island and this one really creeps me out with the + doctor's surgically-humanized animals. Invisible Man is so + short it's worth reading on a weekend just to know what it's about + (spoiler: a man who is invisible). +
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+ Stevenson, Robert Louis. Treasure Island +
+ Dude, I watched Treasure Planet when I was a kid and I was really + into it for like a month. Now I finally got to read the real thing + and there's a reason why this is one of those perfect examples of + literature. It's the + absolute perfect, truly American story + about pirates, treasure, and sailing ships. +
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+ Dick, Harold G. + The Golden Age of the Great Passenger Airships: Graf Zeppelin and + Hindenburg +
+ I'm a huge rigid airship junkie. They're freaking awesome, I wish + they were still around. I hate flying, and not because of the act of + being in the air but because airships make it seem more comfortable, + luxurious, and adventurous than a half a bag of peanuts, motion + sickness, and recycled oxygen. If you're at all interested in + Zeppelins and you can only read one book, this is the + only book worth reading. It chronicles the author's + experiences actually flying on and operating Graf Zeppelin and + Hindenburg, their flight logs, how they worked, how they were flown, + and the history behind their creation and demise. It's awesome. +
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+ Brown, Dan. Digital Fortress +
+ Great story, I actually listened to this audiobook while painting + our house right around the start of 2020. It's an awesome story with + an intelligent, sleuthy programmer and her globe-trotting professor + significant other tracking down clues. It's got supercomputers and + hackers and espionage and murder and viruses and it would be perfect + if I knew nothing about cryptography or computing in general. +
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