In the spirit of keeping a tradition of publishing a list of books that I’ve read outside of work in the past year, here is the list for 2023. I believe in active reading, that is, taking notes on what I learn in the process, even if that relates to the writing style, the genre, the authors, etc. I am not always diligent with the note-taking, but I am always glad when I am in the retrospect.
Note: The links below are affiliate links, so if you follow them to Amazon and buy something, I might get paid some money.
Fiction:
I really like the high-tech thriller genre and also find the bio of Suarez inspiring. He is a tech consultant turned author. Makes me wonder whether I need permission to do the same. Maybe, the first thing I need is discipline to write more regularly.
- “Influx” by Daniel Suarez.
Great for fans of conspiracy theories. That’s all I am going to say to avoid spoilers.
- “Change agent” by Daniel Suarez.
A biotech-themed thriller. I’ve been struggling a bit to get though it, for some reason, but I do like it in general.
Non-fiction:
This year, non-fiction audiobooks have largely replaced for me podcasts, which I usually listen to while walking the dog.
- “Daring greatly” by Brene Brown (audio).
Something about the benefits of vulnerability. I remember that it did resonate, but don’t recall in what way exactly. The unrealistic expectations that the society puts on us – something along these lines.
- “Loonshots” by Safi Bachall (audio).
I came across this book by browsing Daniel Pink’s website. It explores the analogy between innovations in social groups and organizations and phase transitions in physical systems. Dynamic equilibrium of strong bonds and entropy – need separation of the phases, but also an easy flow of information between them. Analogy with franchises and original films. One of the core messages: Equally love your soldiers (who are running the franchises) and artists (who are creating the original ideas).
- “Happy” by Derren Brown (audio).
A reminder of the gap between the events that happen around us and our reactions to them. Critique of the “positive thinking” approach.
A neat discussion of our relation to the older generation. We think in terms of “us vs. them” and fear losing individuality, but our past experience points to the opposite – we gain individuality as we age.
- “The power of regret” by Daniel Pink (audio).
Short, but sweet. I liked the concept of classifying the regrets into one of the four main categories: foundational, boldness, ethics, connection. Anticipating a future regret can be productive, if it would fall into one f these categories. If not, it’s better to be a “satisfiser” and make a quick decision.
Thinking is for doing, feeling is for thinking. When dealing with a regret, self-disclose, exercise self-compassion (think what you would say to a friend in a similar situation) and use self-distancing (talk to yourself in a third person).
- “From strength to strength” by Arthur C. Brooks (audio).
The concept of jumping to the “second curve” of once life trajectory, once the performance starts to decline.
Utilize the accumulated crystallized intelligence once the fluid intelligence begins to fade.
Need of shedding the attachment to success, which is rooted in the fear of failure, in order make jumping onto the second curve easier. Good read.
- “What you do is what you are” by Dan Horowitz (audio).
Values and virtues are not the same. Values are what you believe, and virtues are what you do. If you don’t do what you believe, you won’t become what you’d like to be.
- “Are you fully charged?” by Tom Rath (audio).
This book was good, if a bit short. I like the idea of optimizing the personal well-being on the timescale of the day, instead of the lifestyle. This approach can probably create problems related to planning and discipline if applied beyond reason, but it certainly help with small decisions, which accumulate for a larger affect. Tom Rath also wrote “Eat, sleep move” (which I haven’t read). He refers to it in this book, and the title is self-explanatory – prioritize healthy eating, exercise and sleep on the daily basis. Over-arching thesis of the book, though is that applying effort and resources to increase well-being of other people is more beneficial for you than directly aiming at maximizing your own happiness.
- “Can’t hurt me” by David Goggins (audio).
Another Navy SEAL – inspired read. This one is a memoir, which is a bit of a different read for me. It’s is difficult to fill Jocko Williks’ shoes in this genre, though. I dropped the book at the third chapter – the bogus claims and inconsistencies are too difficult to ignore. Paraphrasing Thoreau, what the author doesn’t say shouts so loudly in my ears, I cannot hear what he is saying. In retrospect, I rarely have such negative impressions of books as of this one.
- “Start with Why” by Simon Sinek (audio).
Good summary of the common human manipulation techniques and an insight into why they don’t work in the long run.
- “Why we play” by Joanna Fortune (audio).
In the modern society, playfulness is almost automatically associated with something opposite of a serious endeavour, but this is a mistake. Playfulness has serious consequences on our health and productivity, both individually and in groups. It is obviously important for children in terms of teaching them the value of risk-taking, social interactions, etc., but it is also important for adults in terms of stress management, promoting creativity and developing social skills. This book is preaching to the converted, but I enjoyed it.
- “Stealing fire” by Steven Kotler and Jamie Wheal (audio).
