Goodreads | Recent Updates. Best Utopian and Dystopian Fiction (1124 books) Setting Book Lists. The 50 SF Books You Must Read. Welcome to AK Press. In the Land of the Non-Reader. A few months ago, I stopped reading books. At night I crawl into bed and thumb my iPhone to life. I watch Star Trek: Voyager on the Netflix app. It’s not a bad show. But somehow it is difficult to compare the weeks it took to complete the seven-season voyage through the Delta Quadrant with Capt. Janeway and the weeks I spent reading my favorite books — thick books by Eliot, Laxness, Dickens, and Pamuk. I know there is an argument that serialized television drama is as complex and soul-nourishing as a good book, but, unfortunately, I don’t care for the shows that are usually held up as modern classics for non-readers: The Sopranos, The Wire, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, etc.
Back when I was a reader, it often troubled me when friends claimed that they had no time to read. Alas, dear reader, the term “pleasure” doesn’t capture the mental and physical need for books I once had. Books can steady a chair and a soul. The last book I read was Boethius’s The Consolation of Philosophy. Full text books free to read online in the full text archive.