2024 Book report
Every year I have a similar epiphany. When I started this website I wanted to write about financial freedom, I had no clue that books would become such a big part of my life, now I couldn't imagine my life without them.
Books are zero risk, have almost no cost, provide an extremely high return on life, knowledge, and understanding how the world works, and almost no one bothers to read difficult books so for a few hours a week you can easily become one of the most well read people on earth
My book choices have shown a clear theme over the years: I like to understand people and how they behave at the largest scale. I enjoy economics, which measures human behavior; philosophy, which explores ideas about how people should behave and organize themselves; and history, which tells the story of how people have acted on their ideas. These three things are deeply intertwined
Like most years I like to list out my few favorites and why I loved them
Best of the 2024
The Anxious Generation
I don't have children but if you do, this is a must read. This is spiritual sequel to "The Coddling of the American Mind" which I have written about extensively. Big fan of this work
Alexander Felice
The Death of Ivan Illyich
We read this book in our book club and while heart wrenching, I loved it. It's about a guy who goes through life doing everything he thinks he's supposed to do and being mostly disconnected from his true individuality (which takes quite a bit of courage actually). My big takeaway from this book were
- I need to serve more people
- I need to live more audaciously
- I want lots of people to come to my funeral
Bad Therapy
Similar to The Anxious Generation but for adults. I've long been skeptical of therapy and after seeing a therapist for about a year my skepticism grew - then I read this book which confirmed much of my skepticism.
The premise of this book is that we over rely on the use of therapy, so much that it can become a crutch to making our own decisions, and we under estimate the damage that therapy can do.
The End of the World is Just Beginning
A great book about the political and economic world at large and where it's going. I've read many books about the fall of the United States and the rise of China and this book posits a much different outcome than I've read in other works. The author claims that the entire world will see a massive economic retraction over the next few years and the United States will suffer like everyone else but we will suffer the least of all. A refreshing new take on political speculation.
The Omnivores Dilemma
Michael Pollen is a great read as always. His books seem to follow a similar format. A research phase, in this case about the food industry at large, followed by an investigation phase where he goes to factory and organic farms and talks to farmers and see for himself what's really going on, and the third phase is interactive, in this book he goes deer hunting.
A true journey but also extremely informative and covers many different scales of perspective.
The rest
The Gap and the Gain
Frankenstein
Start with Why - MEH
The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity
Noise
Choose Your Enemies Wisely
Think Again
Who Not How - MEH
The One Thing
The Silk Roads - History, but just facts no thematic lessons
Essentialism - MEH, self help is lame
David Foster Wallace: In His Own Words - LOVE
The Utopia of Rules
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Dislike
The Old Man and the Sea