This year I finished 47 books, up from last year but not a personal best. The breakdown was 17 non-fiction and 30 fiction. Another 20-30 remain started but unfinished this year.
Non-fiction
The 8 non-fiction books I most recommend are:
- Fashionapolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes (Must read)
- Effective Python: 90 Specific Ways to Write Better Python (Must read; truly excellent for Python programmers, I recommend this to anyone I work with)
- The Machine that Changed the World (Must read)
- Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy from 1453 to the Present
- Wind, Sand and Stars
- American Colussus: The Triumph of Capitalism, 1865-1900
- Making Common Sense of Japan
- The German Genius
The 3 books I recommend you not to waste time on are: "The Two Koreas", "The Price of Inequality", and "Ninety Percent of Everything: Inside Shipping".
The whole list
- The Two Koreas by Don Oberdorfer
- Interesting but not a huge fan, seemed pretty biased against South Korea somehow
- Forbidden Nation: A History of Taiwan by Jonathan Manthorpe
- Effective Python: 90 Specific Ways to Write Better Python by Brett Slatkin
- A Philosophy of Software Design by John Ousterhout
- Came as a recommendation from someone on Twitter, ultimately not a huge fan. Still looking for high quality books on software design
- The Price of Inequality by Joseph E. Stiglitz
- Agreed with the premise but the book was incoherent and too self-assuring
- Paris Reborn: Napoléon III, Baron Haussmann, and the Quest to Build a Modern City by Stephane Kirkland
- Fashionapolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes by Dana Thomas
- A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
- I normally love Hemingway's writing but this particular book was not very coherent
- Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy from 1453 to the Present by Brendan Simms
- Such an excellent introduction to the continent for Americans who otherwise don't have great background
- Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
- A beautiful memoir of flights by the author of The Little Prince, very similar in style to Hemingway
- American Colussus: The Triumph of Capitalism, 1865-1900 by H.W. Brands
- Baby's first primer on unions, (I need more recommendations on the history of unions)
- Making Common Sense of Japan by Steven R. Reed
- It can be difficult to find English translations of Korean, Japanese history by Korean and Japanese authors; this is a good one by an American professor
- The Machine that Changed the World by James P. Womack
- An excellent, well-researched history of automobile manufacturing in the US, Europe and Japan from the 1900s to 1990; how Japan ate everyone's lunch
- The United States of Europe by T.R. Reid
- Very light introduction to the European Union
- The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder
- Overhyped by the internets, but not bad
- The German Genius by Peter Watson
- Dense but excellent introduction to many famous Germans in many fields throughout time
- Ninety Percent of Everything: Inside Shipping by Rose George
Fiction
I'm trying to read more from non-English authors. If you see non-English authors in the vein of these here that you can recommend, I'd love to hear from you.
The 12 fiction books I most recommend are:
- Planet of the Apes (Must read, yes even if you've seen the film)
- All Quiet on the Western Front (Must read)
- The Mouse That Roared (Must read)
- The Dead Mountaineer's Inn
- The Golem and the Jinni
- Neverwhere
- Dubliners
- Old Man's War
- The Inspector Barlach Mysteries: The Judge and His Hangman and Suspicion
- Fantômas
- Foundation
- Out of the Silent Planet
The only book I really didn't like was "Invisible Cities".
The whole list
- March Violets by Philip Kerr (Scottish)
- Liberty Bar by Georges Simenon (Belgian)
- The Late Monsieur Gallet by Georges Simenon (Belgian)
- Dubliners by James Joyce (Irish)
- Tales of the City by Amistead Maupin (American)
- The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien (Irish)
- 44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith (British-African)
- Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin (Scottish)
- I Hear Your Voice by Kim Young Ha (South Korean)
- The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker (American)
- The Tokyo Zodiac Murders by Shimada Sōji (Japanese)
- The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis (English)
- Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (English)
- Old Man's War by John Scalzi (American)
- Tales from Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin (American)
- Solaris by Stanisław Lem (Polish)
- A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin (American)
- Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle (French)
- The Dead Mountaineer's Inn by Arkady Strugatsky (Russian)
- Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino (Cuban-born Italian)
- The Inspector Barlach Mysteries: The Judge and His Hangman and Suspicion by Friedrich Dürrenmatt (Swiss)
- Fantômas by Marcel Allain (French)
- All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (Germany)
- A Crime in Holland by Georges Simenon (Belgian)
- The Wonderful Adventure of Nils Holversson by Selma Lagerlöf (Swedish)
- Foundation by Isaac Asimov (Russian-born American)
- Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis (English)
- The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré (English)
- The Bat by Jo Nesbø (Norwegian)
- The Mouse That Roared by Leonard Wibberley (Irish-born American)
Out of 47 books read this year, here's the 20 I recommend to you (gave them 4/5 stars or better). I'm trying to read more non-English authors so I'd love to hear if there are authors with similar style on this list you'd recommend!https://t.co/FjHcvHpRSr
— Phil Eaton (@phil_eaton) December 27, 2020