In trying to keep a pace of reading a book a month, here is my 2016 list of books with a short comment each and my subjective grade.
One of the real pleasures I derived was 'consuming' these books and their ideas over multi-media. I gave these fourteen books, five A grades, seven B grades and 2 C grades.
One of the real pleasures I derived was 'consuming' these books and their ideas over multi-media. I gave these fourteen books, five A grades, seven B grades and 2 C grades.
Fiction
1. Shogun - James Clavell. Britisher in 15th century Japan - wow - mind blowing (A+)
2. Short story - Story of my life - Ted Chiang - made into the movie 'Arrival' - top notch (A+)
3. My Brilliant Friend - Elena Ferrante - popular novel on friendship between two women in Italy (C)
4. The Fall Guy - James Lasdun - good start; lame finish (C)
Non Fiction
5. Being Mortal - Atul Gawande - we need to grow up about mortality (A+)
6. Rise of the Robots - Martin Ford - we humans are toast! (B+)
7. Exhibition and Empire - Jan Morris - super trilogy on the British Empire (A)
8. Ulysses Grant Bio - universally and highly rated. Did not do it for me (B+)
9. US Civil War - John Keegan - TOP NOTCH; my best book of the year (A+)
10. Hillbilly Elegy - JD Vance - timely and popular (B)
11. Boys in the Boat - Daniel James Brown - my son is in crew so very topical and a good and true 'sports' story (B+)
Business and Economics
12. Men Without Work - Nick Eberstadt - timely, but unknown (B)
13. The Founder's Mentality - Dunigan O'Keeefe - how to sustain energy of people in large companies. (B)
14. The Undoing Project - Michael Lewis - great story on compelling characters and their work in behavioral science; surprisingly mediocre book by a very good author (B+)
Other
Reread several books of fiction from my collection in an act of nostalgia. (This felt great!)
2017
I think I have built enough momentum to keep this going (don't know if I can increase the pace this year).
My first book of this year is Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.
5 comments:
On your list I read Boys in the Boat--so did Jim. We both loved it. It gets an A+ from me, as one of my best books of the year. I also read Hillbilly Elegy and found it interesting but repetitive and self important. I give it a C+.
Amazing! I need to set aside time for the same.. I noticed that I have been stuck like a rat in a cage with my work.
Awesome!
I've been on a reading kick as well, though mostly through Audible format (during my walk to work).
I read boys in the boat from your list below recently, but haven't read any of the others.
Pretty impressive. I’ve much more time than you, but haven’t been nearly as productive.
Great list. Looking forward to your review on Kahneman!
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