2026-06-06
2026-01-18
SCPs - winter 2025-2026
And another batch of SCPs. The favorites are marked.
- SCP-096
- Document #096-1
- SCP-4010
- SCP-049
- Going Home
- SCP-2206
- Walk in the Park
- SCP-2399
- SCP-1369
- The last man
- SCP-999
- SCP-9000
- SCP-9100 (I notably liked this one)
2025-10-12
SCPs - summer and autumn 2025
Another batch of SCPs I've read. This time, I dug into the canons and habs that I liked. The favorites are marked.
- SCP-8430
- SCP-8799
- SCP-8891
- SCP-8598
- The third law hub
- The Bard of Ambrose
- The Analog Kid
- Moonlighting
- SCP-2664
- Hypervelocity
- Preliminary Report of J. C. Randall Upon His Party's Efforts to Catalogue the Multiverse
- SCP-2700
- SCP-2700-EX
- SCP-2000
- SCP-3034
- Countdown
- SCP-1422
- Incident Zero
- SCP-173
- SCP-3501
- SCP-3722
- SCP-3000
- SCP-3480
- An FAQ; Or, What The Hell Is A Hume?
- SCP-343
- SCP-239
- SCP-148
- SCP-668
- Temporal Site-01 (RCT-Δt Hub)
- The Temporal Anomalies Cycle
- Iteration 0
- The Deep End
- Erstwhile and Again
- Exit History
- Welcome to RCT-Δt
- 20 GOTO 10
- Set Up Thine Altar Here
- The Kitchen Sink
- Publish or Perish
- Perseveration
- SCP-5087
- SCP-4583
- SCP-084
- Log 084 A4
- SCP-664
- SCP-246
- London Calling
- SCP-176
- SCP-110
- SCP-442
- SCP-604
- SCP-5280
- SCP-140
- SCP-282
- SCP-⌘
2024-10-04
2023-11-18
2023-11-07
2023-05-08
SCP Foundation
I read top SCPs & tales. The favorites are marked.
SCP
- SCP-5000
- SCP-096
- SCP-1370
- SCP-1678
- SCP-079
- SCP-682
- SCP-409
- SCP-689
- SCP-182
- SCP-231
- SCP-087
- SCP-106
- SCP-093
- SCP-914
- SCP-999
- SCP-426
- SCP-3999
- SCP-2317
Tales & Jokes
2023-04-08
2023-01-21
2022-12-17
2022-09-21
2022-09-03
2022-05-17
The Temporal Void by Peter F. Hamilton
There is a weak plot at the end, which solves the problems of the main heroes.
2022-03-26
2022-03-15
2022-03-03
The Dreaming Void by Peter F. Hamilton
The volume of the book is huge. Loved it, so I will have to read the next two sequels as well.
2021-12-29
2021-12-21
2021-11-21
2021-11-20
2021-11-13
2021-11-09
2021-10-31
The SCP Foundation
It's not easy for me to navigate the large number of works, it's not clear where to start reading.
For the beginning, collecting canons that I liked:
- Antimemetics Division Hub – besides qntm's excellent stories, there's nothing interesting there.
- Competitive Eschatology Hub
2021-04-09
There Is No Antimemetics Division by Sam Hughes (aka qntm)
There Is No Antimemetics Division
- We Need To Talk About Fifty-Five
- Introductory Antimemetics
- Unforgettable, That's What You Are
- CASE COLOURLESS GREEN
- Your Last First Day
Five Five Five Five Five
- SCP-3125
- Where Have You Been All My Life
- Fresh Hell
- Ojai
- Immemorial
- CASE HATE RED
- Ará Orún
- Unthreaded
- Wild Light
- Blood/Brain
- Tombstone
- Epilogue: Champions Of Nothing
The series is available under CC. It makes sense to read only stories by qntm, the rest is not so interesting.
2020-12-04
Stories have won the Hugo or Nebula Award at various times
Favourites are bolded.
|
|
2020-11-14
2020-11-07
2020-10-30
2020-10-25
2020-05-30
Short stories by Isaac Asimov
Fill in the gaps in Asimov's bibliography. Favourites are in bold.
- All The Troubles of the World
- The Billiard Ball
- Question
- Franchise
- Breeds There a Man ... ?
- Eyes Do More Than See
- Marooned off Vesta
- Mother Earth
- The Machine that Won the War
- Robot Visions
- Key Item
- Silly Asses
- Jokester
- The Last Question
- The Singing Bell
- Profession
- The Martian Way and Other Stories
- Hostess
- I, Robot
2020-05-12
Sci-Fi short stories
- The Necessary Thing by Robert Sheckley
- Specialist by Robert Sheckley
- The Dandelion Girl by Robert F. Young
- Time in Advance by William Tenn
2020-04-15
2020-04-12
The Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells
- All Systems Red – ok overall, weak ending.
