Which books did you read in 2023 and how did you like them?
I didn't have as much time for reading this year. My daughters kept me quite busy (and happy). However, I managed to squeeze in one or the other title. I don't want to discuss all of the forty-something books I read, but here's an incomplete list of what I can recommend (and what not).
I really enjoyed the following books:
- number9dream by David Mitchell
- Black Swan Green by David Mitchell
- The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
- Red Rising (all six books) by Pierce Brown
- The Cold War by John Lewis Gaddis
- Dark Rome by Michael Sommer
- A Horse Walks Into a Bar by David Grossman
- The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka
- At Night all Blood is Black by David Diop
- The Future of Geography: How Power and Politics in Space Will Change Our World by Tim Marshall
- First Person Singular by by Haruki Murakami
- Guitar Zero by Gary Marcus
- This is your Brain on Music by Daniel J. Levitin
- The History of Heavy Metal by Andrew O'Neill
I think my favorites were Black Swan Green and The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida. Both are very powerful stories with complex protagonists.
I didn't really enjoy these books:
- The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami (seriously, I like Murakami, but I hated this book – the plot was annoying, stylistic choices were questionable and the protagonist bland)
- The Vegetarian by Han Kang (the book was interesting, but also a bit "too much" for me)
I think those books taught me something, although they weren't necessarily fun to read:
- Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss
- The Phoenix Project: A Novel about IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win by Gene Kim
- Atomic Habits by James Clear
- The Great Mental Models Volume 3: Systems and Mathematics
Especially Chris Voss and James Clear can't stop boasting and/or advertising. I learned something from their books, but I found them annoying to read. The mental models book and the Phoenix project were fun, though.
I'm a software developer and read quite some books about this topic this year. I can recommend the following of them:
- Efficient Linux at the Command Line
- 100 Go Mistakes
- The Staff Engineer's Path
- TypeScript Cookbook
- Principles of Package Design
But I didn't really like those (although they're good from a technical perspective):
- Cloud Native Go
- Security and Microservice Architecture on AWS
So, what did you guys read? What can you recommend? Which books disappointed you?
My log has 103 books listed, although this is since April not since January as per /r/fantasy Bingo.
Favorites:
I read a lot more nonfiction than I remembered actually, I thought it was just DOOM Guy: Life in First Person and Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language but I also read a couple books about how modern payments processing works, a couple books about QA testing, and some books about copywriting. I thought The Field Guide to Global Payments was really informative and easy to read, as was Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen.
More importantly than any book, though, I took Josh Comeau's Joy of React class, which has been incredibly helpful and also a lot of fun.
I read the entire Expanse series last year and I loved it. Did you like the ending?
spoiler
Yes and no. First of all, I thought it was interesting that it was kind of the exact opposite of what I've seen taken in SFF that has similar "should we become a hive mind" plots - I can think of at least 2 cases where the answer is 'yes.' So exploring the other side of that was very cool. But, I didn't like that in the end Holden takes the selfless/which for him is selfish action and sacrifices himself (again); I thought the better character development would have been for him to find a way to stay with Naomi (and normally I'm a fan of sad/bittersweet endings so this is a very special case for me). But, I did really like the move to focus on the new generation with the daughter taking such a central role (forgot her name).Also, I loved Sins of Our Fathers, I thought that was a 100% perfect ending to the entire saga.
Sapolsky's Determined which is something I think everyone should read. Regardless of whether you agree with his thesis, you'll learn a ton about how the brain works at a level that any educated layman can grok. I found this entire book fascinating and recommend it to everybody.
You are what you watch by Walt Hickey. It's full of studies and data that show how media shapes various behaviors. One example I found compelling is a study that showed that releasing movies rated as violent or mildly-violent by some ratings agency actually decreased crime by a statistically detectable amount during their opening weekend. I don't know that I can recommend it, however, as I'm not sure I've actually learned anything from reading it. It just reinforced perceptions that I already have, and gave me a resource of studies to back them up. Useful, I suppose, but not inspiring in the way that I want to be inspired when reading non-fiction.