This book points out the importance of altered states of consciousness for peak performance, particularly by groups of people. I find the attempts to support the arguments by numbers laughable – they would be ridiculously easy to pick apart by any critic with a functioning pre-frontal cortex. Incidentally, it is over-riding the activity of this part of the brain that is apparently needed for transcending the individuality and achieving the extasis – tapping into the hive mind. I am admittedly not a fan of the hive model of the future humankind. It is certainly fascinating what can be achieved by a hive mentality, but somehow the prospect of forgoing the free will completely while keeping the creativity doesn’t sit well with me. According to the authors, forward-thinking individuals are taking the excursions over the artificial fences erected by the society (the “pales” of the Church, the Body and the State) to take advantage of the altered states of consciousness. Perhaps, they are right, and we just don’t notice it, just like we don’t want to admit that we are becoming cyborgs by wearing eyeglasses, prosthetic devices or wearable electronics. For what it’s worth, I also do drink coffee every day, and it probably does something to my consciousness (hopefully, good things mostly).
- “Thinking, fast and slow” by Daniel Kahneman (audio).
I was familiar with the main ideas in this book, as they’ve been re-told by other authors, but the writing is very good. It shows why Kahneman is a Nobel laureate.
I liked the idea of the importance of introducing names to concepts that would otherwise be collections of properties and facts, e.g., “System 1” and “System 2” of the fast and slow thinking, respectively. It is easier for people to relate to agents, i.e. characters with names and assumed traits and personalities, than to sets of properties. It is also important for the names to me short, because the more information we need to keep in our short-term memory while pronouncing the name the less is our capacity for thinking.
- “Four thousand weeks” by Oliver Burkeman (audio).
An excellent summary of the author’s experience with reviewing the vast literature on the finite nature of human life and its relationship with time. For me, one of the practical takeaways is limiting the number of the “on the go” projects to a maximum of three for any given day in order to avoid the feeling of overwhelm.
- “The Happiness Hypothesis” by Jonathan Haidt (audio).
An entertaining discussion of the common key messages from the significant philosophical and religious works of the past, including the limitations of the specific ideas. I liked the discussion of the stoics in particular, with an added twist of the balance between striving to improve your external conditions and to accept them, while focussing on managing your internal reactions.
- “Eat, Move, Sleep” by Tom Rath (audio).
A nice collection of rule-of-thumb principles for improving physical quality of life based on a wide, if not scientifically rigorous, literature survey. Useful takeways for me personally: tackle all three components listed in the title of the book simultaneously, because they are closely related and avoid long periods of inactivity during the day.
- “The Little Book of Ikigai” by Ken Mogi (audio).
Upon listening to this book, I found many examples of ikigai in my own various activities. Building gunpla is a particularly good example – you start small and don’t expect any particular success or recognition for your efforts. It is truly an autotelic activity.
- “Flow: Living at the peak of your abilities” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (audio).
This isn’t rally a book, but rather a collection of recordings, probably lectures, by Csikszentmihalyi himself. It is different from his book “Flow: The psychology of optimal experience“, which one of my all-time favourite reads, but it covers the same concepts. It certainly hasn’t been a waste of time to listen to it. Csikszentmihalyi is a great speaker, and listening to this book confirmed to me that it is great to listen to the author reading their own works, whenever there is an opportunity. You receive a clear sense of what the intended emphasis is, and this added emotional content makes the material easier to internalise, if nothing else.
- “Elon Musk” by Walter Isaacson (audio).
I am glad I picked up an audio version, because this book is huge! I like Isaacson’s biographies, and this one did not disappoint. Musk is a polarising character, but the book itself made me think about some questions, on which I would typically fall into one of the two distinct camps, without much consideration. Those are “Does it actually take a somewhat sociopathic individual to inflict a major change on the society?” and “Is it ok to be a jerk in some areas of your life if you are doing wonderful things in another?” Upon consideration, I think my personal answers to these questions are “Very likely” and “No”.
- “The Happiness Advantage” by Shawn Achor (audio).
I liked this summary of the positive psychology milestones.
- “Hidden Potential” by Adam Grant (audio).
I didn’t write any notes on this book as I was listening to it, and now I am struggling to recall what I’ve learned from it. This observation is probably saying something about the book by itself.
- “Be useful” by Arnold Schwarzenegger (audio).
I’ve been a huge fan of Arnold since my teen years, and this book is my favourite of the year. I really enjoyed that it was read by Arnold himself, and it did’t disappoint in terms of the content as well. I found the autobiographical take interesting and Schwarzenegger’s approach to the various challenges that he faced throughout his life quite motivating. There are certain parallels with Jocko Willink’s no-nonsense ability to focus and a good balance between privacy and vulnerability. I will seriously consider re-listening to this book in the future.
- “Discipline is destiny” by Ryan Holiday (audio).
I came back to this series on Stoics and the cardinal virtues after a break (it gets repetitive after a while), and found that I missed it and Holiday’s style of presenting it.
- “Courage is calling” by Ryan Holiday (audio).
This book is, technically, the first one in the series on the four cardinal virtues (courage, temperance, justice and wisdom), but I listened to it after the “Discipline is destiny”, mostly for the sake of completeness. I am ready for another break from the Stoics now.