This was not intentional, but I ended up reading a book a week this year — probably more than I ever have! I went back and looked at what I’d read, and here’s a bit of a summary.
This year was dominated by sci-fi, but these were mainly entire series (total 24 books!):
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- 3-body (3), Broken Earth (3), Witcher (7), and Earthsea (7)
- 4 others
What was the goal here? Basically entertainment, but quite a few amazing ideas (Ted Chiang, N. K. Jemisen) and beautiful writing (Le Guin).
The next big bucket consists of books that I read in the hope of improving my thinking, understanding new frameworks, and making sense of the world around me (total 14). Highlights are:
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- Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction
- Alain De Botton – two books
- Two re-reads – The Road Less Travelled and The Three Marriages
I bailed on quite a few books without completing them — life is too short!
The next categories that I can think of are economics (total 6), technical (total 3), and other miscellaneous (total 5)
My reading has been pretty haphazard thus far. I pick up whatever looks interesting from my pile o’ books at different points in time. I usually read 4-5 books concurrently, and when I’m very busy, I’m more likely to go for fiction.
This is the first time I’ve tried classifying what I read, and I think I may use this to guide what I focus on.
Finally, the book that had the largest impact on me was a book recommended by Varad: Ted Chiang’s “Stories of Your Life, and Others”, for the beautiful, first-rate writing, mind-blowing ideas, and emotional wistfulness.