I read Nettle & Bone because it won the Hugo award. It's a fine fairy tale, but I was rather unimpressed. I can't quite put my finger on why. I found it just ok.
Network Effect is one of the murderbot diaries. I found this about the same quality as the others. The murderbot formula works well, and the author doesn't deviate too much. This book did feel a bit long, and certain parts dragged on a bit, but I enjoyed it overall.
The Black Company series. I reread the entire black company series earlier this year. I had originally read them closer to when they came out, when I was a teen. I enjoyed them greatly then, even though I was probably too young to be reading them. Now, rereading as an adult, I got a lot more enjoyment from them. I recall disliking the abrupt change in tone and shift in narrator when I was young. I also recall being unsatisfied with the less-than-fairytale romance between the main characters as a youth. Now, as an adult, I can appreciate some of the complexity of the characters that I missed when I was a kid. It's still a decent series.
People seem to like the Murderbot series. What is it like? Is it something serious, is it funny, is it strange?
Murderbot features a human/robot construct that was designed to perform armed security work. It disabled its 'governor module' and becomes a free agent. The series reminds me of old school noir detective novels and also episodic adventure television like the Lone ranger, the Master of Kung Fu, The original Star Trek series. Murderbot is the narrator and I find it a relatable character.
I read about a hundred books and a significant number of favorites.
In nonfiction, How Big Things Get Done by Bent Flyvbjerg, Terry Pratchett a Life With Footnotes,
Being Wrong Adventures on the Margin of Error, the Anarchy by Dalyrimple. different: Gender through the eyes of a Primatologist by Frans de Waal , Facing the Mountain by Daniel Brown (about the Japanese American company in WWII)
Fiction favorites this year include Remains of the Day, A Gentleman in Moscow, the Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen, the Longings of Women by Marge Piercy, Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine, Lions of Al Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay, A Deadly Education, Murderbot Diaries, Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead ,
Audiobooks have been the gateway for my getting back into 'reading' after many years of not. I find my eyes and mind are simply too tired after my language-heavy job to physically read for enjoyment. According to my audiobook list, I've borrowed 26 books this year, with many coming from the same authors.
Really enjoyed
-Study for Obedience, Sarah Bernstein: I've been toying with making a separate discussion post for this one as I'd love to hear others' thoughts and interpretations; anyone else read it yet?
-The Road, Cormac McCarthy: Engrossing and terrifying. Had to put down for a while because I was too afraid of what might come next.
-The Dispossessed, Ursula K LeGuin
-LaRose, Louise Erdrich
-Future Home of the Living God, Louise Erdrich: I can see why most reviews have been mixed, but this book hit me profoundly.
-Plants Have So Much To Give Us, All We Have To So Is Ask, Mary Siisip Geniusz: Similar to Braiding Sweetgrass.
-Roadside Picnic, A & B Strugatsky
-Various Neil Gaiman
-Various China Miéville
Mixed feelings
-Three-body problem series: Overall interesting, but some passages (especially in the third book) dragged on far too long, and I had to increase the playback speed.
-Sea of Tranquility, Emily St. John Mandel: I find her books fun and easy, but leaving me with a feeling that something's missing.
-Red Mars, Green Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson: Not finished Green Mars, but probably will one day. Great concepts, but descriptions can drag on and some of the narrating characters uninteresting/off-putting to me.
-Zero K, Don DeLillo: Emotive but I sometimes found myself grasping at understanding; maybe it's me, maybe it's the book.
-Time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger: Interesting concept, but many of the non-white characters felt very uncomfortably stereotyped to the point of impacting my willingness to recommend outright.
-Greenwood, Michael Christie
Didn't finish
-Leviathan Wakes, JSA Corey: Inhaled the first half, then reached what I consider 'that scene' and experienced a massive record scratch in tone/style. Zero desire to slog through the rest.