Books of 2021: A Good Year for Reading
2021 was an especially good year for reading books. I set a stretch goal to read 25 books this year, which is 25% more than I read in 2020. And okay, those last 4 novellas were pretty short, but I’m still going to count them. Plus, the more books I read the more I get to surround myself with the physical artifacts of knowledge. Books are the only things I want to collect.
In past years I’ve written little summaries of books when I finished the book but I got out of the habit because writing those summaries became an obstacle to reading the next book. Gonna try an annual summary of summaries instead, here we are in February 🤷♂️
New York 2140
I continue to be a big fan of Kim Stanley Robinson, having started with his Mars trilogy, decades ago. New York 2140 has a reasonably compelling plot, but it’s the description of a post-climate change world that’s particularly interesting. The Manhattan street grid becomes a Venetian canal grid and, of course, corporate interests find new ways to profit from climate-related disaster.
How to Build a Car
Great book for any Formula 1 fan. Adrianne Newey’s rise to the pinnacle of competitive engineering is fascinating and is intertwined with so many important milestones in the history of the sport. Maybe it’s obvious from the title of the book, but you do get the sense that his ego might influence how some of the events are depicted.
The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn
The deep technical portions of this book make it a challenging read, but the meta discussion and anecdotes that Hamming shares about invention and discovery are worth it. In particular, he takes issue with the notion that it takes any kind of special genius
Starsight
The second book in the series from Brandon Sandserson, it’s a great universe that he’s built and the story is fun and intriguing.
Becoming
Very much worth a read. Humanizes the people who I watched on screens for so many years.
The Knowledge Illusion: Why We Never Think Alone
Eh, skip. There are a couple of good insights, but the authors fail to take their own advice.
Six Wakes
Great premise, but missed the mark on execution.
An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management
Super practical. Really more of a handbook or guide.
A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload
Good ideas in this book, especially for organizations now working fully remote and who might benefit from more asynchronous communication. In practice, particularly for large organizations or organizations that have to be responsive to external clients, I think these ideas are aspirational at best. Both because change is hard and unless you're really good at managing expectations upfront, I don't think a client is going to accept that you won't use their preferred mode of communication.
The Faded Sun Trilogy
Really enjoyed this story. There was an especially great scene where I became genuinely frustrated by the incomprehensible actions of an alien race and I realized, oh, right, that’s the point. Best described as Lawrence of Arabia in space.
How Women Rise: Break the 12 Habits Holding You Back from Your Next Raise, Promotion, or Job
Uninspired. The advice in this book feels super generic.
Working in Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software
Very good discussion of the incentives and tensions found in open source software projects. In particular, the author does a good job of highlighting the change in incentives that happens as open source projects grow in popularity.
Thinking, Fast and Slow
I finally made it through this, motivated by the discussion on Cortex. The hosts of Cortex had a much more negative reaction to it, but I found it relevant and thought-provoking despite the concerns about reproducibility.
No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention
Great book, great ideas. Difficult to implement.
Pedaling Revolution: How Cyclists Are Changing American Cities
Just okay. Interesting to read some history about the bicycling movement.
Sandworm: A New Era of Cyberwar and the Hunt for the Kremlin’s Most Dangerous Hackers
Okay. If anything the benefit of reading this today is realizing how little has changed and to keep your guard up.
Project Hail Mary
Great. If you enjoyed The Martian, you’ll enjoy this.
The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People’s Economy
Unexpectedly good. The author makes a strong and easy-to-understand case. The book itself is a bit too repetitive for its own good, but the ideas are worth discussing.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built
Lovely. Probably best book of 2021 for me.
Dare to Lead
Hooked at the beginning, but borrows heavily from past work and gets repetitive at times.
Station Eleven
2nd best book of 2021 for me. I ordered the book after I watched the first episode of the new TV show (which, I think actually turns out to be better than the book).
The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red
Fun, light, with a nice philosophical question at the core. It's a bit like Terminator told from the Terminator's perspective (the Arnold-form terminator, that is).
The Murderbot Diaries: Artificial Condition
More of the same fun, with somewhat new ethical questions.
The Murderbot Diaries: Rogue Protocol
Yeah, why are these 4 books?
The Murderbot Diaries: Exit Strategy
No really, these would have made far less sense out of order so not sure why they were separate (💰? ). Still entertaining, recommend.