Fiction:
- “Study in Scarlet” by Arthur Conan Doyle.
- “The sign of Four” by Arthur Conan Doyle.
- “A Scandal in Bohemia” by Arthur Conan Doyle.
- “Foundation” by Isaac Asimov.
I’ve been postponing reading Asimov’s books, and this one demonstrated that I was wrong. It is a classic for a reason. Amazing prose and very cool characters.
Non-fiction:
- “Fallen Leaves” by Will Durant (audio).
It’s interesting to listen to a personal opinion on the nature and meaning of life of a historian and philosopher written at the end of his long life, spent documenting experiences of other people. It is also curios that the manuscript of this book was actually lost and published only after Durant’s death. Also amazing how demonstrably misled even such educated and academically-minded person could be about topics that are only marginally beyond his field of study. I suppose, it’s an example of the Dunning-Kruger effect in action.
- “How to Do the Work” by Dr. Nicole LePera (audio).
I liked the idea of interconnectedness of the psychological balance and physical wellness. One example that I particularly liked was on the undeniable effectiveness of placebo (as well as its opposite, the nocebo) in various medical trials. This book has about the maximum amount of woo-woo that I can tolerate without immediately becoming too skeptical to continue listening. What also helps is that the author has a traditional scientific background, which add certain structure to the presentation of the ideas.
- “The Mountain is You” by Brianna Weist (audio).
I was a bit skeptical about this book because of a somewhat cheesy title, but I was pleasantly surprised. It is largely about the nature of self-sabotage and ways of avoiding it. One message that resonated particularly well was the necessity to normalize the new psychological state, e.g., feeling happy, in order to shift the baseline towards it. I will certainly consider Weist’s follow-up books as future reads.
- “Make It Stick” by Peter C. Brown, Henry I. Roediger III and Mark A. McDaniel (audio).
I came across referenced to this book before, but this is the first time I listened to the entire thing. It was reviewed in the “Perpetual Chess” podcast that I sometimes listen to while walking the dog. It’s a very structured, for a popular science book, overview of study and teaching methodologies. The main takeaways for me were that Spacing and interleaving of practice constitute desirable difficulties. Also, tat generative self-quizzing is more effective than multiple-choice type or re-reading of the material.
- “Born standing up” by Steve Martin (audio).
I heard about this autobiography any time in the podcasts that I follow, most notably “The Tim Ferris Show”, but finally I decided to listen to it. It’s an excellent book indeed. Very entertaining, insightful and inspiring. It is also another example of the benefit of the audio format, where the author and the reader is the same person. It also helps that he is a good actor.
- “The Search” by Bruce Feiler (audio).
Some thoughts about the conventional concept of a career, and how outdate it is in the modern world. There is an attempt to hammer in this point with some statistics, but the rigor of the statistical analysis is a bit suspect, and I think the point is clear enough without all the surrounding fuss. The stories are entertaining, but there author is trying a bit too hard to deliver the point that diversity is paramount when considering the variety of jobs and occupations in the modern world.
- “The Pivot Year” by Brianna Wiest (audio).
Well, Brianna Weist has certainly been the author of the year for me. I re-listened to “The Mountain is You” and liked this book too. It is clearly a compilation of blog posts, which is actually quite inspiring.
- “Projections: A story of human emotions” by Karl Disseroth (audio).
My app shows that finished listening to this book to the end, but at the time of this writing, I have no recollection of what I learned from it. I should definitely be more diligent with taking notes, but it probably says something about the book too.
- “The Creative Act: A Way of Being” by Rick Rubin (audio).
This is excellent. I found this summary of thoughts about the creative process very relatable, despite the author’s background in music production, which is quite foreign to me.
- “The Rational Optimist” by Matt Ridley (audio).
I remember that I enjoyed it, although struggle to recall what specifically I learned.
- “10% Happier” by Dan Harris (audio).
That was a very nice read (listen). I enjoyed the overview of the author’s personal journey to “amateur buddhism”. It inspired me to read a couple more books on Buddhism immediately afterwards.
- “Going to Pieces without Falling Apart: A Buddhist Perspective on Wholeness” by Mark Epstein, M.D. (audio).
The author was featured i “10% Happier” as Dan Harris’ mentor/teacher, so I decided to take a look (listen) at his work. It was quite nice. My favourite part is the anecdote about locking the keys in the car immediately after a mindfullness retreat and being Ok with it.
- “Mindfulness: Six Guided Practices for Awakening” by Joseph Goldstein (audio).
This is another reference from “10% Happier”. For what it worth, my app shows that I abandoned it at 52%.
- “Antifragile” by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (audio).
A cool concept, but the author’s tangents about how amazing and non-conformist he is detracts from the experience quite a bit. If anything, it indirectly confirms the idea of the inherent value of formal education.
- “Napoleon the Great” by Andrew Roberts (audio).
A biography of Napoleon. One of my favourite books this year.
