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# Interoperable 005: May '22 Reading Recap
- URL: https://interoperable.tylerdickey.com/interoperable-005-may-22-reading-recap/
- Published: 2022-06-06T13:46:56.000Z
- Updated: 2022-06-06T13:46:56.000Z
- Author: Tyler Dickey
- Tags: Hey World, #Import 2026-09-14 13:44

[ ![IMG_4902.JPG](https://interoperable.tylerdickey.com/content/images/imported/56a8940159-IMG_4902.JPG) ](https://interoperable.tylerdickey.com/content/images/imported/d71042fdd8-IMG%5F4902.JPG "Download IMG_4902.JPG") 

Photo: Piccadilly Circus London, UK Sunday 5 June 2022 Credit: The Author

  
Greetings *Interoperable* readers! (Nearly all half dozen of you!) Another month has passed and it's time to recap my mission to attempt to read five books a month, every month for 2022:   
  
1. [*Beyond: The Astonishing Story of the First Human to Leave Our Planet and Journey Into Space*](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/52716724-beyond?ref=interoperable.tylerdickey.com) by Stephen Walker  
    
This was an enormously interesting book as it covers the space race from the Soviet perspective from the early days of the cosmonaut program to an incredibly detailed account of Yuri Gagarin's historic first voyage into space. This is a must-read for any space buff. (✶✶✶✶✶)
2. [*What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions*](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/21413662-what-if-serious-scientific-answers-to-absurd-hypothetical-questions?ref=interoperable.tylerdickey.com)by Randall Monroe
3. [*How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems*](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43852758-how-to?ref=interoperable.tylerdickey.com) by Randall Monroe  
    
Another couple of books to add to the "Why did I not read these sooner?!?" shelf. Randall Monroe of [XKCD](https://xkcd.com/?ref=interoperable.tylerdickey.com) fame brings his brand of science nerd humour to answering wild hypothetical questions in *What If?* for example:  
    
[*If every person on Earth aimed a laser pointer at the Moon at the same time, would it change color?* ](https://what-if.xkcd.com/13/?ref=interoperable.tylerdickey.com)  
*—PETER LIPOWICZ*  
    
And giving hilarious advice in *How To.* Both are wonderful reads and in print are full of Monroe's trademark black and white illustrations (✶✶✶✶✶)(✶✶✶✶)
4. [The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26073005-the-grid?ref=interoperable.tylerdickey.com) by Gretchen Bakke  
    
I'm interested in alternative energy and energy conservation, while Bakke's book gives some nice overviews and insight into the current state of affairs and our energy future this book sadly feels like a "magazine article's worth of material stretched into a book" to paraphrase a Good Reads reviewer. I'd like to find another book on this topic that's a bit more well researched and less stretched for time. This book regains some points for being from 2016 (aeons ago!) and calling to light issues that we are just in the last few years beginning to see the biggest impacts of. (✶✶✶)

  
Just one short of the goal for May! June should be even better :) 
  
  
✷✷✷✷✷  
  
I'm [Tyler Dickey](https://www.tylerdickey.com/?ref=interoperable.tylerdickey.com), and this is my newsletter *Interoperable*. In this space, I celebrate my never-ending love for reliable, available, and maintainable systems like [RSS](https://world.hey.com/tyler.dickey/feed.atom?ref=interoperable.tylerdickey.com) and [telephony](https://www.tylerdickey.com/telephony.php?ref=interoperable.tylerdickey.com) and write about topics that interest me: art, making things, and technology. Consider subscribing or following me elsewhere on the internet:  
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