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.