- Artificial Condition – the plot is less interesting than in the first story, but more even.
- The Future of Work: Compulsory
2019-12-02
2019-12-01
2019-11-02
2019-10-05
2019-10-01
Cassandra: The Definitive Guide (2nd edition) by Jeff Carpenter and Eben Hewitt
The basic topics are all described. There are no special nuances.
2019-09-25
2019-09-22
2019-09-07
2019-08-31
2019-07-28
2019-07-21
2019-06-03
Short stories by Clifford D. Simak
| Gleaners The Fence The Street That Wasn't There Target Generation Beachhead The Gift Retrograde Evolution | Installment Plan Tell Me About Your Troubles Drop Dead Good Night, Mr. James Condition of Employment Project Mastodon All the Traps of Earth Full Cycle |
The favorites are marked.
2019-03-29
Максим Ильяхов, Людмила Сарычева «Пиши, сокращай. Как создавать сильный текст»
The first part is recommended for everyone and is of immediate benefit. The second part is also useful. The third part can be skipped.
The first paper book I have read in the last 10 years, the authors decided not to release it in digital format. There was no particular point in this format, it could have been sold in PDF.
2019-02-07
Selected stories from The Complete Stories by Isaac Asimov
| Robot Dreams Waterclap The Life and Times of Multivac The Winnowing When the Saints Go Marching In The Tercentenary Incident Birth of a Notion Blank! The Perfect Solution Death of a Foy Fair Exchange? For the Birds Found! Good Taste How It Happened It's Hard to Give Up Illusions Point of View He's Coming! The Ultimate Answer The Last Shuttle Lest We Remember | No Truce with Kings Sure Thing To Your Health The Winds of Change Cal Left to Right Despair Hallucination Instability Alexander the God In the Canyon Good-Bye to Earth Battle-Hymn Feghoot and the Court Fault-Intolerant Kid Brother Peoples in Space The Smile That Loses Gold |
The favorites are marked. Asimov’s forewords to the stories are just as interesting to read.
2018-12-16
2018-12-06
Sphere by Michael Crichton
I couldn’t even get through a couple of chapters. It’s too naive. I wouldn’t recommend it.
2018-12-03
2018-12-02
The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
Also published in Russian as «Хризалиды» and «Отклонение от нормы».
I liked it, but the ending was disappointing. Perhaps that was what the author intended.
2018-11-20
Виктор Пелевин «iPhuck 10»
Начало неплохое, середина непроходимая, конец слабый. Если в прошлых романах у Пелевина был action и немного "философии", то тут ровно наоборот.
2018-10-26
2018-10-11
Beginning Apache Spark 2 by Hien Luu
A good introductory book on Spark, just the right length. It covers some advanced topics without going into much depth.
2018-09-24
High Performance Spark by Holden Karau and Rachel Warren
A useless book. I expected advanced material, but it turned out to be aimed at beginners. There is almost nothing about high performance; it is just an introduction to Spark. Only the chapters “Effective Transformations” and “Tuning, Debugging, and Other Things Developers Like to Pretend Don’t Exist” have anything useful in them.
2018-09-22
2018-09-03
Authority by Jeff VanderMeer
I liked it more than the first book, although it is not really about science fiction at all.
2018-07-18
2018-06-27
2018-06-26
Short stories by Ted Chiang
- Dacey’s Patent Automatic Nanny
- What’s Expected of Us
- The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling
- The Great Silence
- Exhalation
- The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate
These were all the stories by the author I could find in Russian.
Of Ted Chiang’s stories outside Stories of Your Life and Others, the only one worth reading is “The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling.”
2018-06-23
2018-06-20
Robot short stories by Isaac Asimov
Some Non-human Robots
- A Boy’s Best Friend
- Sally
- Someday
- Point of View
- Think!
- True Love
- Robot AL-76 Goes Astray
- Victory Unintentional
- Stranger in Paradise
- Light Verse
- Segregationist
- Robbie
- Let’s Get Together
- Mirror Image
- The Tercentenary Incident
- First Law
- Runaround
- Reason
- Catch That Rabbit
- Liar!
- Satisfaction Guaranteed
- Lenny
- Galley Slave
- Little Lost Robot
- Risk
- Escape!
- Evidence
- The Evitable Conflict
- Feminine Intuition
- …That Thou Art Mindful of Him
- The Bicentennial Man
I enjoyed the stories about Powell, Donovan and Susan Calvin the most.
