Books Mitch enjoyed in 2023

 

I value, cherish, and enjoy learning, scholarship, and reading. About half of what I read is for entertainment.  Like everyone else, I suffer from 150 cognitive biases, including "curse of knowledge bias," and "false consensus bias."  As a result, I unconsciously assume others have read as much as I have, that they remember everything they have read, and that they also enjoy reading.

In 2023 I read 170 books in five genres.  Here are some recommendations in no particular order: 

Fiction

Everyone loves Murderbot.  This new installment is extremely well-crafted. I predict it will win awards (Hugo, Locus).

Here is a 1994 Stephenson book that I had not read; it holds up very well 20 years later.  If you enjoy Neal Stephenson's books, go back and look for his earlier works.

This series is hilarious, silly, mindless madcap entertainment.

Here is a crypto-bro asteroid mining fantasy with some interesting science and plot points.

Juli Zeh is currently my favorite writer.  I read 5 of her books this year;  I highly recommend most of her books if you read German.

Non-Fiction

Many people have spoken to me about the topics covered in this book and why we should all read and discuss how it applies to our work. The book really is as fantastic as everyone said.   Now I understand all those commit messages and code comments such as "DDIA page 132." I cannot recommend this book enough. The book exceeded my high expectations.

In 2023 I read seven Patrick Lencioni books.  At least two of them have helped my career and the engagement of my teams.

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius: This collection of journal entries is short, approachable, and interesting.

This book is interesting for people who are transitioning through the journeyman years of their careers towards mastery, or for people entering middle age.  The data and theories are well-presented despite the weak writing.

After a gap of 10 years, I read some Malcolm Gladwell books this year.  Most of them were not good but I liked this one.  As usual, Gladwell's stories are very entertaining; readers love the stories and scientists dislike the presentation of the science.