Reading

A List of books I read in 2024:

• Billionaires: The Lives of the Rich and Powerful
  • Got it as a gift for Christmas 23, a short and insightful read dispelling the notion of the "self-made man".
• The C Programming Language
  • Read to see what all the C hype is about. Although it is very well-written it does not compare to The C++ Programming Language which still remains my favourite programming language book.
• The Lord of the Rings
  • With the renewed global interest around LOTR, I decided to reread The Lord of the Rings to see if it is still as good as I remember it. Can confirm it still is a great read even for adults.
• The Great Gatsby
  • In 2023 decided to watch the Gatsby films in chronological order, something I highly recommend if you want to see how the depiction of Gatsby's wealth changes over the years. Having enjoyed the films I decided to read the book, a truly pleasant read better than the films.
• Kingdom of the Golden Dragon
  • Decided to once and for all finish this Trilogy (read the first book many years ago).
• Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age
  • Stumbled upon this book as a reference in a Paper so decided to give it a read. Most of essays are insightful and pleasant read a couple of them are however unbelievably unhinged.
• Forest of the Pygmies
  • Decided to once and for all finish this Trilogy (read the first book many years ago).
• Crafting Interpreters
  • Stumbled upon this as a reference in this tremendous blog post series both the blogs and the book highly worth reading.
• Politeia
  • Need a book that would keep me busy at the beach for a couple weeks so took the chunkiest book I could find. Was not disappointed, especially interesting how the debating in the book has an Actor-Crit form.
• The Wind Knows My Name
  • Ok yes, I am a Isabel Allende stan you got me, so of course I needed to read her latest book great read as per usual.
• The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire
  • Got recommend to me by Simon Clark (who also happens to an excellent Youtube channel). The book is tremendous something that should probably be read in school.
• Karl Marx in Brussel
  • A read that makes this larger-than-live man relatable in ways that I ought not possible. After reading the Socialist Manifesto and not being too impressed this book is a much more compelling gateway drug.
• Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don't Know
  • Serendipitously picked it up at an apartment clearance, although it was written well before the recent AI hype its content is as relevant to talking to humans as it is to talking to LLMs.

Conclusion (Plan for 2025):

Reading The Great Gatsby and Politea made me realise how little of the classics I have read, so looking forward to reading some more in 2025. Already have 1984, Meditations and Seven Pillars of Wisdom waiting for me.

TLDR:

Read a couple of books sadly short of the mythical 52 books (1 book a week) one year will get there.