For me, some of the best books I read this year, are:
- Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, I have seen many narratives on the fault at the core of current values and goals of human civilization, but never saw a laid out alternative. Whatever it might be, I like the book for attempting at presenting one.
- Solaris by Stanislaw Lem, I like this book for extremely original thoughts. This books was so thin (~200 pages), yet it was grand. I also wrote a review [0].
- The Happiness Trap by Russ Hariss, was very helpful to me in sorting through some things. Very practical book.
- Anathem by Neal Stephenson, one of the most original book, and probably the best one by Stephenson. Very original ideas, mind expanding.
- Permutation City by Greg Egan, this book raised the standard for possibly all SciFi book that I will read in the future. Extremely original and grand ideas.
- The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt, another book that lays out alternatives to what is now considered mainstream.
- Sotyi Rupkatha by Parimal Bhattacharya (Bengali), a book without any ideological or emotional baggage explaining the plight and pain of a tribal community for Aluminium mining. The way colonialism lives in mining was eye-opening. Aluminium mining, separating, etc. are done in lesser fortunate countries where huge amounts of water is wasted and the environment polluted. The West still imports that refined raw material in cheap and produces final products with lesser environmental impact and peofits by selling the finished products to the same countries in large profits. It was refreshing to see that this book did not have a Communist undertone.
- Krishna Basudev by Bani Basu (Bengali), life of God Krishna in form of a novel in crisp prose, written maintaining authenticity of core books like Bhagavat Purana and Harivansha.
Here's my list - it ended up being a lot of history this year:
Wisdom’s Workshop (2016) by James Axtell is a history of the American research university from Medieval times to the present.
The Principles of Science (1874) by William Stanley Jevons (of economics fame) is a wide-ranging treatment of logic and philosophy of science that’s bursting with ideas.
Ballyhoo! (2024) by Jon Langmead is a history of professional wrestling and combat sports from its outlaw roots in the late nineteenth century through the first half of the twentieth century.
A Discourse on Political Economy (1824) by John Ramsay McCulloch is the first history of economic thought from the era of the classical economists.
I think top prize has to go to the first book I read in 2024 - 'Dark Matter' by Blake Crouch. It's a little different from the sci-fi I usually read like Liu or Banks, as it reads more like Stephen King and is weirdly terrifying in places.
Cherry on the cake was finding out that it was being made into a TV show and watching it several months later. And the show being almost as good as the book, which was unexpected.
The rest of my 2024 reading has been tech books like:
SICP:JavaScript Edition.
WebGPU sourcebook.
3D Math Primer - which is now an online book - https://gamemath.com/
Beej's guide to C programming, also a free, online book - https://beej.us/guide/bgc/
Jacques Lacan
Ecrits: The First Complete Edition in English
895 pages
I am re-reading this as I have only recently bought it again after lending it to a student a few years ago.
Not for the faint hearted.
A most controversial psychoanalyst and disparaging about fellow psychoanalysts.
Psychoanalysts do not say that they know in so many words, but they imply that they do. We do
know a bit about it, but let's keep quiet about that. Let's keep it between ourselves. We enter
this field of knowledge by way of a unique experience that consists, quite simply, in being
psychoanalyzed. After that, you can talk. Being able to talk does not mean that you do talk. You
could. You could if you wanted to, and you would want to if you were talking to people like us,
people who are in the know, but what's the point? And so, we remain silent with those who do know
and those who don't know, because those who don't know cannot know.
6 comments
[ 0.17 ms ] story [ 24.4 ms ] threadI really enjoyed Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time and Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary. Both were hopeful, positive scifi.
Children of Time is far better written, but Project Hail Mary paints such a beautiful world that I yearn to be real.
They somehow both involve alien spiders.
Thanks for sharing your favorites.
I have read PHM and liked it. I will try Children of Time.
- Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, I have seen many narratives on the fault at the core of current values and goals of human civilization, but never saw a laid out alternative. Whatever it might be, I like the book for attempting at presenting one.
- Solaris by Stanislaw Lem, I like this book for extremely original thoughts. This books was so thin (~200 pages), yet it was grand. I also wrote a review [0].
- The Happiness Trap by Russ Hariss, was very helpful to me in sorting through some things. Very practical book.
- Anathem by Neal Stephenson, one of the most original book, and probably the best one by Stephenson. Very original ideas, mind expanding.
- Permutation City by Greg Egan, this book raised the standard for possibly all SciFi book that I will read in the future. Extremely original and grand ideas.
- The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt, another book that lays out alternatives to what is now considered mainstream.
- Sotyi Rupkatha by Parimal Bhattacharya (Bengali), a book without any ideological or emotional baggage explaining the plight and pain of a tribal community for Aluminium mining. The way colonialism lives in mining was eye-opening. Aluminium mining, separating, etc. are done in lesser fortunate countries where huge amounts of water is wasted and the environment polluted. The West still imports that refined raw material in cheap and produces final products with lesser environmental impact and peofits by selling the finished products to the same countries in large profits. It was refreshing to see that this book did not have a Communist undertone.
- Krishna Basudev by Bani Basu (Bengali), life of God Krishna in form of a novel in crisp prose, written maintaining authenticity of core books like Bhagavat Purana and Harivansha.
[0]: https://ritogh.substack.com/p/not-merely-a-story-of-a-man-fa...
Wisdom’s Workshop (2016) by James Axtell is a history of the American research university from Medieval times to the present.
The Principles of Science (1874) by William Stanley Jevons (of economics fame) is a wide-ranging treatment of logic and philosophy of science that’s bursting with ideas.
Ballyhoo! (2024) by Jon Langmead is a history of professional wrestling and combat sports from its outlaw roots in the late nineteenth century through the first half of the twentieth century.
A Discourse on Political Economy (1824) by John Ramsay McCulloch is the first history of economic thought from the era of the classical economists.
Check it out in more detail here: https://bcmullins.github.io/interesting-books-2024/
I am re-reading this as I have only recently bought it again after lending it to a student a few years ago.
Not for the faint hearted.
A most controversial psychoanalyst and disparaging about fellow psychoanalysts.
Psychoanalysts do not say that they know in so many words, but they imply that they do. We do know a bit about it, but let's keep quiet about that. Let's keep it between ourselves. We enter this field of knowledge by way of a unique experience that consists, quite simply, in being psychoanalyzed. After that, you can talk. Being able to talk does not mean that you do talk. You could. You could if you wanted to, and you would want to if you were talking to people like us, people who are in the know, but what's the point? And so, we remain silent with those who do know and those who don't know, because those who don't know cannot know.