Last year, I enjoyed writing about the books I read in 2020 and collecting my notes and takeaways. I decided to do it again just after the New Year, but as anything that doesn’t have a deadline, completing the list took quite a bit of time. I decided not to make separate posts on children’s books, fiction and non-fiction books, as I did last time, but I still organize the list below into these categories. I do this mainly because I consume these genres differently.
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Children’s books:
Reading children’s books is our family time. We keep going a tradition of reading aloud to our daughter before bedtime, even though she is reading quite a bit on her own during the day as she grows older and develops her own interests. We pick a book, in paper format, that none of us has read before, so that discovering the story and the reading process itself becomes a shared experience.
1. “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” by J.K. Rowling
2. “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” by J.K. Rowling
3. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” by J.K. Rowling
We started reading this “Order of the Phoenix” last summer, during a trip to Tofino. Climbing into a bed with the thick tome after our daily surfing sessions quickly became a ritual. My wife and I would take turns reading aloud. When it was my turn to listen, I enjoyed allowing myself not to multitask and just followed the storyline. After coming back from vacation, we carried on reading after dinner, almost every day. This was a piece of the elusive “sabbatical mindset” that we were able to convert to a lasting lifestyle element. I think the Harry Potter series is nothing short of a masterpiece, but the most significant takeaway for me is about the reading experience. With these books, I re-discovered the joy of reading for its own sake, without directly aiming to learn something practical or to be productive in some way.
Fiction:
Most of these are e-books, which I read on a tablet or a phone, in tiny chunks of time throughout a typical day, plus one slightly longer chunk of time in the evening, as a wind-down routine.
4. “Fall or, Dodge in Hell” by Neal Stephenson.
I’ve been keen to follow the canon of Stephenson’s novels featuring Dodge or his relatives ever since being exposed to it through his “Cryptonomicon”. The “Fall” went very well with the children’s books by Rick Riordan popularizing Greek mythology, which my daughter was eagerly absorbing during the previous year. It is an intriguing thought exercise to ponder what might produce those kinds of myths in modern times or in the not-very-distant future.
5. “Snow Crash” by Neal Stephenson.
This is not the most recent piece of sci-if, so it’s eerie how far in advance Stephenson could spot things like Metaverse, cryptocurrencies (I was introduced to the concept in his “Cryptonomicon” several years ago) and AI. In “Snow Crash”, the description of the thought process of a “rat thing”, a cyborg security doggie based on a bullterrier, was particularly moving. I began to view my own dog, Bruno, differently after reading it. It would have been a worthwhile book to read just for that.
6. “Daemon” by Daniel Suarez.
I liked the “Snow Crash”, but wanted to read something more up-to-date, so I searched on Reddit for a book that would be similar to Stephenson’s “REAMDE”, which I read earlier and really enjoyed. “Daemon” came highly recommended, and it apparently had a cult following in tech circles. It definitely did not disappoint in terms of the fast pace and a good insight into the AI capabilities and limitations. I think this book came up as similar to “REAMDE” because both feature the interaction between the physical world and a multiplayer game simulation. But I also appreciate both of the books for their international crime drama/detective story flavour.
7. “FreedomTM” by Daniel Suarez.
Strictly speaking, I finished reading this book in 2022, but this is a direct sequel to the “Daemon”, which I liked so much that I simply had to get it right away. Besides, it’s taken me so long to compile this reading list that the exact timeline of when I read what starts to be less relevant. “FreedomTM” probably cannot stand on its own, without reading the “Daemon” first. It is still very good, although not as overwhelmingly excellent as the “Daemon”. The grand ideas of the societal pivot towards integration with the distributed algorithm are introduced a bit heavy-handedly, in my opinion. I also found the concept of the protagonists of the “Daemon” suddenly embracing their former deadly foe a bit hard to digest initially. Upon consideration, though, I agree with Suarez that such course of events is possible and even plausible, and that it’s definitely worth exploring. It’s just difficult to handle the story on the scale of the humankind with the same elegance as it was dome on the scale of individuals in the “Daemon”. Incidentally, it appears that these are the only two books written by the author, and it is remarkable that the debut has been such a hit, considering his wide-ranging accomplishments outside of literature.
Non-fiction:
I mostly consume (hesitate to say “read”) books in this category in an audio format. I listen to them while walking the dog or driving to pick up my daughter from school. I do this because these are the books that I wouldn’t have had time to read otherwise. The exception are chess books. I read those in an electronic format on my iPad, with a chess app opened in a second window, so that I can follow the examples and variations by moving the pieces. This is more efficient than using a physical chessboard, but is still a bit cumbersome. In the future, I’d like to try the Forward Chess app, where the chessboard functionality is integrated with an e-reader. Ben Johnson of the Perpetual Chess podcast (another thing I regularly listen to on my dog walks) often mentions it as a very convenient reading mode.
8. “Atomic Habits” by James Clear (audio).
