The greatest books that I read in 2018. Not necessarily published in 2018.
The Martian: Never underestimate the power of a Jewish mother’s guilt. My mom got this book for me as a gift a while back because she knew that I had loved the movie but I was adamant about not wanting to read it since I already knew what happened. However, as the weeks went by I began to feel worse and worse that I wasn’t reading it. Feeling like a bad son for spurning my mom’s thoughtful gift. So, eventually I gave in and started reading it and boy, was I glad that I did.
First of all, the book goes into greater detail than the movie did and considering the nature of the plot there was plenty of minutia to dive into e.g. reading Mark Watney’s mission logs. It was also interesting to read a book wherein you do know what happens so that you can see where the book differs from the movie.
I wound up enjoying this book so much that it even lead to me reading several other fiction books, something that I don’t usually do. For that reason it’s my pick as Book of the Year!
Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything – This book by Joshua Foer (one of the founders of Atlas Obscura) will change your life forever as you learn about how to construct your very own memory palace. To get to that point you’ll follow along as Foer goes from journalist covering memory competitions to becoming a competitor himself.
Physics of the Future – For me, the measure of a good book is one that provides lots of opportunities for highlighting key passages. Considering that I found myself highlighting nearly every other word in this book from world renowned physicist Michio Kaku it’s no surprise that it’s now one of my all-time favorite books.
Driving Mr. Albert – I was on an Albert Einstein kick in 2018 apparently as I also chose to read this story about transporting Einstein’s brain across the country. In this travelogue author Michael Paterniti accompanied the doctor who stole part of Einstein’s brain during his autopsy to deliver it to Albert’s relatives in California. Along the way you learn about the life of the great scientist.
Ready Player One & Armada – I mentioned earlier that The Martian inspired me to read more fiction. These are two of those books, both by Ernest Cline. Ready Player One became a major motion picture so you may already be familiar with that one. Armada follows a similar trajectory, exploring a world where video game players are recruited to save mankind from an alien invasion.
The Science of Harry Potter – I think it’s possible that the author, Roger Highfield, knows more about Hogwarts and its inhabitants than even J.K. Rowling as he does a masterful job of finding real world examples of the fictional technologies that were brought to life within the pages of Harry Potter by Rowling.
Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World – This book from chemist Mark Miodownik does a masterful job of explaining where the building blocks of society comes from, weaving the story together with anecdotes from his own life.
The Department of Mad Scientists: How DARPA is Remaking Our World: In this book author Michael Belfiore gains unprecedented access to the government’s skunk works lab to tell the story about the agency responsible for inventing the Internet and GPS.
The 37th Parallel: In this book, acclaimed author Ben Mezrich, investigates a series of alleged incidents (UFO sightings, cattle mutilations, unexplained phenomena, etc.) that all takes place across the United Sates along the same parallel line. Just a mere coincidence? Or is there more to the story?
What do you think the Greatest Books of 2018 were?
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