Year 2021 in Books

Some Stats:

26 books

18 Audiobooks

6 Kindle books

2 physical books

27% of them written/co-written by female authors

3 Fictions (the last fiction I read was probably Harry Potter …… )

2x: The speed I listened to audiobooks

Now, onto the books:


๐Ÿ‘พ Understanding Comics

By Scott McCloud

๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ

I love the book. It’s one of those rear successes in dissecting and understanding my own nostalgia. I wrote about my reactions here.


๐ŸŽ‹ ่ฑๅญๆ„ทๆผซ็•ซๆ›ธ้ธ็นน:

ไฝœ่€…๏ผšๆ˜Žๅท๏ผˆ็›ง็‘‹้‘พ

๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ

ไฝ›ๆœ‰้Œซๅฏๆธก๏ผŒๆœ‰่‘ฆๅฏ่ˆช๏ผŒๅฏๆ˜ฏ๏ผŒไธ€ๅฟต้–“ๅทฒๆ˜ฏไธ–ไธŠ็š„ไบ”ๅ่ฌๅนดใ€‚ไบบๆœ‰ๅฆ‚่จฑ็š„้‡ๆ“”๏ผŒ้‚„่ฆๆ”œๅ…’ๅธถๅญ๏ผŒๅˆๆๆ€•๏ผŒ้‚ฃๅฐ่ˆŸ็„กๆณ•ไธ€ๅˆ‡ๅฏๆธกใ€‚

ใ€Œไธ€ๅ€‹ๅ…ซๅๅคšๅนด็š„ๆ™‚ๅ…‰ๆ—…่กŒใ€‚ใ€


๐ŸŒ… From a Certain Point of View (Star Wars)

By Renรฉe Ahdieh, Meg Cabot, Pierce Brown, Nnedi Okorafor, Sabaa Tahir, and more.

๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ

Fan fiction by some really well known authors who were also Star Wars fans. For example:

  • Griffin McElroy is a writer, co-founder of the video game site Polygon
  • Ken Liu is one of the most lauded authors in American literature. His short story โ€œThe Paper Menagerieโ€ is the first work of fiction to simultaneously win the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy awards

๐ŸŒ The Ministry for the Future

By Kim Stanley Robinson

๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ

A fanatical imagination of how countries wrestled each other to confront with climate change through majestic robotics, cryptocurrencies, violence, incentives, and good old politics.

Because of this book, I have become very interested in this kind of environmental fiction, and the next one I am going to read is Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson, the author of “Snow Crash,” the OG metaverse.


๐Ÿ“š Write Your Book on the Side

By Hassan Osman

๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ

Did not finish but I might come back to it when I actually write a book.


๐Ÿ“ฆ Amazon Unbound, The Everything Store
๐Ÿš› Working Backwards: Insights, Stories and Secrets from Inside Amazon

By Brad Stone, Colin Bryar, Bill Carr

๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ

If you are a boss, a founder, this book offers some intriguing management tactics that only bosses and founders have the power to experiment with. If you are not a boss/founder, don’t bother, because you will be wasting most of your time trying to convince people why they should adopt these peculiar management tactics.


๐ŸŽ™ A Promised Land

By Barack Obama

๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ

This book turned out to be the nail in the coffin for me to declare my impatience with autobiographies. They were just over-pruned and filtered.


๐ŸฅคMy Life in Full: Work, Family and Our Future

By Indra Nooyi

๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ

And this book was the hammer that hit the aforementioned nail. While her story was interesting, it was impossible not to think that the book was heavily curated and very one sided.


๐Ÿ“ฌ A World Without Email

By Cal Newport

๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ

Another confirmation that we have not evolved much since the industrial age, when the ways of modern work and management were defined.


๐Ÿ—บ Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics

By Tim Marshall

๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ

The author correctly concluded how the Afghan war would end, using geography. When I read this conclusion, I decided to start from the beginning of the book again and paid a lot more attention to every word he wrote.


๐Ÿฆฎ The Happy Puppy Handbook

By Pippa Mattinson

๐Ÿถ

Did not finish. The suggestions and explanations were unbalanced. It reminded of the fraught I could not not feel while reading books on parenting.


๐Ÿฆ  The Premonition: A Pandemic Story

By Michael Lewis

๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ

The book looked at how chaotic the US was handling the COVID-19 pandemic, which reminded me that everything was beautiful because everything was FUBAR.


๐Ÿ—„ An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization

By Robert Kegan, Lisa Laskow Lahey, Matthew L. Miller, Andy Fleming, Deborah Helsing

๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ

The book provides useful ideas on how to create organisations that are more people focused, but it must be listened to at 5x speed because it contained way too much fluff.


๐Ÿ‘จ๐Ÿปโ€๐Ÿ’ผYou Are Not Them: The Authentic Entrepreneur’s Way

By Sid Mohasseb

๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ
A rant on why you should not hate yourself, not doubt yourself, that we are all entrepreneurs. Yes, it’s really quite a rant.


๐Ÿฆ Night Heron

By Adam Brookes

๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ

Gripping story told by a master of written experiences : “It was morning, late in the summer. In the air, behind the heat, a whisper of cold to come.”


๐Ÿž The Rise of Yeast: How the Sugar Fungus Shaped Civilization

By Nicholas P. Money

๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ

Perhaps the strongest scientific and anthropological argument for challenging the gluten-free movement.


๐Ÿคฃ Humor, Seriously: Why Humor Is a Secret Weapon in Business and Life (And How Anyone Can Harness It. Even You.)

By Jennifer Aaker, Naomi Bagdonas

๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ

Funny, useful, and naughty.


๐Ÿง๐Ÿฆ Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

By Anne Lamott

๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ

Writing is living because like living, writing, at its core, is the most engrossing single player game of continuous discovery. Her proses centred me.


๐Ÿ‘น The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley’s Pursuit of Power

By Max Chafkin

๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ

Thiel is dangerous, and his followers are dangerous, without contradiction.


๐Ÿคท๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ The French Art of Not Trying Too Hard

By Ollivier Pourriol

๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ

Approach life naively, genuinely. Improvise happily, and don’t let perfection paralyse you. Don’t start, don’t finish, just continue. And yes, try and not give a f*ck.


โณ Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals

By Oliver Burkeman

๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ

Burkeman provided intellectually rigorous arguments and practical steps to assess how planning, schedules, and orders are limiting my ability to be present.


๐ŸŒ‡ Dusk, Night, Dawn: On Revival and Courage

By Anne Lamott

๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ

“In the third third of life, you may become just as miserable and prickly as ever, but you cycle through more quickly.”


โœ๏ธ The New Testament: A Translation

By David Bentley Hart

๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ

This translation made me wonder how much all the other translations were manipulated. For example, the author resisted poetic renderings of the original and, for instance, stuck to the literal name of Jesusโ€”โ€œthe Anointedโ€”instead of โ€œChristโ€ or โ€œMessiahโ€; likewise Satan or the Devil is โ€œthe Slanderer,โ€ and world becomes โ€œcosmos.โ€


๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง The Great British Dream Factory: The Strange History of Our National Imagination

By Dominic Sandbrook

๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ

The great way to look at how empires rise and fall through the lens of James Bond, The Beatles, and the 9 to 5 work day.


Finally, here are the books with ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ’†๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ

  1. ๐Ÿ‘พ Understanding Comics
  2. โณ Four Thousand Weeks
  3. ๐Ÿง Bird by Bird
  4. ๐Ÿ—บ Prisoners of Geography
  5. ๐ŸŽ‹ ่ฑๅญๆ„ทๆผซ็•ซๆ›ธ้ธ็นน


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