STATS:
44 books
33 Audiobooks
11 Kindle books
3 unfinished books
2.3x listening speed
0 Chinese books
E in Diversity score (7 Female Authors)
CATEGORIES:
Business & Money – 11
Biographies & Memoirs – 9
Science & Math – 6
Politics & Social Sciences – 6
Self-Help – 5
Literature & Fiction – 3
History – 2
Christian Books & Bibles – 1
The Full List of Books in 2024
Nuclear War: A Scenario by Jacobsen, Annie
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Tyson, Neil deGrasse
Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Isaacson, Walter
Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium by Sagan, Carl
Building on Bedrock by Lidow, Derek
Burn Book: A Tech Love Story by Swisher, Kara
Creative Selection by Kocienda, Ken
David The Great by Rutland, Mark
Disrupting the Game by Fils-Aimé, Reggie
Dream Hoarders by Reeves, Richard V.
Fallen Leaves by Durant, Will
Good Services by Downe, Lou
How the World Really Works by Smil, Vaclav
Imagine If . . . by Robinson, Ken
Learning to Build by Moesta, Bob
Meditations for Mortals by Burkeman, Oliver
Move by Move by Ashley, Maurice
Nexus by Harari, Yuval Noah
Numbers Don’t Lie by Smil, Vaclav
Of Boys and Men by Reeves, Richard V.
On Power by Caro, Robert A.
Pachinko by Lee, Min Jin
Power and Progress by Acemoğlu, Daron
Right Thing, Right Now by Holiday, Ryan
Running with Purpose by Weber, Jim
Same as Ever by Housel, Morgan
Slow Productivity by Newport, Cal
Small Things Like These by Keegan, Claire
The Anthropocene Reviewed by Green, John
The Anxious Generation by Haidt, Jonathan
The Culture Code by Coyle, Daniel
The Culture Map by Meyer, Erin
The God Equation by Kaku, Michio
The Inner Game of Work by Gallwey, W. Timothy
The Psychology of Money by Housel, Morgan
The Responsible Company by Chouinard, Yvon
The Undoing Project by Lewis, Michael
The Whole Story by Mackey, John
Think Remarkable by Kawasaki, Guy
Unreasonable Hospitality by Guidara, Will
Weird Ideas That Work by Sutton, Robert I.
Whole Earth Discipline by Brand, Stewart
Why You Should Read Children’s Books by Rundell, Katherine
Awards:
Most Enjoyable:
Disrupting the Game: From the Bronx to the Top of Nintendo by Reggie Fils-Aimé
This book pushed every single nostalgia button in me. It’s Nintendo. It’s the Wii, the Switch, and Zelda. It’s Reggie and his big personality. And it’s read by him. I mean, come on!
Most Feels:
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
This is a fiction set in an Irish town in the mid-’80s. It’s very short and quietly written, but in the end, its screams left me stuck in feels for days.
The Book That Made Me Take Some Action:
The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Caused an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt
First, our daughter and I discussed screen time and agreed to increase the limits. Second, I deleted apps from my phone and turned it into a so-called “minimalist” screen. Third, our school tried harder to become mobile-phone-free.
The Book That Probably Changed My Life’s Trajectory:
Dream Hoarders: How the American Upper Middle Class Is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That Is a Problem, and What to Do About It by Richard V. Reeves
I have made changes to how I use my savings to try to level the playing field. I promised myself that if an activity I participate in would entrench “hoarding,” I will find alternatives. This is very hard, though. For example, we were looking for orchestras for our daughter to join. There were free government-organized orchestras and paid private ones. Which one should we apply to? Which one would exaggerate “hoarding”?
The Book I Really Struggled With:
The God Equation: The Quest for a Theory of Everything by Michio Kaku
I tried. I paused, googled, and continued whenever something confusing came up. But my fundamentals in science and math were so bad, I began pausing non-stop. The reading ground to a halt as bad as Friday afternoon traffic in downtown London. I couldn’t bring myself to give up on the book–I didn’t want to admit I sucked at science and math. It was a self-imposed torture.
The Book I Did Give Up On:
The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene
I actually gave up on a book. Yay. This one felt like a letter from the devil. I just wasn’t ready to embrace the laws objectively. Maybe when I’m more enlightened, I’ll come back to it.
Most Disappointing Book:
The Responsible Company: What We’ve Learned From Patagonia’s First 40 Years by Yvon Chouinard
I wanted to learn how Patagonia executed its famous groundbreaking strategies. We all know it’s great to make money and be environmentally responsible. While the why and what are important, the how matters more–at least for me. I didn’t get that from this book.
The Book I Would Gift the Most:
The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt
It talks about something very important: the impact of screens, parenting, and the development of younger generations. It will take a village to create change, so it’s crucial that more people learn about these findings and start thinking about them.
LESSONS OF THE YEAR:
Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography reminded me that significance often comes from the mundane. Two fiction books, Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko and Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These, echo this further.
The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green painted the need to appreciate the small to love the big–existence is remarkable because it’s petty. Katherine Rundell’s Why You Should Read Children’s Books suggested children’s literature reactivates our child’s mind- a powerful tool to glimpse how the mundane holds the profound.
Richard Reeves’ Dream Hoarders reminded me to be courageous and sacrifice more when I’ve been given so much, while Of Boys and Men pointed me to how male anger can reveal ways to give back. Ryan Holiday’s Right Thing, Right Now emphasized gratitude and doing good now. Oliver Burkeman’s Meditations for Mortals offered tactics for embracing imperfection to take useful actions now.
Books like The Anxious Generation, Vaclav Smil’s How the World Really Works, Michael Lewis’ The Undoing Project, Erin Meyer’s The Culture Map, Mark Rutland’s David the Great, Morgan Housel’s The Psychology of Money, Yuval Harari’s Nexus, and Will Durant’s Fallen Leaves offered frameworks for understanding external realities and internal truths about flaws and tendencies. Coupled with tactical reads like Move by Move: Life Lessons on and off the Chessboard by Maurice Ashley and Slow Productivity by Cal Newport, I think I have a more plausible plan for how to live.
Carl Sagan’s Billions and Billions and Michio Kaku’s The God Equation reminded me of the universe’s grandness. But I’ve realized I connect more with metaphors such as existence as rivers, daily beauty, the magnificent within and around us, than with science’s mathematical proofs.
On work, the struggle continues. I loved the romance of Reggie Fils-Aimé’s book on his time at Nintendo and Jim Weber’s book on his time at Brooks. Both were fun, filled with passion and determination. They were playbooks and manifestos of the ultimate corporate person. The Inner Game of Work by W. Timothy Gallwey and Daniel Coyle’s The Culture Code nudged me toward greater patience and benevolence. Will Guidara’s Unreasonable Hospitality and Lou Downe’s Good Services sustained my yearning to build teams obsessively focused on extraordinary experiences, no matter the product or service. They reminded me that success comes down to people.
On the other hand, The NVIDIA Way reminded me that exceptional people achieve exceptional things–but they’re always very very not normal. It left me think- I am too normal to ever achieve greatness.
Lastly, I’ve begun to admire Kara Swisher less after reading Burn Book: A Tech Love Story. She seems less adventurous and open-minded, too entrenched in her own views, which made her less open minded and less brave.
What’s Next?
More fiction. More Chinese books. Read older books.
Finally, favourite quote of the year:
“Make yourself small. Delete the mirror.”
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