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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