Snowcrash
We've been listening to Snowcrash together while cooking, cleaning. We had both read the book over 20 years ago, but had forgotten most of it. It's astounding that it was written in 1992.
The main idea is that it is about a computer virus that becomes a mind virus... much like Buckworks recent comment about stupidity being viral. But there's a lot more that feels very 2020. Time ranked it one of the 100 best novels in English.
Solitary
It might seem like an odd choice, but I also just finished Solitary, the story of Albert Woodfox, who spends 40 years in solitary confinement in Louisiana for a murder that all evidence suggests he did not commit. He was basically a political prisoner, punished for being an activist. Without going into a lot of detail, I'll just say that it was a National Book Award finalist and challenged several of my beliefs and preconceptions.
Walden
I also achieved a minor life goal of reading Walden. I have tried many times over the last 37 years (I would guess I have started it seven times). I used to run around Walden Pond after work when I was a coop programmer at MITRE in 1983-84. Time and again I have been defeated by the fundamental, colossal boredom of Walden. Finally, quarantine gave me the patience to read it. It is not on my must read, but now I can finally donate my copy of the Walden that I have been carting around all these years while it sat on my shelf mocking me.
