I'm an indecisive little *****. I'm reading like, 5 books or something? At least, I've started that man. Not sure which ones I'll ever get back to, but we'll see.
Those are:
Foundation, by Isaac Asimov
Flatland, by Edwin A. Abbot
The Hogfather, by Terry Pratchett
Beware of Pity, by Stefan Zweig
The Blood Cell, by James Goss (some short Doctor Who novel)
The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula Le Guin
Foundation is cool. Since I read the A Song of Ice and Fire series, I've found I really like political intrigue. Generally I'm quite naive about people in real life, and hate the social politics that get between people (because I'm no good at it), so naturally I'd enjoy political intrigue, because it makes me feel like I'm learning something useful about human nature. There's plenty of it in this, when you get over all the sci-fi chatter. I enjoy getting a chapter done every now and then.
The Hogfather and The Blood Cell (Doctor Who) are both more light-hearted books I picked up at different times on impulse; wanting something lighter to make up for some of the heavier content in the other books I was reading at the time.
Beware of Pity is brilliantly written and it really really speaks to me. I loved The Grand Budapest Hotel and when I heard that the movie was based in part on lots of ideas and characters from various works by the author Stefan Zweig, I decided to give him a go. Beware of Pity is very little like The Grand Budapest Hotel, and similar only in the eloquence of it's narration. I still don't feel like I know the story enough yet to sum up the book. I've loved reading it, but it's awfully difficult; I end up getting so emotionally absorbed, and reread passages. Repeating chapters like a favourite song. I have to chew on what I've read for a little while, and sit back after a chapter ends, or a particularly good paragraph. It's a bit full-on, and I can't deal with reading it quickly.
Flatland has a lot of good mathematical intrigue in it. Written by a mathematician and published in 1884, it's about a 2-dimensional square pondering his existence in his 2-dimensional world, before being transported to the 3-dimensional world. By extension it makes a good argument for 4th dimensions, as, from a 2-dimensional creature's perspective, a 3rd dimension doesn't make any sense. Since it's from 1884 as well, it almost doubles as a period drama, since it has a lot of Victorian-period social critique. Kind of surreal to have such an abstract idea for a book being released 130 years ago.
The Left Hand of Darkness is actually a book I've already read, but I felt like rereading it lately because it has so much good gender commentary. It's what you'd call feminist science fiction I guess, and it's pretty great. The first time I read through it, it was a bit of a drag. I wasn't really into it, since a lot of it was slow paced, or philosophically heavy. I loved the ideas, but there were so many of them. I feel like it'd benefit from a second read; going in with an understanding of the material in advance so I already understand the ideas. It can just reaffirm that understanding a little. I have quite a vibrant image of the world in my head as well, and I feel like I want to develop that a little more.