2018-05-27
Ten Sigmas & Other Unlikelihoods by Paul Melko
A short story collection:
- Ten Sigmas
- The Teosinte War
- Doctor Mighty and the Case of Ennui
- Alien Fantasies
- The Summer of the Seven
- Singletons in Love
- Strength Alone
- Dysfunctional Family Cat
- Fallow Earth
- Death of the Egg King
- Walls of the Universe
- Snail Stones
Pretty good overall.
2018-05-20
2018-04-24
2018-04-10
Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds
This would have been a better book if the author had cut it down to half or a third of its length. He clearly wanted to set out a collection of ideas, but the result is unwieldy. The ideas themselves are worth exploring, just not in this format. The first part is also hard going because the narrative is so disjointed.
2018-03-21
2018-03-18
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
The gripping plot makes it worth reading. I didn’t like the characterization.
2018-03-15
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
- Tower of Babylon
- Understand
- Division by Zero
- Story of Your Life
- Seventy-Two Letters
- The Evolution of Human Science
- Hell Is the Absence of God
- Liking What You See: A Documentary
- Story Notes
I didn’t like some of the stories very much, but my overall impression was positive. The author’s story notes are just as interesting as the stories themselves.
2018-02-24
2018-02-15
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
The first half is boring, but without it the second half would not have been interesting.
2018-01-19
The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke
I struggled to reach the halfway point, but after that it became much easier to read.
2017-12-27
Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
I had the misfortune of reading this after The Martian, which it does not measure up to. Even so, it draws you in and is worth reading. It is considered a science fiction classic.
2017-12-14
2017-10-31
Rocannon's World by Ursula K. Le Guin
I expected a blend of science fiction and fantasy. Unfortunately, there is more fantasy.
2017-09-06
2017-08-02
Books I Didn't Enjoy
A few books to remember: I got no further than the second chapter in any of them.
- Ilium by Dan Simmons — boring.
- Perdido Street Station by China Miéville — very slow.
- Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card.
2017-07-26
2017-07-21
2017-02-05
2016-11-21
2016-11-14
2016-11-01
A Comprehensive Study of Convergent and Commutative Replicated Data Types by Marc Shapiro, Nuno Preguiça, Carlos Baquero and Marek Zawirski
A brief overview of both types of CRDTs, their main data structures and algorithms.
2016-02-24
More Than Just Books
I wanted to add manuals, white papers and articles to this list as well, so I can refer back to them.
Some have been added retrospectively.
2015-07-01
Scala for the Impatient by Cay S. Horstmann
A very superficial book on Scala, but useful for people who want to write Scala as “an improved Java,” or who need it for something like a MOOC. There is no point in reading it after Programming in Scala.
2014-09-15
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Recommended. Better to read the short story version than the novel.
2014-03-26
2014-03-23
Deathworld by Harry Harrison
The beginning is all right, but the ending is very weak. I had hoped to find a good science fiction series, but after the first book I have no desire to read the rest.
2014-03-19
2014-03-10
2014-03-06
2013-12-31
2013-11-19
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Also published in Russian as «Основание» and «Академия». Too much politics for a science fiction book. Anyone who enjoys that sort of thing will like it. 4−.
Programming in Scala (2nd edition) by Martin Odersky, Lex Spoon and Bill Venners
A very thorough book on Scala. I enjoyed taking my time with it over several months, almost as if it were fiction. I would not recommend it to anyone who wants to learn the language quickly: there is too much padding.
2013-08-24
Anathem by Neal Stephenson
I liked the book overall.
The pacing is uneven, alternating between action and lengthy philosophical discussions. This was probably intentional.
Without some knowledge of quantum physics, relativity, systems theory, higher mathematics and a few other technical subjects, some parts of the book will be less interesting.
2013-06-25
The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov
An interesting feature of this book is that the resolution takes up almost half of it. A real page-turner. Some parts of the plot are predictable; others are not.
2013-06-24
2012-11-03
Nginx HTTP Server by Clément Nedelcu
I read it simply because it happened to be at hand. A careful reading of the official manual could easily replace it, although I did pick up a couple of useful tips and solutions. Recommended for anyone completely unfamiliar with nginx.
Георгий Данелия «Тостуемый пьет до дна»
Последнее время не много читаю художетсвенных книг (это временно), поэтому выбираю из своей очереди только те, которые достойны.
«Тостуемый пьет до дна» – это достойная книга, а Денелия – отличный режиссёр. Но это книга не о кино, хотя там и часто вокруг него крутятся события. Так относится с юмором ко всем событиям в своей жизни, как это может делать Данелия не всем дано.
Рекомендую.
2012-07-09
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Fine for a holiday read. Nothing special, but the plot is interesting in places. A TV adaptation is expected soon.
2012-07-01
Е. М. Балдин «Компьютерная типография LATEX»
Замечательная книга "для пешеходов". Прочитал за один выходной и сразу разобрался в основах Latex. Главы про математику пропускал, так как мне не для этого было нужно. Самое главное – книга доступна свободно на сайте автора.
