Recommendations you can check.
Theoretical physicist and philosopher at Johns Hopkins and the Santa Fe Institute; blogs at Preposterous Universe and hosts the Mindscape podcast.
6 things
Thus Was Adonis MurderedBook Sarah Caudwell
Caudwell has written a mystery novel populated by barristers of supernatural wit and cleverness, resulting in one of the most consistently amusing books I've ever read.
Blog post listing five under-read novels he recommends, one short paragraph of verdict each.
2006-07-26·preposterousuniverse.com ↗
The Wasp FactoryBook Iain Banks
This was his first, and it's a masterpiece of twisted imagination. There's a surprise ending, but the convoluted path by which you get there has a terrifying internal logic.
Blog post listing five under-read novels he recommends, one short paragraph of verdict each.
2006-07-26·preposterousuniverse.com ↗
Love in a Dead LanguageBook Lee Siegel
This one is a professor of religion at the University of Hawaii, who has written the best postmodern-pastiche novel I've come across.
Blog post listing five under-read novels he recommends, one short paragraph of verdict each.
2006-07-26·preposterousuniverse.com ↗
The Book of RevelationBook Rupert Thomson
This book is a thoughtful examination of deep issues of identity, freedom, and obsession.
Blog post listing five under-read novels he recommends, one short paragraph of verdict each.
2006-07-26·preposterousuniverse.com ↗
The Theoretical Minimum: What You Need to Know to Start Doing PhysicsBook Leonard Susskind and George Hrabovsky
If you're willing to roll up your sleeves and follow the authors along, this is a book from which you can learn a great deal.
Post about the LA Times Festival of Books prize, where he singles out one book he can't help mentioning.
2013-02-12·preposterousuniverse.com ↗
The Debt to PleasureBook John Lanchester
A wonderfully dark novel, structured loosely around a series of recipes. You won't learn any new culinary tricks, but you'll be drawn into the wicked plotting of Tarquin Winot as he spins his schemes with considerable savoir faire . The first book I recommend to people I think highly of.
Blog post listing five under-read novels he recommends, one short paragraph of verdict each.
2006-07-26·preposterousuniverse.com ↗
Every entry is a verbatim quote and a link to the public post it came from. Nothing is paraphrased. If it is not on record somewhere public, it is not here.
The verdict is what they actually said: loved and liked are explicit; recommended means they told others to get it; uses means they only say they use it; read is a book on their public shelf with no verdict; mixed and disliked are kept too.
A dashed affiliate link, sponsored or their own label means the post disclosed a relationship. It is shown, never hidden.
The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is for its kind of thing.
The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is, for its kind of thing. Fully green is recent. It drains a quarter at a time as the post gets older, and is empty once it reads as dated.
What counts as old depends on the thing. A laptop praised four years ago has been replaced twice; a book loved twenty years ago is probably still loved. The shading is gone after about:
Stripes mean the post carries no date and the date shown is an estimate. No date at all, no shading.