2023 Reading List: The 39
Presenting The 39. Mostly non-fiction with some fiction thrown in. Original target of 50 proved too ambitious. Excludes travel books (mostly) and those I lost interest in midway through. Includes some books I skimmed parts of (anything below a 3 rating).
Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson (3/5): Bit long but great portrait of his life, growing up in Boston, then becoming a printer and publisher in Philly and the long years in London and Paris. Good history lesson, puts a lot of things in perspective.
Give and Take by Adam Grant (✅ 4/5): A refreshing spin on the introvert vs extrovert dynamic that givers can thrive in this world as long as they stay somewhat selfish and worry about their well-being as well. Fascinating read, with a framework you can adopt in your life to become a better giver.
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (✅ 5/5): Amazon’s book of 2022, this is a lovely fiction set along with real-world events about two unrequited video game designers through the years, beautifully written, full of nostalgia for me with the video game references. A lot of emotions at the end. Some scene changes are a bit sudden and jarring but perfect otherwise.
Spare by Harry (✅ 4/5): A fan since Netflix’s Harry and Meghan series, I devoured every page, specially the love story in first few chapters of part 3. Down with the British monarchy! Same ghostwriter as #15 below.
How the World Really Works by Vaclav Smil (👎 2/5): Insufferable, filled with obtuse terminology, boring. Summary: there are 4 pillars of modern civilization: cement, ammonia, steel and plastic, and we are so dependent on these and they are so reliant on fossil fuels that any practical move to green energy is several decades away. Zero by 2050 is a pipe dream.
Onward by Howard Schultz (👎 2/5): Boring, too much repetition, suffers from savior-complex. As an avid Starbucks customer, there are some interesting bits about what makes Starbucks stores such bustling community gathering places (it all starts with the aroma of coffee). Skipped last 25% of book.
Grief Trip by Stuart Preston (✅ 5/5): A dad’s journey of self-healing after his teen son commits suicide. I met Stuart at Burning Man 2022 and was touched by his story and his mission to reduce the stigma around mental health.
Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry (3/5): Some good Friends trivia, but I didn’t care about the writing style much. A life of drugs and alcohol and detox, and the biggest fame imaginable. For him to pass so soon after his memoir makes this creepily timely.
Packing for Mars by Mary Roach (3/5): Too gory for my taste, with bodily emissions, skip a lot. Some interesting stories but a lot of unrelated random crap. Not into it, skippable.
Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (✅ 5/5): I came to this late. Such a powerful book, it swept me away. Emotionally rich and an excellent travelogue to boot, I see what all the fuss was about, totally well-deserved. But skip the movie, a total waste.
How to Change your Mind by Michael Pollan (✅ 5/5): Having devoured everything by Pollan, I was eager to get my hands on this. It’s about the re-emergence of psychedelics and LSD in treating PTSD and depression and the potential massive benefits. Educational. A bit repetitive and dense in parts, chapter 5 stands out as a must-read.
The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama (✅ 5/5): The book I don't know I needed to read, loved it throughout. Full of life lessons and heartfelt stories, Michelle is authentic and sincere in her desire to help heal others from the pandemic and general stresses of everyday life.
Einstein by Walter Isaacson (✅ 5/5): Enjoyed this immensely
Persuaders by Anand Giridharadas (3/5): Rambling overall, but some good points well-illustrated with anecdotes. The AoC story was the highlight. Does not hold a candle to Winner Takes All - read that instead.
Open by Andre Agassi (✅ 5/5): Absolutely incredible, loved this. Tennis is one sport I enjoy watching and have followed it over the years. Had heard about this before - so much better to read it finally. So inspiring. I bawled at the end. Same ghostwriter as #4 above.
Stay True by Hua Hau (✅ 4/5): Poignant in parts and set in Berkeley, it’s both inspiring and heart-wrenching. About Hua and Ken’s friendship and the tragedy that ensues.
More Myself by Alicia Keys (3/5): It was good to hear her story (she's half-Italian) and learn about her humble beginnings and her musical journey. So good to see that she’s stayed true to herself throughout. The writing style is wanting (no ghostwriter here) and gets rambling at times.
Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer (✅ 4/5): An emotional re-read after 25 years, it’s still good but does have several weaknesses. Drags at the end and a letdown with no big climax. The characters are so good. This may be one of the reasons I wanted to come to America. Good writing, uneven pace and quality, plot-building is lacking later in book. A lot of characters get killed, America First mention.
