The end of the year is a good time for making lists of things, so I thought I'd start the end with some of the good books I found this year. A lot of the good recommendations came from Adam Savage on Still Untitled: The Adam Savage Project, which has rapidly become one of my favorite podcasts to listen to. The list is in no particular order, just books I thought were really good, and a quick thought about them.

Disclaimer: Not all of the books that I liked this year came out this year, some of them I only got around to this year.

The List

1. The Martian - Andy Weir
   This has to be my number one book for the year. While I was out sightseeing, I ran into a bookstore just so that I could give a copy to my father in law for his flight home. I'm pretty sure I held my breath for the last two chapters, it was that good.

2) Wild - Cheryl Strayed
Yes, they're making it into a movie, but there's a really good reason for that. This book is a fantastic telling of one lady hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. I'm a sucker for stories about hiking in general, and this was a fantastic telling. Made me want to go

3) Steve Jobs - Walter Isaacson
I'm pretty well known around the office for having drank the Mac Kool-Aid, so I thought it'd be worthwhile to read up on Jobs. I thought this was a great book, a really cool look into a smart, but eccentric guy.

4) Kitchen Confidential and A Cook's Tour - Anthony Bourdain
I'm not going to lie, I'm a pretty big Anthony Bourdain fanboy. I read through these two books in about a week while I was marathoning his shows on Netflix. Great lessons on what and when to order food, and fun writeups of exotic places.

5) What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions - Randall Munroe
This book was hilarious. Particularly the Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the Inbox. Just sitting and reading the bizarre questions and answers out loud was a blast.

I think that pretty well sums up a good cross section of what I was reading this year. If I manage it, I may do a write up of some of the music from this year next.