The most fascinating books WIRED read in 2020

PLUS: Why humans freak out when they're lost and the history of poop. View this email in your browser  |  Manage newsletter subscriptions  12.20.20 One of the best things about working at WIRED is the number of topics we get to be interested in. That range really shows when you look at the book excerpts we've published this year. We are allowed to interrogate park benches and poker statistics, census machines and cosmic rays. The books that fascinate us might loop us thousands of years into the past, introducing us to the inventor of the wheel, or they might immerse us in the burned-out, Slack-addicted Millennial present. Whatever the topic, these are books that dive deep and tell stories in a smart, deeply researched, beautifully written way. We've dropped some excerpts below, and you can see the full list here. Pick presents for your friends and family (the nice ones get two), and save a few for yourself to dig in to in the new year. The Editors   PHONE HOME | 18-MINUTE READ Why Humans Totally Freak Out When They Get Lost BY MICHAEL BOND People really do circle past the same tree over and over again—it doesn't just happen in movies.   EPIC HACK | 7-MINUTE READ How 30 Lines of Code Blew Up a 27-Ton Generator BY ANDY GREENBERG A secret experiment in 2007 proved that hackers could devastate power grid equipment beyond repair—with a file no bigger than a gif.   UPON THE THRONE | 10-MINUTE READ The History of Poop Is Really the History of Technology BY HAROLD MCGEE Sure it's gross, but human mastery over its chemistry allowed the success of agriculture—and the rise of civilization.   EYES IN THE SKY | 13-MINUTE READ Inside the NSA's Secret Tool for Mapping Your Social Network BY BARTON GELLMAN Edward Snowden revealed the agency's phone-record tracking program. But thanks to "precomputed contact chaining," that database was much more powerful than anyone knew.   RE-ENTRY | 9-MINUTE READ How to Leave Space and (Safely) Crash Back Down to Earth BY TERRY VIRTS A former astronaut explains what it's like to pilot the Space Shuttle onto the runway … and boink back down to the ground on the Soyuz.   CAN'T EVEN | 10-MINUTE READ How Work Became an Inescapable Hellhole BY ANNE HELEN PETERSEN Instead of optimizing work, technology has created a nonstop barrage of notifications and interactions. Six months into a pandemic, it's worse than ever. GET WIRED Happy Holidays from WIRED. Plus get free stickers! Last chance to get one year of WIRED access for $10 $5. Tech news and analysis you won't find anywhere else. Subscribe now.         This e-mail was sent to you by WIRED. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add our e-mail address, wired@newsletters.wired.com, to your address book.   View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe or manage your newsletter subscriptions