Ah yes, the yearly book review back for 2024. So easy Claude could write it. But don’t worry, even if you see an “ah yes” dangling at the front or a couple of hidden “delves”, this is still all just some guy on a keyboard.
Let’s get to it.
- 49 books
- 32 nonfiction
- 17 fiction
- 5 re-reads
- 7 started and not finished (not counted)
This was a bit of a down year compared to last year, which I’m actually totally fine with. The second half of the year slowed down considerably because there was more time spent writing and building than reading. Reading is an escape too.
Here’s the highlights!
- Elements of Eloquence by Mark Forsyth - The first sentence of the amazon description sums it up perfectly: “In an age unhealthily obsessed with substance, this is a book on the importance of pure style.” Strunk & White might teach you grammar but this book teaches you how to craft sentences that capture meaning, manifest beauty, and elevate form. Brilliant and fun. If you’ve ever wondered why Shakespeare is so damn good, here is the answer.
- Submission by Michael Houellebecq - Don’t worry I couldn’t get over the last name either. Apparently it’s pronounced like “well beck”. This is one of those books where nothing seems to happen but then all of a sudden everything has changed. The main character is a professor at a prestigious Paris university while France is being taken over by the Muslim Brotherhood. By the end of the book, he’s converting and ready to meet his new multiple wives. What’s most odd is — and this is where the author makes this story so poignant — you’re not really sure if this is a good or bad thing?
- Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir - I love it when a book is so good you literally can’t put it down until it’s done. I stayed up til 2 AM finishing this. Incredible plot and great characters. Weir makes aliens both interesting and endearing. Amaze.
- The Burnout Society by Byung-Chul Han - This was my first book by the Korean Catholic philosopher and it proved to be incredible writing. I thought it would be a quick read at only 72 pages but each page is filled with sentences fathoms deep. Like this one: “In social networks, the function of ‘friends’ is primarily to heighten narcissism by granting attention, as consumers, to the ego exhibited as a commodity.” I mean, what do you even do with something like that except stop and consider your life?
- What Do You Care What Other People Think? by Richard Feynman - I am an unrepentant Feynman fanboy. In large part this book is in two parts. First there’s a set of personal stories around his wife and loss and work that are beautiful. Then there’s a pragmatic and ridiculous look at Washington DC when he joins the Challenger committee to figure out what happened with the space shuttle. It is fascinating and somewhat depressing in that Feynman wanted to get stuff done and the politics made sure he could do as little as possible. But get it done he did, nearly singlehandedly. “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool.”
- Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World by Tara Isabella Burton - A great romp through the religious history of America and how it affects our modern religious ideas. As they say, everyone is religious whether they realize it or not, and Burton outlines all sorts of weird religious subcultures from the Snapewives of the Harry Potter universe to the cult of Crossfit and SoulCycle. Religion has been remixed.
- Novacene by James Lovelock - I remember reading The Age of AI by Eric Schmidt and Henry Kissinger and being blown away that a 99 year old had contributed to such a book. Novacene was published in 2020 when Lovelock was 101 and he wrote it by himself! This is a prescient, slightly new age science fiction view of the future from someone who saw basically all of the progress of the 20th century. I dearly hope I’m this intellectually spry at this age!
- Read Write Own by Chris Dixon - Part internet history, part prediction machine, this is the best explanation of the future of crypto, ably structured as the third phase of the evolution of the internet. It felt a bit dry at the time, but I’m including it in the list because it’s stuck with me longer than I expected.
- Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl - Required reading for life. Frankl portrays the misery and inhumanity of the concentration camps and somehow uses them as a force to better understand our nature and striving for purpose and meaning. Beautiful and strange at the same time and altogether indelible.
Honorable Mentions
A couple more great ones to look out for!
- Five Decembers by James Kestrel because who doesn’t need more classic detective noir in Hawaii right before Pearl Harbor!
- Starter Villain by John Scalzi because it’s just a stupid and ridiculous romp
- Family Unfriendly by Tim Carney because it accurately diagnoses the cultural problems Americans suffer
- Trust Me, I’m Lying by Ryan Holiday because it’s so rare to get a book so terrifying in its honesty