Hobbies

What I get up to in my spare time

  • I have been playing field hockey since I was 6 years old.
  • I used to play regularly but now I casually play cricket and football.
  • I love watching football, cricket, rugby, hockey, tennis, and almost any sport!
  • Long distance running. I am trying my best but it's hard and takes up so much time, although sometimes it's worth it, both for the places I go running, and of course for "runner's high".
  • Reading - I absolutely love science fiction and have an ordered list of all the books I've read in case I ever need to point people towards my favourites (see below).
  • I have been practising my scientific writing by writing news articles for the Popular Astronomy magazine. More of this to come in the future.
  • I have been attempting to write a novel! Even though I have no idea what I'm doing, I have written 90,000 words, so it's too late to back out now.
  • Photography - I have an Instagram account where I post all my favourite photos. Most of them are just from my phone, but... many many years in the future when I save up enough money I hope to buy a proper camera and learn how to do photography for real.
Guinness Factory

Sci-fi book rankings

  1. The Left Hand of Darkness (Ursula K. Le Guin)
  2. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (Philip K. Dick)
  3. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
  4. The Forever War (Joe Haldeman)
  5. Hyperion (Dan Simmons)
  6. Speaker for the Dead (Orson Scott Card)
  7. Dune (Frank Herbert)
  8. A Scanner Darkly (Philip K. Dick)
  9. Farenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)
  10. The Word for World is Forest (Ursula K. Le Guin)
  11. Stranger in a Strange Land (Robert A. Heinlein)
  12. The City and the Stars (Arthur C. Clarke)
  13. Rendezvous with Rama (Arthur C. Clarke)
  14. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
  15. 1984 (George Orwell)
  16. The Martian (Andy Weir)
  17. Ubik (Philip K. Dick)
  18. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (Robert A. Heinlein)
  19. Ringworld (Larry Niven)
  20. The Fall of Hyperion (Dan Simmons)
  21. The Penultimate Truth (Philip K. Dick)
  22. Way Station (Clifford D. Simak)
  23. Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said (Philip K. Dick)
  24. Slaughterhouse-Five (Kurt Vonnegut)
  25. Hard to be a God (Arkady and Boris Strugatsky)
  26. Foundation (Isaac Asimov)
  27. Galaxy in Flames (Ben Counter)
  28. The Flight of the Eisenstein (James Swallow)
  29. Rosewater (Tade Thompson)
  30. Children of Time (Adrian Tchaikovsky)
  31. The Man in the High Castle (Philip K. Dick)
  32. Horus Rising (Dan Abnett)
  33. False Gods (Graham McNeill)
  34. Ilium (Dan Simmons)
  35. Foundation and Empire (Isaac Asimov)
  36. Children of the Mind (Orson Scott Card)
  37. Second Foundation (Isaac Asimov)
  38. Sea of Rust (C. Robert Cargill)
  39. Xenocide (Orson Scott Card)
  40. Starship Troopers (Robert A. Heinlein)
  41. The Lathe of Heaven (Ursula K. Le Guin)
  42. Childhood’s End (Arthur C. Clarke)
  43. Dreams Before the Start of Time (Anne Charnock)
  44. Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes)
  45. Cat's Cradle (Kurt Vonnegut)
  46. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (Philip K. Dick)
  47. Emphyrion (Stephen R. Lawhead)
  48. Martian Time-Slip (Philip K. Dick)
  49. Mission of Gravity (Hal Clement)
  50. The Dispossessed (Ursula K. Le Guin)
  51. The Reality Dysfunction (Peter F. Hamilton)
  52. The Neutronium Alchemist (Peter F. Hamilton)
  53. The Departure (Neal Asher)
  54. Flatland (Edwin A. Abbott)
  55. The Naked God (Peter F. Hamilton)
  56. Zero Point (Neal Asher)
  57. Jupiter War (Neal Asher)
  58. The Stars My Destination (Alfred Bester)
  59. Earth Unaware (Orson Scott Card)
  60. Earth Afire (Orson Scott Card)
  61. The Gods Themselves (Isaac Asimov)
  62. Neuromancer (William Gibson)
  63. Tau Zero (Poul Anderson)
  64. VALIS (Philip K. Dick)

Other fiction books I recommend

  • The Catcher in the Rye
  • Animal Farm (George Orwell)
  • The Great Gatsby
  • The Hobbit (J.R.R Tolkien)

    • Non-fiction books I recommend

  • Empireland
  • Invisible Women