In a sea of self-help productivity books, this one is a fundamentally great one. It is one of the only two books that I re-read (rather, re-listened). There are many practical suggestions in the book, but the one I found particularly useful as a takeaway is the importance of temporal and spatial consistency in habit formation. It is easier to form new positive habits (or drop old bad ones) in a new place. It is also easier to exercise, journal, etc. at the same time of the day.
9. “Beginners” by Tom Vanderbilt (audio).
I heard about this book on the Perpetual Chess podcast. The author describes his experiences in starting a series of completely new and unrated hobbies. What resonated with me is that he began some of them to accompany his young daughter, which I’ve also been doing, in my case, with violin-playing. A take-home point for me was that it is not alway necessary to justify what you do in terms of some material benefit, as long as the activity itself is fulfilling.
“A gulf was opening. Unless you were a professional, you were a mere dilettante or an “amateur.” And what did this loaded word originally signify? “To love,” derived from the French aimer. With the increasing specialization of knowledge and professionalization of everyday life, suddenly being delighted by something, or loving something, was seen as vaguely disreputable.”
Vanderbilt also quotes a surfer, who speaks about adult beginners – something like the iconic scene from “Point Break”, where Keanu Reeves’ character is condescendingly told that it is late to start surfing at his age. He said that the experience of adult beginners in surfing depends on their goals. If they are aiming at excellence – it’s a path of frustration and injuries. But it is quite possible to enjoy surfing over many years if one doesn’t strive to be one of the best surfers out there.
10. “Simple Chess” by Michael Stean.
This is one of the best practical chess book I’ve read so far (disclaimer: I haven’t read that many yet). The emphasis is on positional concepts with the implications that brilliant combinations naturally emerge from superior positions, to paraphrase Fischer.
11. “The Moves that Matter” by Jonathan Rowson (audio).
This is more of an autobiography than a chess book. Rowson is a philosopher, in addition to being a Grandmaster, and his writing is funny and insightful. This particular book gives a unique perspective on balancing (or attempting to balance) professional chess aspirations with life outside the sport. Chess losses are quite devastating psychologically, regardless of one’s level. It is necessary to digest them from a positive perspective of learning in order to be able to maintain motivation and learn. At he same time, the purely competitive aspect is always there as well. Rowson recalls an episode when he lost a match at a tournament and half-jokingly said to a fellow Grandmaster that “it was a good lesson,” to which the other person said: “It’s time to stop learning and to teach them a lesson.” It’s brutal, and adopting this ruthless mentality apparently didn’t work in the long run for the author, in terms of spurring him to continue full-tilt with the pro chess career. It seems that many top players are quite unhappy on the personal level.
12. “Do the work” by Steven Pressfield (audio)
Pressfield’s “The War of Art” is a highly-regraded and popular take on procrastination in creative endeavours – what he refers to as “resistance”. I read it before and quite liked it. So I downloaded this book looking forward to more insight, but it was largely disappointing. This was a very short listen – seems like a recap of a blog article. So my take-home message from this particular book is to avoid short blurbs like this in the future. I am all for publishing half-baked ideas in order to develop them and let them mature, but a book is a wrong medium for this, in my opinion.
13. “Beyond Order” by Jordan B. Peterson (audio)
I liked Peterson’s controversial-to-the-point-of-almost-being-obnoxious “12 Rules for Life”, where he made a case for combatting chaos and establishing order in various aspects of one’s life. So I was intrigued of how he would present the alternative, if not opposite, view and argue for the benefits of a wide view on life. Here is an idea from the book: It’s good to accept your position as a beginner (when you are a beginner in a certain field). With it comes a certain lack of responsibility, which is liberating. But today’s beginner is tomorrow’s master, so we should treat beginners with respect, even if these beginners are ourselves. Also, true communication occurs only among peers, so it is good to be in the middle of a hierarchy in whatever field you happen to be operating.
14. “Logical Chess: Move by Move” by Irving Chernev.
This has been my favourite book. It’s a collection of classic games, where rationale of literally every move on both sides of the board is explained. I’d like to think that it helped me shape the general direction of my own thinking during various phases of the game. I also heard of a more modern “move-by-move” book by Nigel Short, which I am definitely going to look up.
15. “Essentialism” by Greg McKeown (audio)
I often pick up ideas for books to read from the podcasts I listen to. This book is a good example. I liked McKeown’s interview on the Tim Ferris Show and subsequently went to listen to his own podcast. The funny thing is that beyond the obvious (perhaps, in retrospect) idea that simplifying your life is good for you, it’s difficult for me to remember a particularly useful bit or tactic I learned from it. Yet, McKeown’s podcast is the one I still return to from time to time. I have the impression that his personal values are fairly consistent with what he writes.
