The Amulet of Samarkand (2003) - Jonathan Stroud
Wow. I love this series. Seriously it is __so__ well written. I only had vague recollections of the ending before re-reading it. But it is so much more vivid now. I knew I liked it, and the ending was deep beefore re-picking it up. But wow just a phenomenally written book.
Cheurb Series (1-12) (2004-2010) - Robert Muchamore
This was a __fantastic__ series. It holds up as well as it was the first time I read it a decade ago at 13. I don't know if it is necessarily customary for books read so young to hold up so well. But truly a literary marvel. Of course I stand by my comments that James would've ended up as a startup founder. Especially after seeing that he choose to go to Stanford in shadow wave. Also love the dynamic between him and Kerry it's really cute. Although after reading Shadow wave, it just doesn't comport with any of the three epilogues Muchamoore cooked up back in the day. The card counting one perhaps holds a lot of flavor but still. James would've been in the valley, technically sophisticated, and a strong appetite for risk. He certainly would've been a startup founder. Sometimes a character just does things, and the author can be wrong (I still love you Muchamore <3).
The Ruins of Gorlan (Ranger's Apprentice 1) - John Flanagan
Always brilliant worth reading once every five years or so
The Burning Bridge (Ranger's Apprentice 2) - John Flanagan
I cannot believe for the past decade I thought it was Alice who was across the bridge as it burned, and not Horace/Evalyan. Spent a decade misremembering that.
The Icebound Land (Ranger's Apprentice 3) - John Flanagan
Always brilliant worth reading once every five years or so
The Battle for Skandia (Ranger's Apprentice 4) - John Flanagan
Always brilliant worth reading once every five years or so
The Worlds I See - Fei Fei Li
Really good actually, people make fun of her because they think ImageNet was just a dataset, but she overcame a lot to put that together
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant - Eric Jorgenson
It's okay, pretty good advice standard intellectual curiosity stuff
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
Super good book, would recommend, lots of great epithets. Honestly the prologue makes way more sense after reading it than before
Friendship is Optimal - Iceman
Represents what a __good__ AGI outcome could look like. Definitely worth reading if you have exisesntial angst around AGI/into rationalist fiction.
The Player of Games - Ian M. Banks
What does it look like to have benevolent gods? One can only hope they act in this fashion. Nonetheless it appears we are set to find out...