Waldo & Magic, Inc.

Author: Robert A. Heinlein

First line: The act was billed as ballet tap--which does not describe it.

Why you should read this book: Two novellas examining the unlikely but entertaining intersection of magic, science, and bureaucracy. In "Waldo" a brilliant but disabled and antisocial sociopath is presented with the problem of technology that refuses to work according to the laws of nature, technology upon which the human race depends. In "Magic, Inc." an unassuming but hard-headed building supplies salesman refuses to be bullied by a consortium of magicians and initiates the mother of all anti-trust investigations, taking his case right to hell when the state legislature fails him.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You demand technical purity from your speculative fiction.