Hey, what's up, guys?
A couple of notes before we get started today.
Number one, thank you so much for 100,000 subscribers.
We hit that milestone on Tuesday of this week,
and it's just absolutely insane.
I can't really think of words to say right now.
However, there will be a proper
100,000 subscriber bonus video coming.
This is not it.
The other thing I want to say
is that I'm veering a little bit off course
from my original planned schedule,
because in last week's video on public speaking
I said the next video will be on presentations.
Because I'll be flying out to Vermont next Wednesday
to give a presentation of my own,
I haven't had enough time to really put
the quality and preparation into that video that I want
and that I think you guys deserve.
So I'm going to put that one off a little bit.
I'm going to get through that presentation.
Today I still wanted to release something,
so I thought it would be fun to go through
10 of my favorite fiction books.
This is ostensibly a top 10 list.
I know the top three at least are my top three,
and the rest of them are sort of
maybe in dubious order.
But these are things that I really enjoyed reading
and I hope maybe you can find something
that you'll enjoy as well on this list.
Now, a couple of ground rules before we get started.
Number one, I have not included graphic novels,
because I could probably fill an entire list
with graphic novels on another day.
And number two, no two books from the same series.
I'm not saying the same author is off limits,
but the same series is.
Now, that being said, let's get started with number 10,
which is Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.
Just to let you know, I am very agnostic
when it comes to the format of books I read.
I like Kindle books.
I like physical books.
And I like audio books.
So if I don't own the physical edition,
I'm just going to pop a picture up right here like this.
Snow Crash is on the list because
I absolutely love Stephenson's writing
and I love cyberpunk fiction.
This is the book that actually coined the term "avatar"
in cyberspace terms.
I really enjoyed it.
There's one other Stephenson book that I've read so far
that I like more, which is coming up in the list,
but I highly recommend this book
if you like cyberpunk fiction at all.
Number nine on my list is Ready Player One
by Ernest Cline.
Now this is a book that didn't really change my life
or teach me any big lessons or anything,
but I just absolutely enjoyed listening to it.
It's a book about basically virtual reality,
a kid who goes into a huge virtual reality world,
and there's all these '80s video game
and movie and music references.
Even though I wasn't born in the '80s,
a lot of it was stuff I watched growing up as a kid.
It was just super cool to basically nerd out
while listening to this book.
I did listen to it.
I will recommend the audiobook version of this book.
While I usually like to create the character voices
in my head and narrate my own way,
I really liked Will Wheaton's narration of this book.
Will Wheaton's amazing in general,
and his narration of this book is great.
Definitely check it out.
Read it either way, but I love the audiobook version.
Book number eight is The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut.
You're probably getting a little bit of a sci fi vibe here,
and yes, the majority of my favorite fiction
is sci fi and fantasy.
But I absolutely loved this book.
It has a lot of themes about free will
and actually made me think a lot.
My friend Martin, who was actually my roommate,
recommended this book to me,
and I believe it is his favorite book.
Didn't really top the favorite list for me,
but I did enjoy it a lot, so it makes this list.
Book number seven is Ender's Shadow,
yes Shadow, not Game.
I absolutely love Ender's Game.
It's also one of my favorite books.
However, I thought Shadow was a little bit
more compelling because it tells the story
from Bean's perspective instead of Ender's.
There's a little bit more grittiness to it.
There's a little bit more of the tactical,
nitty gritty details of how they win the battles,
and I really liked seeing his perspective,
and also that secondary perspective opened up
a lot of new perspective on Ender's thoughts.
So definitely check it out if you haven't read it.
But I would recommend reading Ender's Game first.
Book number six is the Desert Spear by Peter Brett.
Now this book is part of a series
called The Demon Cycle,
and there are currently four books out right now.
I've read all four and I'm eagerly awaiting the fifth one,
which I believe should be the conclusion of the series.
Basically it's a story about these demons
who come up at night, and they're basically invincible
and unkillable to all the humans, until ...
Well, you'll just have to read what happens.
But it's pretty darn cool.
This is the one book on my list that I like
better than the original start of the series.
I absolutely love the first one,
which is called The Warded Man,
or The Painted Man, depending on where you live.
But The Desert Spear has a much more interesting
setting, in my opinion, and some cooler relationships
that are built along its storyline.
Definitely recommend the entire series,
but the second one is my favorite so far.
Book number five I actually own in print,
and it is Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson.
Now, I'm going to go on a limb here and say
that the entire Mistborn series,
at least the first three books,
are my favorite in the number five category.
I just arbitrarily picked the first one,
because I think I love all three equally.
But the reason I like Mistborn so much
is, number one, it's just a great fantasy series.
But number two, the magic system
is so well thought out,
and it's actually got limitations and hard rules.
I think that makes for more interesting
character interactions and situations
than more arbitrary just whiz bang magic systems
like more Tolkien-esque fiction will have.
