Ringworld – by Larry Niven

I must admit this one was not a true “read” book for me.  I found it as a free audiobook rental through my local library so I decided to give it a try.  I nearly wore my iPhone’s headphones out on it as every spare minute I had to plug in to get the next chapter or two.  Ringworld is pure science fiction, set in a futuristic landscape where Earth is no longer alone in the Universe, where matter transporters allow a person to flash from one side of the Earth to another in a milisecond, and where a strange race called the Puppeteers has discovered a Ringworld, a ring built around a star with a fully earthlike ecosystem thriving inside of it.  The hero of the story is an adverturer named Louis Wou, who together with a Puppeteer and a strange ratlike warrior creature called a Kzin travel to the Ringworld in search of its secrets.  In the process they crash on it and must meet with the locals in order to find a way off.

I Robot – Cory Doctorow

Doctorow is a true geek’s geek.  He has released most of his writing under Creative Commons licensing, meaning that anyone who wants to can download his short stories for free.  I Robot is probably the most popular, bearing homage to the Isaac Asimov book turned movie by the same name.  In it Doctorow tries to tell a story of what actually led to society becoming so reliant on the robots that eventually turn on their masters.  It is short but a pretty good read, and is available in many different formats including a free version that you can download to your iPhone using the Stanza ebook reader.

Aldrin starts the book by detailing the specifics of the Apollo 11 launch, moon landing, and return, but this is only the first quarter of the entire book.  From there we get a look at something much more personal, a proud American hero who, after achieving what only 11 other people in the world have done, found himself in his own personal desolation.  He suffered terribly from depression, partly from his constant quandry that after being one of the members of the first lunar landing expedition, “what do I do now?”  He also had some serious genetic issues stacked against him (both his father and mother committed suicide).  While other famous astronauts also went through similar bouts of depression Aldrin was the first to be brave enough to seek help, a decision that in the old Air Force climate cost him a promotion to General and effectively ended his career in the military.

Aldrin came out of this depression a better man.  Today he works with a foundation that encourages the commercialization of space, making it accessable to everyone instead of just the elite.  His ideas and tactics have not been appreciated by all of his fellow astronauts, and truthfully the idea of making the Rocket Experience  rap video with Snoop Dog still baffles me.