<story><title>Books I loved reading this year</title><url>https://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/Holiday-Books-2021</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>adamgordonbell</author><text>Project Hail Mary was so good. I loved The Martian but Artemis not as much. By that measure Project Hail Mary was a return to form.&lt;p&gt;It was just a fun, breezy read that hit the problem solving part of my brain in just the right way, but with a different angle on things than &amp;quot;The Martian&amp;quot;.</text></item><item><author>rememberlenny</author><text>&lt;i&gt;- List for the lazy -&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence, by Jeff Hawkins.&lt;p&gt;The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race, by Walter Isaacson.&lt;p&gt;Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro.&lt;p&gt;Hamnet, by Maggie O’Farrell.&lt;p&gt;Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>reggieband</author><text>I was going through goodreads yesterday and came across my review of The Martian there. I gave it 5 stars because I use what I understand is the Roger Ebert style of rating. The Martian is imperfect, pulpy and at times a bit over sentimental. But it succeeds at exactly what it sets out to achieve. It isn&amp;#x27;t Dostoevsky or Proust but it isn&amp;#x27;t trying to be. It made me laugh, kept me engaged and turning pages. It made me think, this situation is impossible but if it was possible then this is about as realistic as I could expect a novel to portray. In exchange for suspending my disbelief it gave me an enjoyable diversion.&lt;p&gt;All that to say, if Project Hail Mary is equivalent to that, it is going on my to read list.</text></comment>
<story><title>Books I loved reading this year</title><url>https://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/Holiday-Books-2021</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>adamgordonbell</author><text>Project Hail Mary was so good. I loved The Martian but Artemis not as much. By that measure Project Hail Mary was a return to form.&lt;p&gt;It was just a fun, breezy read that hit the problem solving part of my brain in just the right way, but with a different angle on things than &amp;quot;The Martian&amp;quot;.</text></item><item><author>rememberlenny</author><text>&lt;i&gt;- List for the lazy -&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence, by Jeff Hawkins.&lt;p&gt;The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race, by Walter Isaacson.&lt;p&gt;Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro.&lt;p&gt;Hamnet, by Maggie O’Farrell.&lt;p&gt;Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>fernandotakai</author><text>project hail mary&amp;#x27;s audiobook is the best audiobook i&amp;#x27;ve ever listened to. it&amp;#x27;s.... incredible. they adapted parts of the book that were kind of hard to &amp;quot;get&amp;quot; perfectly (and for people that read it, i think you know what i mean).&lt;p&gt;i totally recommend it.</text></comment>