That's why I love them.
I also note that there is a new series of Mistborn books
called The Wax and Wayne Trilogy,
which there are two of those out currently,
and those ones are usually shorter.
I think they're like half -
each one's is like half the length
of a normal Mistborn book.
But they're also really great fun to read.
So I'd recommend basically everything in the Mistborn series
and pretty much everything Brandon Sanderson
has wrote is great.
Book number four is The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson,
and yes, this is the second recommendation
from Neal Stephenson on this list.
Over on my bookshelf right there I have
pretty much every other book Neal Stephenson
has written since then, except for Seven Eves,
which is his newest one.
I have yet to get through those ones because,
well, reading can be tough when you run a business.
But I did get through both Snow Crash and Diamond Age.
I think I liked The Diamond Age a little bit more,
probably because of the character interactions,
but also because his mixture of the cyperpunk,
ridibulous future nanotech setting,
mixed with a resurgence of Victorian fashion and ideals,
was just awesome.
Everything Neal Stephenson dreams up in that head of his
is just super cool to read about.
Now, this was another one that I did
in audiobook format.
I'm not sure if the audiobook version was as compelling
as the Will Wheaton narration of Ready Player One,
but I really did like it.
So if you're into audiobooks, I would recommend
the audiobook version of this.
Though if you're not, reading it would be cool, too.
Book number three on this list?
Well, if you've been drawing conclusions
about my taste based on the other books on this list,
you've probably been wondering
if this one's going to come up, and yes,
it is The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.
I absolutely love this book.
This was recommended to me on a whim
from my friend Carly.
I read nothing about it going in.
Honestly, I think that's the best
book-reading experience you can have.
I like just taking things on blind recommendation
if they are good.
I got lucky with this one because
it is absolutely amazing.
Like Mistborn, it has incredibly well thought out
magic system with physical properties and limitations.
But also, I just like the characterization
a little bit more than the characters in Mistborn,
and that's why this book gets a little bit higher
spot on the list from me.
All right, moving on to the penultimate pick on this list,
and this might be where any dislikes
for this video comes from, because my pick for number two
is Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality,
which is a fan fiction, yes.
Now, this fan fiction story was written by
an artificial intelligence researcher
named Eliezer Yudkowsky, who's also written a lot
on rationality and critical thinking.
This book is basically his attempt
at teaching rationality and critical thinking
without you really realizing it.
This book basically imagines a universe
where Harry Potter, instead of just being
a normal 11-year-old boy,
is essentially a genius who thinks through
everything rationally and like a scientist.
What I love about this book is
all the other characters are adjusted to match Harry.
So it's not like he's just going through
and having an easy time of everything.
All the other characters are much smarter.
If you like things like Sherlock or Death Note,
or more rational, cerebral pieces of fiction,
then I think you'll really enjoy this.
I'm not going to say you're going to
enjoy it more than cannon.
I personally do, but I don't want to say
that it's better than cannon,
because obviously it builds upon
already excellent foundation of story and setting
and characters that J.K. Rowling has built.
I absolutely love the cannon.
But for me, I think I enjoyed MOR
a little bit more.
Also, it got me into reading about rationality
and reading about critical thinking skills,
and heuristics, and biases, and things
that have made me a better thinker.
This is one of those rare pieces of fiction
that has made a tangible change in my life,
and that's why it gets such a high place on this list.
But it's not in the top pick, because that one is
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, of course.
Now, if you've read the About section on my YouTube channel
or any of the pages on my website,
you've probably noticed the references to this book,
and it's no secret that this is my absolute
favorite piece of fiction, which is why I have
the faux leather cover bound edition
of all five of the books.
I absolutely love these books so much.
They are ridiculously imaginative.
I just love the dry British humor
that Douglas Adams puts into them.
Just read these books no matter who you are.
They are fantastic.
They're weird.
If you watched the movie and didn't like it,
well, I absolutely loved the movie,
so we're kind of on opposite sides with that thing.
But I will say that the book version is just so much better.
I grew up listening to the audiobook version of this book
every night for years.
There are actually multiple versions.
There's a version that is read by an entire cast,
where every character has their own voice actor.
That one's pretty cool.
Steven Fry has his own narration version,
which I believe is the most popular.
That one's awesome.
But the one I recommend, if you can find it,
is the one that is read by Douglas Adams himself.
His narration is just amazing.
It's just awesome.
I will try to find that and link to it
in the description below.
But if I can't, well, it is up to you
to Google it, I suppose.
So those are my top 10 favorite fiction books,
at least at this point in my life.
I'm curious to know what you think
of the books on this list.
Do you like some of them?
Do you dislike some of them?
I also want to know, based on what I've told you
about my favorite fiction books,
what should I read next?
All right, guys, that's it for this week's video.
Thanks so much for watching,
and I will see you, as always, next week.
(upbeat music)