My 2022 in books
Here are all the books I finished reading last year, in no particular order. I don’t guarantee this will be free of any spoilers.
✅ Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women (Kate Mann)
I believe it is important to be aware of the systems through which some people in our society are mistreated. The (sometimes indirect) incorrect behavior of men towards women is tackled in this book, which read surprisingly easy. It is mostly an enumeration of well-explained situations and examples of women (in general, but also of color for example) being put a disadvantage against men, for no legitimate reason. This often happens in a rather subtle way, the lessons in here will help me to notice such things quicker.
✅ The Order of Time (Carlo Rovelli)
This beautiful book is the perfect introduction to the notion of time in physics and important related concepts, in particular entropy and Einstein’s relativity theory. Rovelli is a renowned physicist himself, so he knows what he’s talking about. He does so adding a subtle flavor of philosophy. I wouldn’t consider the book easy it all, the concepts are hard if you really want to grasp them. I am not even sure if and when ‘time’ exists now, or if it does at all. I can only imagine how the scientists in this area are working at the boundaries of our current knowledge at the most minuscule scale possible.
✅ Self-Knowledge (The School of Life)
A very cute and wise booklet with plenty of incisive phrases and questions to get closer to the fundamental you. To read again.
✅ Hope in the Dark (Rebecca Solnit)
I disliked the tone in the beginning of the book (except for the introduction), it came off too anti-capitalistic, anti-establishment, without proposing anything in return. From the middle onwards, the tone fortunately changed. The stories told, about how individuals can enact change in large-scale social topics despite the odds being stacked against them, are inspiring.
✅ Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less (Greg McKeown)
It’s much better to aim your energy towards what is essential for you. Reminds me of the random walker, who proceeds on average square root of N steps from where he starts after N steps in total, because he has no clear sense of direction. A common critique of these types of books is that it could fit into a blogpost. Probably, but the repetition, the different viewpoints, and the plethora of examples help to internalize the concepts. If it doesn’t for you, then blogposts or four-minute book summaries are valid alternatives of course. What you might miss are the couple of nice drawings in the book.
✅ Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones (James Clear)
Building a habit is hard. To do so, you have to set up a system that makes the habit at stake obvious (~cue), attractive (~craving), easy (~response), and satisfying (~reward); or the opposite if you want to break a bad habit. Pretty straightforward on paper, but still good to have the dynamics written out. Maybe already a cliché book due to its popularity, but it‘s currently the only read book that’s on the book shelf on my desk to soon reread, because of its actual practical value.
✅ Lessons in Stoicism: What Ancient Philosophers Teach Us about How to Live (John Sellars)
In some way, I will probably always associate this book with rupturing my left ankle’s ligaments. I was reading the book just before the futsal game in which this happened. Anyways, it reads super fast because it has only about ninety pages. A nice introduction to the principles underlying Stoicism, and plenty of pointers to more in-depth follow-up material and thinkers.
✅ The Memory Police (Yōko Ogawa)
I am on the fence whether I finished “The Memory Police” in December 2021 or early 2022, but I’ll include it. A gentle and mesmerizing book that explodes at the very end into a dreadful closure. For some people the book will probably be a bit boring (except for the end), but I enjoyed it. I don’t read enough fiction, so I am glad I picked up this one.
✅ Company of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business (Paul Jarvis)
Paul Jarvis purposefully chooses to not grow his successful one-person (or few-persons) business. He outlines a manifesto as to why it makes sense to not chase bigger and better, but to content yourself at a predefined level, and maximize life outside of work. I am trying to achieve something similar, so if you are too, definitely read the book! It resembles in spirit to “The 4-Hour Workweek” from Tim Ferriss, but is not as loud. These solopreneur wonders make it all sound very easy which obviously it’s not, but thankfully we can draw inspiration from their journeys.
