If you’re looking at the news of the last week with tired eyes and a heavy heart, you need books. Books fix things, and make them worse. This is a quick list of some books and short stories that might make you feel differently.

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Books

• Mr. Penumbra’s 24 hour Bookstore — The most realistic, and hopeful piece of conspiracy fiction I’ve ever read.
• Little Brother — Free ebook, details the aftermath of a fictional terrorist attack, and the way a few teens respond to the extreme surveillance in the style of the patriot act.
• Pirate Cinema — Free ebook. Kids are stealing movies, and making new ones, while living off-grid in London, 20 minutes in the future.
• Makers — Free ebook. The world economy is collapsing, and something new is emerging. This book is, in many ways, an artifact of the early 2000s, but it presents so many interesting ideas about the future of work, and the future of self organiztion.
• Feed — When I was 16, this book made me cry.
• Brave New World — Free ebook. You know what this is about.
• Cat’s Cradle — Vonnegut discussing the end of the world, and a religion that actually doesn’t suck.

Short Stories

• Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore — The short story that inspired the novel.
• The Egg — Andy Weir, before The Martian.
• LIBRARIANS IN THE BRANCH LIBRARY OF BABEL — An Exploration of ideas postulated by Borges, but funnier.
• How To See The Future — Transcript of a speech by Warren Ellis. The title is accurate.

It’s not much, but many of these things have inspired me. I find myself revisiting them, in the hopes of recapturing that spark.

If you read one of these, and enjoy it, I’d love to hear your thoughts. I think you can reach me here.

I write about emerging tech, forgotten tech, our cultural commons, and the role that each will play in shaping the future.

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