Reading from 2022-2024 & 2025 Themes

I have some catching up to do! Finding time to read has admittedly been challenging with two kids, but as you can see over time I've found my groove again. In fact, 2024 culminated in reading more books over the course of a single year than I have since 2017 (when I read my highest count of 33). Most (but not all) of my "reading" is actually listening to books these days, which unfortunately means less direct access to content memorization methods - in the form of highlighting, bookmarking, and note taking - so I'm relying more on old fashioned memory to archive the most important takeaways. As a busy parent, that listening time tends to happen while working on menial chores like dishes or laundry, or while commuting to and from work; in this space, books compete with podcasts, meditation lectures, and occasionally music, so it's something of a miracle that I can get through at least one book a month these days.

As usual, bold books are my high recommendations and had the biggest impact on my life (2024 set a new record of 6 bold books in a year!), and * books are my re-reads. Follow me on Goodreads to see my ratings and other books I've enjoyed; in fact, I've expanded my tags so you can see my favorites broken down by genre, which seems to help their recommendation algorithm a bit (though it still needs a lot of work).

2022

1. On Having No Head (1/7/22)
2. 1-2-3 Magic: Gentle 3-Step Child & Toddler Discipline for Calm, Effective, and Happy Parenting by Thomas W. Phelan, PhD (5/25)
3. Your Money or Your Life (8/17) - unfinished
4. *Project Hail Mary (8/28)
5. Snow Crash (10/25) - unfinished
6. Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality by Max Tegmark (11/17)

2023

1. *The Martian (2/6/23)
2. The DaVinci code (3/6)
3. The fire next time (3/14)
4. Just mercy (4/5)
5. *Homo Deus (4/24)
6. *21 lessons for the 21st century (5/22)
7. The Alignment Problem: Machine Learning and Human Values by Brian Christian (6/13)
8. One Blade of Grass: Finding the Old Road of the Heart, a Zen Memoir by Henry Shukman (7/17)
9. I Will Teach You To Be Rich (8/4)
10. Brave New World (8/30)
11. Conscious (10/3)
12. Lonesome Dove (11/9)
13. Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help You Make a Difference by William MacAskill (12/13)

2024

1. Extreme Ownership (1/3/24)
2. Eat That Frog (1/15)
3. Atomic Habits (1/30) - unfinished
4. The Fourth Wing (2/4) - unfinished
5. The Devil in the White City (2/18)
6. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore (3/6)
7. American Sniper (3/30)
8. How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan (4/30)
9. The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts by Gary Chapman (5/7)
10. Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia (6/1)
11. Rest (6/24)
12. Angels & Demons (7/5)
13. Ender's Shadow (The Shadow Saga Book 1/5) by Orson Scott Card (7/24)
14. *The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck (8/4)
15. Under Heaven (9/9)
16. *The Alignment Problem (10/10)
17. Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI by Yuval Noah Harari (11/5)
18. *Siddhartha (12/14)
19. How to do Nothing (12/30)

2025 Resolutions

For the most part, I intend to continue down my list of ongoing resolutions and goals as we enter this new year. However, I found myself coming up with a few themes to define 2025:

1. Strength
2. Resilience
3. Quality of Attention

Stay present everyone!