The year just past was dense of interesting readings. Below is the full list, with comments taken moments after I had finished each book.

The total year count was 20. Of these, four were technical books and sixteen were about subjects such as history, economics, sport and fiction.

One of the four technical books is still incomplete (Building secure and reliable systems). The reason is that this is more of a reference book and I am reading chapters in sparse order, whenever one of them seems related to other things I am working on.

I also didn’t finish one general book, The collected short stories of Anton Chekhov (Volume 1). Similarly to Building secure…, this other book is a collection of independent stories and, as such, I am reading them in no particular order.

My favorite book of the year was The Perfect Mile, which I read just near year-end. A beautifully written tale of two (or three?) men making history. Special mentions go to Liar’s Poker and This is going to hurt: I really, really enjoyed them both.

Worst title of the year was Book Lovers. In fact, I chose it accidentally. The title misled me.

And now, for the whole list.

General books

Why Nations Fail, D. Acemoglu, J.A. Robinson (Dec 18 – Jan 10)
Very good book. Engaging, despite the size. Looks almost like a history book, and one that explains very well critical historical events, while being an economic book. Recommended.

Liar’s Poker, M. Lewis (Jan 12 – Jan 30)
Funny, scathing, bitter and (towards the end) poignant. All of these at once. I really enjoyed the book. The story is great and is greatly told. The final philosophical twist made me appreciate it even more

The collected short stories of Anton Chekhov (Volume 1) (Feb 12 –)
Here are the chapters I read so far:

• The darling
• Ariadne
• Polinka
• Anyuta

Black Buck, M. Askaripour (Feb 22 – Mar 8)
Started off good. Was still good for a while. Then took a weird tangent, that made the whole plot a tad too childish in my opinion. Wouldn’t recommend it.

Crying in H Mart (A memoir), M. Zauner (Mar 13 – Mar 16)
Tough book. Can’t neither recommend nor discommend, as it’s very, very personal. I read it rather quickly because I wanted to understand her feelings. It left me with an odd mix of feelings, which I think is the case for all readers.

This is going to hurt, A. Kay (Mar 21 – Mar 29)
Woah. Impressive book. Fun. A LOT of fun. And then… that final twist. I really recommend this one.

Educated, T. Westover (Apr 3 – Apr 16)
It obviously made me say out loud how fortunate I was to be born in my family, and how grateful I am for it. Good book.

High fidelity, N. Hornby (Apr 22 – Apr 28)
Read it while on a trip, so it went by quickly. It’s a famous book, so I won’t say much. I enjoyed it and recommend it.

To kill a mockingbird, H. Lee (May 21 – Jun 11)
I had never read it! I loved it.

The soul of a new machine, T. Kidder (Jun 15 – Jul 7)
Fascinating book. Not easy to read, but I enjoyed it.

The cuckoo’s egg, C. Stoll (Jul 15 – Jul 18)
Very addictive, I finished it in 4 sittings. Nice (scary?) story!

Blueprint for Revolution, M. Miller, S. Popović (Aug 6 – Sep 7)
A nice little book. I found all chapters very educational and the last one very inspiring.

Book Lovers, E. Henry (Sep 11 – Oct 2)
Worst book I read in a long while. I was misled by the title. The kind of book one keeps reading hoping that it’ll change. It did not.

Running Home, K. Arnold (Oct 16 – Nov 22)
This book goes through… a lot. I appreciated the naked honesty of some parts, withstood the plenty of details and, ultimately, enjoyed the story.

Rework, D.H. Hansson, J. Fried (Nov 26 – Dec 5)
Short and sweet. Lots of good content. Recommend, despite two problems: I already agreed with everything, and horrible prose.

The Perfect Mile, N. Bascomb (Dec 23 – Dec 28)
Fantastic book. I am very happy that I read it before the end of the year.

Technical books

Data science in R (A case studies approach), D.T. Lang, D.A. Nolan (Mar 24 – Jun 12)
Very good book, nice to read and perfect to keep for future reference.

Building secure and reliable systems, H. Adkins, P. Lewandowski, P. Blankinship, A. Oprea, A. Stubblefield, B. Beyer (Jun 14 –)
Work in progress.

SQL Antipatterns, B. Karwin (Jul 11 – Oct 15)
Some good advice at times, other times just too basic. Overall a good read.

Haskell from first principle, C. Allen, J. Moronuki (Nov 15 – Dec 16)
More a reference book than a manual. Many examples are really contrived and therefore miss the point. If nothing else, the sheer volume of information is useful.

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