✅ The Six Secrets of Intelligence: Why modern education doesn’t teach us how to think for ourselves (Craig Adams)
I already wrote a bit about this book here. 🙂
✅ The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are (Alan Watts)
This is the book that least fulfilled my expectations. I thought it would bring me closer to answering the key question “Who and what are we really?”, but there was too much of religion and haziness to my taste. What I do recall is that everyone in this world is in fact a represention of a God, which is actually a cool angle to take at times. Alan Watts maybe deserves a second chance, because I am sure he has interesting things to say, but his words just didn’t connect this time.
✅ Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
A classic dystopian novel, mostly mentioned in the same breath as “1984” and “Fahrenheit 451”. I found “1984” to be sharper and darker, a description of a definite no-go world. The universe pictured in “Brave New World” is more free, rosier, so it’s less frightening initially, but ends up quite brutally as well. The by construction class-based society remains overly relevant today; your chances on a certain life(style) depend largely on how you look, where you are born, or what network you have even if the return on investment of hard work is becoming greater and more predictable. I still need to read “Fahrenheit 451”, I am curious how it will measure up against the other two great books.
✅ Zorba the Greek (Nikos Kazantzakis)
In no particular order I said? Last but not least… This book was my absolute favorite! It paints such a good picture of an otherworldly character named Alexis Zorba and his friendship with the unnamed storyteller, running a mine together in a Greek city with a bunch of other bizarre villagers. I personally know no one who even remotely matches Zorba’s craziness, abundant energy, monologuing life lessons, tempers, and stupid decisions, but I would pay money to truly meet somebody like him in real life. Finishing the book felt a bit emotional, as if saying goodbye to a good friend; that says it all.
It’s a sad thing that many of the valuable lessons spread across the words in these books are quickly forgotten. Rereading some of them might be the cure.
My 2023 in books
Here are five books I definitely want to have read by the closing of 2023. I am not setting myself a ‘one book a week’-like target, such as Lex Fridman did on Twitter, and as many people have been doing the last years. He funnily enough got criticized for his book list. There’s no need for such harshness, reading is always good, as is setting goals to increase your reading time (though you shouldn’t do it for the bragging rights 😉).
➥ The Ethical Slut: A Guide to Infinite Sexual Possibilities (Dossie Easton and Janet Hardy)
I started reading this book in 2022 but didn’t yet finish it until the end. I am reading the third edition, which has a more specific subtitle (“A Practical Guide to Polyamory, Open Relationships and Other Freedoms in Sex and Love”). I want to expand my thoughts about relationships that go beyond the traditional monogamous lifestyle. So far it’s been very informative. Sometimes fluffy, but it touches upon many different frames of mind and explains well all the lingo that goes with it. It encourages you to find out your unique position on the love/sex/relationships-spectrum. More easily said than done, but a helpful guide to continue one’s exploration. Funny detail: people who spot the book at my home tend to say the title out loud, so it sure does grab the attention.
➥ Soccermatics: Mathematical Adventures in the Beautiful Game (David Sumpter)
This is another book I already started in 2022. I see it is a primer to the use of data and mathematical models to capture what happens on a football pitch. There are four perspectives: on the pitch (the players in defense and in offense), in the dugout (how managers can use numbers to improve tactics and team formation), the crowd (how fans behave), and the analysts (for people like me). The author draws a lot of inspiration from biological modeling but links it up smoothly to football. Very clear explanations throughout, and useful end notes for those more interested in the maths. This course is associated to the book.
➥ The Mixer: The Story of Premier League Tactics, from Route One to False Nines (Michael Cox)
Being all excited about football and tactics again, I want to carry on diving into it. I selected this book as next in line to “Soccermatics”. Not really about using data or statistical models, but simply about hardcore football strategies and stories! Finally I’ll understand what a false nine is…
➥ Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men (Caroline Criado Pérez)
Data, visualization, and gender issues, a nice coming together of some of the interests I developed the past two years. And a Christmas gift!
➥ Meditations (Marcus Aurelius)
The little book “Lessons in Stoicism” didn’t yet turn me into a Stoic to the bone. I am still intrigued by the philosophy. This book is beyond any doubt one of the classics in this domain. Written over two thousand years ago, but apparently still very relevant today, as confirmed by a friend who knows more about it than I do.