Here’s a list of some of the books I’ve read recently. I’ve starred the ones that I especially liked or that were otherwise special.
2020
- Two Cheers for Anarchism by James C. Scott. I was surprised that Scott is an anarchist, but I guess Seeing Like a State is not exactly praise for states.
- When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chödrön. Existentialist.
- Keskustan valtakunta by Jyri Hänninen and Jarno Liski. About how Nuorisosäätiö lost their money, how Juha Sipilä made his money, and what’s up with Esko Aho’s Russian connections.
- Bad Blood by John Carreyrou. A journalistic story about Theranos and the magic of Silicon Valley.
- Domain-Driven Design Quickly by Floyd Marinescu. The ideas in DDD are probably good, but this book feels dated.
- ⭐ Designing Data-Intensive Applications by Martin Kleppmann. A through look at processing and storing data. Recommended for any software engineers working with databases.
- Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins. A story about seeking everlasting life. Reminded me of Thomas Pynchon.
- The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. A story about getting old.
All-time favorite fiction
I rarely re-read books, but there are some books I keep thinking about.
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.
- Historias de cronopios y famas by Julio Cortázar.
- The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien.
- The Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.
I look at this list and I realize I must have incredibly ordinary taste. Still, they’re good books.
Lists of books read by other people
I’ve found the following lists especially interesting:
- Alvaro Videla’s Some Books For You Consideration
- Venkatesh Rao’s Now Reading page
- David R. MacIver’s three-book sets