2012-06-01
Core Java, Volume I: Fundamentals (8th edition) by Cay S. Horstmann and Gary Cornell
I read it when I needed to learn the basics of Java. There is a second volume, which I haven’t read and probably won’t read anytime soon. I was looking for “Dive Into Python, but for Java”: a book that skips the basics of programming and gets straight to the language and platform. This book comes close.
2011-11-13
Mercurial: The Definitive Guide by Bryan O'Sullivan
As a book, I liked Pro Git much more.
As a DVCS, I prefer Mercurial :)
2011-11-01
Pro Git by Scott Chacon
Now I need to read something good about Mercurial. For example, Mercurial: The Definitive Guide.
2011-09-30
2011-09-17
2011-08-01
2011-07-01
Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge
A strange mixture of science fiction and adventure. I struggled to reach the halfway point.
2011-04-30
Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
Read in translation.
I gave up; it didn’t grab me. I’ll come back to it later.
2011-03-29
2010-10-14
Sargasso of Space and Star Born by Andre Norton
Naive books for teenagers and children, although the first has a decent plot.
Виктор Пелевин «Жёлтая стрела» и «Generation П»
Прочитал ещё немного Пелевина. Думаю, можно больше Пелевина не читать. Вообще больше не читать.
2010-07-27
The Deadline: A Novel About Project Management by Tom DeMarco
An entertaining book, but anyone who has already read DeMarco and Lister will learn nothing new.
2010-05-10
How Would You Move Mount Fuji? by William Poundstone
About interviewing at Microsoft. A terrible book: there is nothing here but PR for Microsoft.
Александ Чубарьян «Полный Root»
Местный "Нейроромантик" + "Матрица", захватывающий сюжет и без особых техно-ляпов. 3+
2009-12-22
To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip José Farmer
The first book in the Riverworld series. It gets a little dull and predictable toward the end. I probably won’t continue the series.
2009-10-15
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams
It turns out Douglas Adams wrote something besides The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Pretty good.
2009-08-31
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) by George Orwell
“In 2009, The Times named it the best book published in the previous 60 years.”
Funky Business: Talent Makes Capital Dance by Kjell Nordström, Jonas Ridderstråle
Read it in one breath. Recommended.
The Mythical Man-Month by Frederick P. Brooks Jr.
Put it aside. I think the book is outdated, especially compared with Getting Real.
2009-08-30
2009-08-09
Тургенев Иван Сергеевич «Отцы и Дети»
Перечитал и понимаю насколько мне теперь ужасно неприятен Базаров. Когда читал в школе отношение к нему было другое. Старею? : )
2009-07-27
The Stars, Like Dust by Isaac Asimov
As a bonus, I read the article “Face to Face with the Computer.”
Short story collections by Robert Sheckley
- Cruel Equation
- Ritual
- Double Indemnity
- The Native Problem
Came across some interesting stories, read a lot of stuff previously. Reread with pleasure.
These collections may only exist in Russian translation.
2009-06-18
2009-05-16
Радислав Гандапас «Камасутра для оратора»
Начал читать по совету @gray_ru.
Позже бросил, скучновато. Вернусь позже с подходящим настроением.
2009-05-13
Rich Man, Poor Man (Volume 2) by Irwin Shaw
A good book, though it has a hint of an overstretched TV series.
Anyone interested in the American way of life is welcome.
2009-04-12
Pro JavaScript Techniques by John Resig
Before the second volume, I paused for a rest.
Scanned throught «Pro JavaScript Techniques». Only some chapters are interesting.
2009-04-04
Rich Man, Poor Man (Volume 1) by Irwin Shaw
I devoured the first volume of Rich Man, Poor Man a few days ago. Reading it makes you realize what bastards some people can be.
Read on @Bulgarin’s recommendation.
2009-03-16
Aces High edited by George R. R. Martin
Started it and devoured half in a day. Less consistent than Wild Cards.
The first book is better; the afterword to the second made it clear why.
2009-03-08
N.B.
All books bellow have been reconstructed from memory. Contains memorable books from recent years.
Travelling Light story collection by Tove Jansson
Brilliant!
English titles — original titles:
- Correspondence — Korrespondens
- An Eightieth Birthday — Åttiårsdag
- The Summer Child — Sommarbarnet
- A Foreign City — Främmande stad
- The Woman Who Borrowed Memories — Kvinnan som lånade minnen
- Travelling Light — Resa med lätt bagage
- The Garden of Eden — Lustgården
- Shopping — Shopping
- The Jungle — Skogen
- The PE Teacher’s Death — Gymnastiklärarens död
- The Gulls — Måsarna
- The Hothouse — Växthuset
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