Thanks for the feedback, Tim. I have the (relative) quiet of a 35-minute commute into Midtown NYC three times a week, the first quarter of this year also featured two monstrous snow storms and the remainder of a vacation where I did nothing but read five books.

As for sci-fi -- I'm much more into the "modern classics" -- while Heinlein, Asimov, and Herbert all wrote well-known and superbly crafted books, many of them are rooted in religious, political-military, or social commentary that feels fifty years old at this point. My current list:

Cory Doctorow, start with "Little Brother" and go through that series, then loop back to "Someone Comes to Town," "Makers," and "Pirate Cinema". Not pure hard sci-fi (no aliens, spaceships or magic tech) but very slightly advanced future, and the politics will hit you in the news cycle.

John Scalzi, start with "Old Man's War" and then move into any of his other series.

Iain M Banks, the Culture books. There are about a dozen of them, start with "Consider Phlebus," "Player of Games," and "Use of Weapons." While it's space opera and alien intelligence, it's also chock full of snarky AIs that run ships and some dark, evil themes.

William Gibson's various trilogies are outstanding. The Sprawl -- "Neuromancer," "Count Zero" and "Mona Lisa Overdrive" -- written in 1984-1988, so pre-dating the Internet as we know it but perfectly predictive and a distant early warning about the "metaverse."

I remain a big Neal Stephenson fan, although his last few books have become long and could use editing. "Seveneves" is one of the best, and again, you'll find good current parallels.