16. “Effortless” by Greg McKeown (audio)
Evidently, I liked “Essentialism” enough to pick the next book by the same author immediately after I finished it. Here, McKeown addresses a common conundrum where even after defining the “essential” things in life one is faced with impossibly too many of them to tackle. Again, if this book provided an answer as to what to do in that situation, I don’t recall what it was. That probably should tell me something about this line of books in particular and perhaps this genre of self-help literature in general (that it is quite useless). Nevertheless, I remember that I really did enjoy listening to them.
17. “Stillness is the Key” by Ryan Holiday (audio)
I like listening to Holiday’s interviews because of his public speaking skills. I find his opinions a bit strong, but he is consistent, just like McKeown above. This book is from a series where he popularizes the stoic philosophy.
18. “Lives of the Stoics” by Ryan Holiday (audio)
I knew that it was unlikely that I would ever find time to read a scholarly work on stoics, so Holiday’s pop culture take on the most famous biographies was just the right mix of new material and entertainment.
19. “Bird by bird” by Anne Lamott (audio)
A beautiful case for doing the work on large projects in small chunks. The book’s title refers to a case where the author’s brother was given advice to tackle a large essay on local birds in small chunks, i.e. bird by bird, instead of being paralyzed by the magnitude of the whole project.
20. “The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership” by Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman and Kaley Klemp (audio)
Clearly, fifteen is too many commitments for me to hold in my head, but the most tactically-useful point I remember is to periodically check throughout the day whether I am “above or below the line” in terms of my attitude towards things that are currently on my plate or the situation I am in.
21. “Make Time” by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky (audio)
Technically, I listened to this book before, but I re-listened to it again in 2021, and this fact tells something by itself. I found it quite positive and comforting somehow. Maybe, it’s a false comfort of believing that you can be in control of your time. Nevertheless, I like the idea of defining a single “highlight” for each day and treating all other things that you manage or have to do as a bonus. The single highlight give you something to look forward to in the short term, and it also lets you declare a victory after it’s accomplished. Perhaps more important than the tactical suggestions in this book was the list of recommended books at the end of it, which defined the rest of my reading for the yer. Jake and John commented on each of their favourite books in a couple of sentences, distilling their main points (kind of what I am attempting here).
22. “The Happiness Project” by Gretchen Rubin (audio)
This was the first book I picked up from Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky’s list in “Make time”. This is a “stunt non-fiction” book, where the author undertakes to do something for year and reports on her experience. I’ve listened to Gretchen’s podcast before, and what I find inspiring in it, as well as in this book, is the unapologetic fun she is apparently having through exploring various life hacks. The concept that you don’t have to be an expert in a field to be explore it is liberating. Apparently, all that’s required for reaping most of the benefits is curiosity and enjoying the process of exploration itself.
23. “How to Have a Good Day” by Caroline Webb (audio)
This book to me was a more systematic follow-up to Gretchen Rubin’s somewhat haphazard (but extremely well-presented and uplifting) account of various psychological techniques. This book is certainly more dry than “The Happiness Project”, but what it lacks in fluidity, it compensates in scientific foundation and depth of explanation of the underlying principles. It is still very readable, though, and I certainly enjoyed it. The takeaway that I remember most readily is that your expectations of an event shape how it will actually unfold and what affect it will have, at least from your subjective standpoint. An example Caroline gives is that if you expect a business meeting to be boring and unproductive, you will find evidences supporting this expectation both during the meeting and in retrospect. The same exact meeting could be viewed in a different light by someone, whose expectations of it were positive to begin with.
24. “The Power of Moments” by Chip Heath and Dan Heath (audio)
I believe, the main idea here is that our lives are disproportionally influenced by relatively short, but significant, events. These formative moments (e.g. weddings, job interviews, etc.) are worth planning for. Moreover, it is worth planning small moments that would have a positive effects into each day. I really like this suggestion and think that it has lot of potential for improving the quality of life. As with everything, though, consistency and disciplines are the key. In other words, it is easier said than done.
25. “Mindset” by Carol S. Dweck (audio)
Fixed mindset vs. Growth mindset – as parents, my wife and I have been exposed to these concepts pretty much continuously since our daughter entered school. Teachers here in Canada, as well as in Italy, where we were on sabbatical when our daughter was in Kindergarten, made references to them all the time. Carol Dweck is the one who coined the fixed/growth mindset terminology and popularized it through this book. In my opinion, it is quite excellent and actually goes deeper than treating your failures as stepping stones to future success. For me personally, reminding myself of the growth mindset principles allows me to increase complexity of the things I do (and thus to increase the proportion of time spent in a flow state, following Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s principles) without being crushed by the inherent frustrations of learning chess, violin, painting and academic research.
26. “A Guide to the Good Life” by William B. Irvine (audio)
This is another modern take on stoicism. The main idea is that attaining tranquility is a worthy life goal, and that methodically identifying sources of distress in our life and dealing with them is a feasible strategy both for the long and short time horizons. This read is different from Ryan Holiday’s take on the subject, and I am glad I came across it. There are certainly many things that resonate with my own perspective.
