Finished reading: Although very strange, I enjoyed The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss. There’s no need to read the book to understand the rest of the series and it wouldn’t make much sense as a standalone. Nonetheless, learning more about Auri and great writing make it worthwhile 📚
Finished reading: The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson is a satisfying end to an entertaining trilogy. I enjoyed the creative world building and interesting characters across the three books📚
Finished reading: Shape by Jordan Ellenberg is a delightfully meandering book about geometry and why it is important. The book is much more about people than math. Well worth reading 📚
Finished reading: The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss is a good second book in the series. The long, imaginative fantasy narrative is exactly what I was looking for in a book 📚
Finished reading: An Emergency in Ottawa by Paul Wells is a good, short read on a very consequential period in recent Canadian history 📚
Finished reading: Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells is another fun, short Murderbot story. I like that these are staying simple and sarcastic📚
Finished reading: Enemy of All Mankind by Steven Johnson is fascinating. The importance of a seemingly small incident is really well explained and shows how such a thing can reverberate through history 📚
Finished reading: The Scout Mindset by Julia Galef includes some good tips for keeping an open mind and incorporating constructive feedback 📚
Finished reading: A Beginner’s Guide to the End by B. J. Miller and Shoshana Berger. I’m grateful that I didn’t need to read this book now. That said, this is an important topic, best thought about when it isn’t an emergency. Despite a few America-specific points that don’t apply to this Canadian, there’s lots of useful and careful advice in this book 📚
Finished reading: The Extended Mind by Annie Murphy Paul is full of great content. I was much more cerebral in my youth and have been externalizing thought much more productively recently. This book helps confirm the approach and adds new techniques 📚
Finished reading: The Last Druid by Terry Brooks. I’ll confess to reading this only to finish off the entire Shannara collection. This is the fourth book in the The Fall of Shannara series and much better than the middle two, which seemed far too rote. The original series is still my favourite, though I also quite liked The Genesis of Shannara trilogy. 📚
Finished reading: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss is really good. I enjoyed the characters, world building, and narrative structure. I’m curious to read the next book, once I’ve finished a few other books in the reading queue📚
Finished reading: The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal is a fantastic alternative history of the space race. The sexism and racism in the story is infuriating (which is exactly the point). I’m looking forward to reading the next book📚
Finished reading: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir was great fun. We should have more enthusiastic high school science teachers as heros in our stories📚
Finished reading: The Biggest Ideas in the Universe by Sean Carroll. I really appreciated this book. Starting from high school math, Carroll leads you through 200 crisp and entertaining pages to actually show you how to derive Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity. A nice middle ground between the analogies of popular science books and the intense detail of a text book. I’m looking forward to the next book in the series. 📚
Currently reading: All the Math You Missed by Thomas A. Garrity. I’m looking forward to this challenge 📚
Finished reading: Life Is Hard by Kieran Setiya is a good, pragmatic book about how philosophy can help you navigate difficult times. I appreciate Setiya’s easy going style and his approach is a good complement to Oliver Burkman’s practical advice 📚
Finished reading: Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky. A fun read. I really liked the structure of alternating each chapter between fantasy and sci-fi, plus the story was intriguing 📚
Finished reading: Perhaps the Stars by Ada Palmer. A satisfying ending to the Terra Ignota series. I really enjoyed this series, though it can be a tough read. Jammed full of ideas and rich details, which can seem overwhelming at times. In the end, I’m not sure it was a successful novel, despite the ambition and fascinating world building📚
Great additions to my reading list. Family knows me well 📚
Saturday, December 24, 2022
I read many more books this year than in recent, past years. Although this was intentional, I’m glad it worked out. I really cut back on my various internet feeds, so that I was less distracted away from books. Purchasing a Kobo and connecting it to the local public library was also helpful.
The most influential non-fiction book for me this year was Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman. Plenty of practical and insightful advice in this book.
Picking a favourite fiction book is always fraught. This year, I think it was A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers. Something about the emotional core of this book really resonated with me.
Here’s the full list of books from the year:
Finished reading: Network Effect by Martha Wells. Murderbot is great! I’ll happily keep reading any books in this series 📚
Finished reading: The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson. This series has been really entertaining so far📚
Finished reading: I wanted to like The Gun, the Ship, and the Pen by Linda Colley. The main thesis is that as societies became more complex and conflicts more intense, governments needed to develop written constitutions to cede rights to their citizens and keep them participating in wars. I found getting through the details a tough slog that distracted from the broader narrative. 📚
Finished reading: A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin. Well worth reading. I appreciated the absence of giant, apocalyptic battles and the focus on the maturation of a single wizard📚
Finished reading: The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark. A fun, short story📚
Finished reading: Marooned in Realtime by Vernor Vinge. A fun mix of murder mystery and sci-fi, in which groups of people emerge from thousands of years in stasis to find human civilization has vanished📚
Finished reading: A Short History of Canada by Desmond Morton. Somewhat like vegetables, I know that reading about national history is good for me, just not that exciting. That said, this book was well written and interesting. Now, back to sci-fi 📚
Finished reading: Tiamat’s Wrath by James S. A. Corey. I’ve enjoyed each book in the series and this one was not an exception 📚
Finished reading: Life’s Edge: The Search for What It Means to Be Alive by Carl Zimmer. A really interesting book that explores the surprisingly difficult problem of defining what it means to be alive📚