3 book recommendations from Eliot Peper
Over the past few years, I've had the pleasure of interviewing more than twenty of my favorite authors. Unlike traditional press interviews, our conversations focus on craft, big ideas, and lessons learned. Literature itself is a single extended conversation about the meaning of life, and we wander its paths in search of insight, however fleeting.
I've finally collected them all in one place: Fellow Travelers. May they aid you on your own journeys as much as they have me on mine.
And now, books I love that you might too:
Zero History by William Gibson follows a recovering addict, an ex-rockstar, a media mogul, and a host of enigmatic, compelling characters through an adventure that runs the gamut from fashion labels whose secrecy is the source of their popularity to shadowy powerbrokers who meddle with history as a form of public art. Gibson nails the zeitgeist by bringing a science fictional lens to bear on the contemporary world, yielding a novel so densely packed with ideas that it will refract your thinking.
Mrs. Fox by Sarah Hall is a haunting, bizarre story about a man whose wife transforms into a fox—challenging him to reframe his relationship with nature even as he begins to lose his grip on reality. Hall's evocative prose will lure you into a quasi-dreamstate where metamorphosis feels all too possible.
The Art of Noticing by Rob Walker is a practical guide for honing your attention in a world that is all too eager to hijack it. Full of thought-provoking anecdotes and fun exercises, Walker shows how the secret to being interesting is to be interested, and that art is anything made with care.
Bonus recommendation: "He's Still Neutral" is the single most moving podcast episode I've listened to in ages. It will renew your faith in humanity.
In other news:
Pushpak Karnick published a lovely review of the Analog series: "Bandwidth shows us the aftermath of information manipulation; Borderless, the omnipresence of a virtual technology that forms the lifeblood of human society; Breach, the onerous responsibility of building and fostering trust, whether in software security or on a personal level."
The Geekiverse interviewed me about the creative process behind the trilogy: "I’ve always felt like I’m slipping quietly between worlds. I'm from Oakland, which is a powerful gravity well for cultural and technological revolution. My dad’s Dutch and my mum’s Canadian but I grew up in California, so no matter where I went, I always looked at things from a weird angle—like a future historian reporting on the present or an alien anthropologist filming a nature documentary about Planet Earth."
One of the best things about being a writer is getting texts like these.
My conversation with Annalee Newitz, author of Autonomous: "Friendship is the smallest measurable unit of political resistance."
This thought-provoking piece of speculative journalism in the Economist reads like a prologue to Borderless.
Fascinating Wired story about how The Matrix got made: "This world has the Matrix all over the place. People accept ways of thinking that are imposed upon them rather than working them out themselves. The free-thinking people are those who question every sort of Matrix, every system or thought or belief, be it political, religious, philosophical."
If you enjoy this newsletter and want to support it, tell your friends. I love sharing amazing stories that explore the intersection of technology and culture. The goal of this newsletter is to recommend books, both fiction and nonfiction, that crackle and fizz with big ideas, keep us turning pages deep into the night, challenge our assumptions, help us find meaning in a changing world, and make us think, feel, and ask hard questions. In an age of digital abundance, quality is the new scarcity. The right book at the right time can change your life.
I also pull back the curtain on my creative process. When I'm not reading books, I'm writing them. If you're interested, you can find my books right here. They've earned praise from the New York Times Book Review, Businessweek, Popular Science, Boing Boing, TechCrunch, io9, and Ars Technica. I'd love to hear what you think if you give them a read.
Cheers, Eliot
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Eliot Peper is the author of Breach, Borderless, Bandwidth, Cumulus, Neon Fever Dream, True Blue, and the Uncommon Series. Subscribe to his blog here.
“We must turn to fiction like the Analog Novels to see what the future could look like, what it could hold in store for us and what we could do to ensure it’s a good one. Read Eliot Peper’s Breach while it’s still fiction.” -FactorDaily on Breach
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