This book gets cited from time to time as a sort of historical guide to "being cool," since the characters spend some time discussing the idea of sprezzatura, basically grace or effortlessness. More interesting to me was the differences between Renaissance conceptions of virtue, character, & masculinity / femininity and how our culture's used to thinking about these concepts—"the past is a foreign country."
#2. Grant Cardone, Sell Or Be SoldHaving never read or watched any Twilight before this year, I found them much weirder than I was expecting.
#8. Fuschia Dunlop, Invitation to a BanquetAs featured on CWT!
#9. Iris Murdoch, The Black PrinceA history of id Software, the company behind Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, and the fast inverse square root algorithm. John Carmack is a legendary figure in the software world, and after reading a fictionalized history inspired by id last year (Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow) it was good to read the real thing.
#11. Michael Gerber, The E-Myth RevisitedA lot of old science fiction is hard to appreciate properly—the best ideas have been sucked out and copied a hundredfold, leaving only the author's weirder musings behind to be appreciated. Neuromancer's been copied as much as any novel, but I was impressed by the pace and general bleakness of this novel; it holds up well.
#13–26. Lois McMaster Bujold, The Vorkosigan SagaI adored this series, which I read pretty steadily over the course of the year. Bujold writes satisfying, well-constructed plots that keep the focus on characters, not setting. The books fit together nicely, too: each story stands alone, but together paint a decades-long picture of her characters aging, gaining wisdom through their mistakes, and learning to handle the responsibilities placed on them. I think Captain Vorpatril's Alliance is my favorite one.
#27. R. F. Kuang, BabelAs recommended by Jensen Huang; unlike most business books, this one is worth reading all the way through.
#29. Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom TestA canonical book for startup founders, which I probably should have read 1–2 years ago.
#30. Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant FriendAt its core, this is a very similar story to Wicked: a coming-of-age story focusing on the envious and unstable friendship between two women. I liked this book, but haven't yet picked up the rest of the Neopolitan Novels; somehow keeping track of the names must intimidate me on a subconscious level.
#31. Andy Grove, Only The Paranoid SurviveI liked this book a lot. I would have adored it if I'd read it as a kid, I think; there's something viscerally compelling about Vinge's "Zones of Thought."
#33. C. S. Lewis, The Discarded ImageThis book examines what medieval Europeans thought of the world: how did they see their universe and their place in it? This is a surprisingly subtle question: obviously they were Christian, but their cosmology was considerably different than what even the most "traditional" modern people believe. Last year, I wrote this about The Canterbury Tales:
Reading Chaucer fills me with questions about the medieval mind. The stories are steeped in Christianity, as one might expect. Any argument goes back to the Bible, even those among animals, and Chaucer assumes a level of familiarity with e.g. the Psalms far exceeding that of most modern Christians. Yet at the same time the Greco-Roman world looms large: Roman gods appear as plot characters in three tales (the Knight’s Tale, the Merchant’s Tale, and the Manciple’s Tale), and Seneca is viewed as a moral authority on par with Scripture. I’m curious how all these beliefs and ideas fit together and welcome any recommendations on this subject.
The Discarded Image exactly answers these questions. If you're at all interested in medieval thought, I highly recommend it.
#34. Jim Collins, Good To GreatWe didn't quite live up to the book's promise, but it took less than a week, so I'm happy.
#37. Tim Keller, Every Good EndeavorAnother canonical book for startup founders, which I also probably should have read before now.
#39. Abigail Shrier, Bad TherapyShrier invites controversy here as with her other writing. Sweeping conclusions about American youth aside, I found this surprisingly compelling when viewed as a self-help book about how to be less fearful.
#40. Sheldon Vaunaken, A Severe MercyCaused me to weep uncontrollably while stuck in a middle seat on a five-hour flight: you've been warned.
#41. Thich Nhat Hanh, You Are HereThis book is crazy, and I can't believe I hadn't read it before, particularly since I'm not too distant from a lot of the action, professionally or physically. It's framed as a science story, but I think it works even better at conveying the sheer desperation of early-stage startup life.
#48. Diarmid McCullough, The ReformationThe Reformation is much weirder than most people, Protestant or Catholic, realize: I was surprised by the diversity of pre-Reformation religious practice in Europe, which was mostly stamped out in the doctrinal standardization of the 1500s. For both Protestants and Catholics, it became very important to separate "us" from "them," which led to the rise of catechisms, inquisitions, and so on.
This book also soured me on the "Albion's Seed" idea, as popularized by the SSC book review. Viewed in isolation, the Puritans seem like a bunch of religious fanatics, but really McCullough argues that the same impulse predominated all over Europe in a "Reformation of Manners," from Charles Borromeo's Milan to Plymouth Colony. Perhaps it's less about the Puritans and more about the 1620s.
#49. Amy Chua, Battle Hymn Of The Tiger MotherThis book made it back into the discourse, so I decided I'd actually read it—it's much better than I was expecting, and I don't think most of Chua's critics really understand the book. Conclusions for my own parenting have yet to be determined.
I also read good chunks of a number of textbooks this year, including:
Overall, this was a good year for books. As the stress of Rowan has ramped up more, I've found it more difficult to write creatively in my free time, and easier to just read other people's words—this manifests in a much-diminished rate of blogging, and a lot more energy diverted to reading fiction.
Next year, I hope to read:
Happy new year, and feel free to leave book recommendations in the Substack comments!