I don’t care what anyone says – if you’re a hardcore bookworm, reading books in digital or physical form is just as addicting and enjoyable. Plus, I’m enjoying not having to carry around a 50 lb library in my backpack! Instead I can keep 200 novels on my phone. Below are my top five favorites-so far. Each title will take you to a download page, but they can all also be found on the Stanza app for iPod/iPhone/iPad.
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
If you don’t check out any other book on this list, make this the one you do check out. Written in 2006, it details a theoretical adventure in modern day, and while the theme and pace is highly exciting, it all concerns present technology or technology that isn’t far-fetched. Gait-recognition spoofing, The Onion Router, Geocaching games, terrorist attacks, secret NSA prisons, government keylogger spy hardware, X-Box hacking, cryptography meeting, reprogramming RFID tags, freegan lifestyles, peace rallies, waterboarding…well, it’s a wild ride, and quite frankly one of the best books I’ve read this year.
Geek Mafia by Rick Dakan
If Little Brother had never been written, Geek Mafia and it’s sequel, Mile Zero, would be right at the top of my favorite books of all time list. Detailing the psuedo-biographical life of a game designer turned con artist, it follows his adventures in conning people in creative heists and ultimately his journey away from the world of the average 9-5 and into the off-the-grid lifestyle of felons and revolutionaries. If you liked Fight Club and Matrix (and Little Brother) this is your series. Due to Associated Content’s interesting choices of when to automatically insert a hyperlink, you can download the book HERE instead of clicking the title.
Beautiful Red by M. Darusha Welm
If you like slower-paced mysteies and are really into speculating about the future of humanity, this is the book for you. The premise of this book is that it starts showing how boring the future will be, then follows a main character that discovers how wrong this assumption is. Starkly contrasting incredible high technology with down-to-earth characters, motivations and plausible extensions on modern life, this novel is a mashup of Ghost in the Shell, Nancy Drew and the imagination of Jules Verne.
Whisperer in Darkness by Howard Phillip Lovecraft
This is the only classic to make the list, but it was creepy enough that it absolutely deserves it. While Lovecraft is known for cosmic fantasy horror, this novel is a wonderful dip into cosmic sci-fi horror, detailing a researcher’s look into urban legends of monsters in the woods and mountains who came from the stars. While I find Lovecraft’s work to be entertaining but not usually very scary, this is a story that was told better than most horror films I’ve seen and makes The Last Exorcism seem positively tame by comparison.
Strange Carnivorous Flowers from Outer Space by Matthew Vandrew
This is the shortest and least-known work to make the list, and it’s a fun story of a guy that brings home an alien as his boyfriend. Though parts are adult in nature, it’s nothing anyone over the age of 12 would be terribly shocked by, and it’s one of the few LGBT sci-fi works out there. Light-hearted and entertaining, I was pleasantly surprised at taking a risk and going for a lesser-known author, and I look forward to future short stories from him.
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