Outlive by Peter Attia (✅ 5/5): If you read just one book in this list, make it this one. An eye-opening and a practical guide to living a long and healthy life, specially in the later years. It’s never too late, but the earlier you get started the better. The pharma industry mints money in “life-saving” interventions in the later years - which barely extend the patient’s life by a few months and it can be a rather miserable one at that. Instead, the focus needs to be on prevention several decades earlier. This can make the difference of a couple of decades of healthy living for people in their sixties, seventies and even eighties.
The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee (3/5): Some parts are interesting, but too much technical jargon and biology was never my strong suit. I skim often.
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (✅ 5/5): After watching the movie “Man Called Otto”, I was hungry for more. Wow, so good, touching. It’s about life, growing old and finding the love of your life and being transformed by the experience. Writing has a lyrical quality to it. Beautiful.
100 tips for visiting Iceland by Eric Newman (✅ 4/5): Follow a lot of the tips in the book, including doing the driving tutorial, and all are spot on. A big help.
Seven brief lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli (2/5): Found it boring and obtuse. Skip.
Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson (✅ 4/5): Slow buildup, I love it. About hiking the Appalachian Trail with a friend. Inspiring - I want to do it. Start of my Bill Bryson love affair.
Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson (✅ 4/5): In his inimitable humorous style, love this one too. It’s a followup to Notes from a Small Island, after 20 years. Give me anything by Bill Bryson and I will devour it.
Best American Travel Writing 2016 by Bill Bryson (3/5): Turns out it’s only edited by Bryson, it’s a mixed bag of stories. Some good, most of them are not memorable.
Atomic Habits by Peter Clear (✅ 5/5): Simple, too obvious, but deep, needs multiple passes to comprehend.
In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson (3/5): Entertaining travels in Australia by the one and only Bill Bryson.
At Home by Bill Bryson (✅ 4/5): informative jaunt through every room of the house and how the sundry items in it and the room itself came to be over the centuries, with a British focus. Lots of neat little trivia packed throughout.
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (✅ 5/5): Absolutely brilliant writing, hits me to the core, so rich and emotional. Creates a vivid story over several decades. The Apple series is stellar as well, it adds several new dialogues and scenes. Just don't treat the book as a Bible that is sacrosanct and cannot be altered, and you'll come to love Brie Larson as Elizabeth Zott. Highly recommended.
One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson (✅ 5/5): Different writing style than the usual, there’s barely any humor, but highly informative and entertaining. Expertly connects disparate strands with a focus on Charles Lindbergh (would be a good companion to We). The transformation from hero to villain is striking and unexpected.
Recoding America by Jennifer Pahlka (3/5): Subtext is: why government is failing America and how we can do better. Lots of new facts: until the first Obama term, the government banned hiring employees to build software, resulting in cost overruns and endless delays. A lot of mundane stuff: waterfall vs agile, product managers etc. Some insight about what's broken, rambles a bit. There’s no easy fix, there are a lot of well-intentioned and capable people. Congress mandates new features resulting in endless bloatware.
Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson (✅ 5/5): Love it. Understand him much better now. In awe. Inspiring. What he did at Twitter was not new, “hardcore” is how he’s always run his companies. Every few months, he gets an itch and invents a problem to solve and rallies his team. Has resulted in some insane achievements (SpaceX’s success on take 4), and a lot of heartache. The story of how he got the Fremont Tesla factory to ramp up production from 1500 to 4500 over 2 months is one for the ages: a student of WW2, he was familiar with how the government had pressed the industry to manufacture for the military. He found a loophole, there was no ordinance barring parking lots from being used as factory space. Insane.
David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell (2/5): Some interesting stories but too disjoint and rambling. Second read is no fun. College decision story was spot on. Bad book for book club.
Joy of Costco by David and Susan Schwartz (✅ 5/5): so good to learn about Costco’s history and operations. A profitable company that treats and pays employees well and caps profits to 15% on any item - so crazy. Iceland story about how before Costco, someone would buy from Costco US and hire a 747 and sell at double the price. Got to visit the Costco there.
The Puzzler by AJ Jacobs (✅ 5/5): Bought a while back, finally got around to reading. Perfect timing with empty nest daily crosswords and connections. Full of inspiring ideas.
BTS Biography by University Press (3/5): amateur effort, only reason I read was Prime Reading. Informative.
Prodigal Daughter by Jeffrey Archer (✅ 4/5): First half had a lot of repetition from Kane and Abel, but still so good. Packs an emotional punch. Such rich characters.
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (1/5): had heard about it for a long time and was looking forward to it, but found it too much mumbo-jumbo. Lost interest midway and just skimmed the end.