2018 reading list

This lists follows on from 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 although I started cycling to work in July (I reckon I manage 2-3 times per week on average) thus removing a lot of reading time; I’ve marked any books affected with

I found, too late, the addition of icons to last year’s blog made it a bit unreadable for my tastes. I’ve therefore switched to a table format - it’s a bit more effort to create but I think the end result is much cleaner which makes it worthwhile. I’ve also added a Time column in an effort to gauge how long I spend reading a given book. In general I have a 30 minute commute so probably 25 minutes’ reading time each way per day… How much I read outside those times is determined by how good the book is

Kindle Unlimited

The Cost column shows whether it’s available on Kindle Unlimited followed by how much you’d pay for the Kindle version and finally the cheapest physical version at time of writing

Without Kindle Unlimited I would’ve spent £51 on books, rather than being free on KU, for me this year. KU costs £8/month so a tangible loss of £45 and I don’t get to keep any of the books… Real books would’ve cost £192 in total, £83 more than the to-keep Kindle versions.

So a Kindle pays for itself, for me anyway, within a couple of years. Kindle Unlimited on the other hand is probably a waste of money so I’ll likely cancel it. Better check with SWMBO and the kids first, I suspect their usage is low to zero though.

The Books

Book	Author	Thoughts	Cost	Time
AI Destroyer	Vaughn Heppner	A rip-off of Star Trek's Borg. Decent read though.	/ £3 / £11	3-15 Jan
Slabscape Reset	S. Spencer Baker	Amazon says it's reminiscent of Hitchhiker's ... so I had to try it. I'm glad I did, it's a great read.	/ £3 / £9	15-22 Jan
Slabscape Dammit	S. Spencer Baker	Given the success of Reset I went straight into this. It's good. But it's still a sequel and suffers a little as a result - the ideas expressed are interesting but the story a touch transparent.	/ £3 / £9	22-29 Jan
The Cleaner	Mark Dawson	An entertaining enough read - a sort of gritty cross between Jack Reacher and James Bond.	/ £1 / £8	29 Jan - 5 Feb
Old Man's War	John Scalzi	A slow burn of old folks becoming young by joining a technologically advance military force. Sounds weird but it's laugh out loud funny - starting with the name our main protagonist gives his newly implanted in-brain computer.	/ £5 / £5	5-12 Feb
the long way to a small angry planet	Becky Chambers	Space-faring with a wide variety of species and all the better for it. The overall story is a bit weak but it's told well and has enough to keep you interested.	/ £3 / £7	12-23 Feb
Antifragile Systems and Teams	Dave Zwieback	Very short but free so can't argue with the price. A good introduction to (and possible replacement for) Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder (see later).	/ n/a	23-24 Feb
The City & The City	China Miéville	Sampled. But it didn't grab me so I took it no further...	/ £6 / £7	25 Feb
Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder	Nassim Nicholas Taleb	A pretty arrogant author and although he's plainly a smart chap I find it tedious to read books that've been written with 1,000 words when 100 would've done. The ideas are interesting, and definitely make you think about how various things could be improved, but it's strictly a commuting book - it didn't grab me enough to make me want to read it when not trapped in a metal & plastic tube.	/ £2 / £7	25 Feb - 2 Mar
Fahrenheit 451	Ray Bradbury	Yeah, yeah, I know it's a classic. But the sample just didn't grab me. No sale.	/ £5 / £6	2 Mar
Catch-22	Joseph Heller	Another classic that didn't grab me. Call me a heathen if you will but I moved on, nothing to read here.	/ £4 / £7	3 Mar
Lord of the Flies	William Golding	Not quite what I was expecting but a good read nonetheless. Easy to see how a society can degenerate.	/ £6 / £6	3 - 14 Mar
Terms of Enlistment	Marko Kloos	A great space faring read, similar to others of course but an easy read. Straight on to book 2...	/ £4 / £5	14 - 23 Mar
Lines of Departure	Marko Kloos	Not as good as the first but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I see there are at least six books in the Frontlines series; not sure they're worth it. But I do like to complete a series...	/ £4 / £5	23 Mar - 18 Apr
Origin	Dan Brown	The usual formula, disappointingly predictable twist, an entertaining enough way to spend a few quid and a few hours.		12 - 17 Apr
Angles of Attack, Chains of Command, Fields of Fire, Points of Impact	Marko Kloos	Third, fourth, fifth, sixth in the series. Predictable, yes. Entertaining, yes. And I do like to get to the end of a story.	/ £4 / £5 each	17 Apr - 5 Jul
Space Police: Attack of the Mammary Clans	David Blake	A lightly comedic story about a copper awoken after 450 years on ice.	/ £1 / £8	5 - 8 Jul
Old Man's War: Ghost Brigades	John Scalzi	Some twists but it's obviously a sequel so really only for completer/finisher types	/ £6 / £7	8 Jul - mid Jul (unsure when, we were on holiday!)
Sanctuary	Ken Lozito	Fleshes out some new characters whilst keeping the involvement with existing folks. It's ok, doesn't introduce any new concepts, simply moves the story on a little. Would probably turn into a twenty minute segment if anyone ever translated these books to the big screen.	/ £4 / £11	July - ~August
Site Reliability Engineering	Betsy Beyer, Niall Richard Murphy, Jennifer Petoff, Chris Jones	A switch to non-fiction to go with my switch of role at work - a great read for anyone interested in how google copes with the scale at which it runs its systems - now to see how much of it can be applied at work!	/ £21 / £22	mid Jul on (~50% read, I _will_ return to it!)
Into the Black, The Heart of Matter, Homeworld	Evan Currie	A series of space faring stories. The usual mix of good ideas for FTL travel (yep, suspend disbelief please), innovative spacey weaponry and aliens. So far it's entertaining enough to make me want to read the other four (!) books in the series...	/ £4 / £9 (£13 for book 2) each	~August - EOY
The five dysfunctions of a team	Patrick M. Lencioni	A recommended read before a management offsite! Yep, we were given homework over Christmas. That's a first but it's a new management team and actually the book is an interesting take on why a group of people doesn't necessarily make a team.		26 Dec

Key

Unless stated otherwise, I read all these books on my Kindle and prices are once more included to see whether Kindle Unlimited is worth it. Another advantage of the Kindle is that you can download a free sample before you buy. I did this a bit more regularly this year so will include books I sampled but didn’t buy.

	On Kindle Unlimited so free to those with a subscription
	Not on KU - you'll have to pay
	I was bought this book as a present
	A real book, not read on Kindle
	This book was a recommendation from a colleague / friend
	My favourite book of the year
	I didn't finish it...
	Umm ... not my favourite book of the year
	Read after July - when I started cycling to work