On Paper

1. Dzur, Steven Brust

2. Paths of the Dead, Viscount of Adrilankha I, Steven Brust

3. Jennifer Morgue, Charles Stross

4. Little Book of Hindu Dieties, Sanjay Patel

5. Three Hearts and Three Lions, Poul Anderson

6. Lord of Castle Black, Steven Brust

7. Sethra Lavode, Steven Brust

8. Worlds of Shadow 1, Lawrence Watt-Evans

9. Death Masks, Dresden 5, Jim Butcher

10. Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, Marcus Borg

11. Blood Rites, Dresden 6, Jim Butcher

12. Dead Beat, Dresden 7, Jim Butcher

13. Proven Guilty, Dresden 8, Jim Butcher

14. Fugitives of Chaos, John Wright

15. Dorsai!, Gordon Dickson

16. Carpe Jugulum, Terry Pratchett

17. Dune, Brian Herbert

18. Missile Gap, Charles Stross

19. Amulet of Samarkand, Bartimaeus 1, Jon Straud

20. Titans of Chaos, John Wright

21. White Night, Dresden 9, Jim Butcher

22. Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, Cory Doctorow

23. Waterborn, J. Gregory Keyes

24. Blackgod, J. Gregory Keyes

25. Look to Windward, Iain M. Banks. It’s funny how the first chapter of a Culture book always turns me off, but the book after that is wonderful. At least now I know to bull onwards.

26. Adventures in Unhistory, Avram Davidson

27. The TeXBook, Donald Knuth

28. Exalted: Year One, various White Wolf

29. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Joanne Rowling

30. Unknown Quantity, a Real and Imaginary History of Algebra, John Derbyshire

31. On the Origin of PCs, Order of the Stick 0, Rich Burlew

32. Start of Darkness, Order of the Stick -1, Rich Burlew

33. Transparent Society, David Brin. Flung it across the room four times by chapter 4, went somewhat lightly over the rest. Feels like a good essay rushed into a book.

34. Stardust, Being a Romance within the Realms of Faerie, Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess. I have no understanding of the relationship between this, the original comic books, and the novel. If there are substantial differences, I might enjoy those others.

35. Magic in the Ancient World, Fritz Graf. This is I think translated from a German thesis. Lots of lead tablets, and a nice discussion of the distinction between evidenced sorcery and the literary tradition of sorcery. It’s a bit on the post-modern side: most of its discussion of how one becomes a sorcerer confuses what the sorcerers thought they were doing with their marginalization by society. In Graf’s discussion, there is no difference between a real magician, a deluded wannabe magician, and a man accused by his society of magic. He doesn’t argue for that point, just assumes it in many passages.

36. Thief of Time, Pratchett

37. Empire of Honor, J.E. Lendon

38. Great Work of Time, John Crowley

39. Journey to the West, Volume I, translated by Anthony Yu—the first 25 chapters of this enormous work.

40. Halting State, Charles Stross. Pity about the core scifi bit, which is that Quantum Key Exchange counters Quantum Computing—at least if it’s over Secure Optical Fiber. Also, QC is apparently really good for symmetric ciphers, and shared “one”-time pads are used for group authentication. Maybe this is how rocket scientists feel when they watch Star Wars, and I should be glad that my field’s prominent enough to be mauled in this way. The problems didn’t detract from the enjoyment of the story at all—I just substituted “magic” for “quantum” wherever I read it and continued. It’s a wonderful fun technothriller.

41. Android’s Dream, John Scalzi

42. Swordspoint, Ellen Kushner. In a nice 2002 edition with a set of short stories attached. Now I can’t tell whether Fall of the Kings is a sequel or not.

43. Supercapitalism, Robert Reich.

Electronic

1. Blue Fairy Book

2. Warlord of Mars, Edgar Rice Borroughs

3. King Solomon’s Mines, H. Rider Haggard

4. Fire in the Mist, Holly Lisle

5. Wonderful Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum

6. Eightfold Path, Buddha?

7. Doc Sidhe, Aaron Allston. Eugh. Baenist.

8. Old Nathan, David Drake. Wonderful.

9. The Philosophical Strangler, Eric Flint

10. Forward the Mage, Eric Flint

11. With the Lightnings, Lt. Leary 1, David Drake

12. Lt. Leary Commanding, Lt. Leary 2, David Drake

13. Pandora’s Legions, Christopher Anvil, edited by Eric Flint

14. Odyssey, Keith Laumer, edited by Eric Flint

15. The Tank Lords, David Drake. What brutality, after Lt. Leary!

16. Windows of the Soul, Keith Laumer

17. Retief!, Keith Laumer

18. The Lion of Farside, John Dalmas. This book could not be made into a movie rated less than R.

19. Star Soldiers, Andre Norton

20. Cross the Stars, David Drake