Did Blinkist somehow lead to the 5-min movie summary videos with annoying Google Voice that seem to be everywhere these days? Did the service built to help busy people “read books” without actually going through them lead to the most obvious sign of consumerism where people don’t even watch movies?
It feels like we are reaching a point where we consume more than we digest. And it’s sad.
2023 was a terrible year on many aspects, especially given how I was in a constant state of anger. Funny how I started the year reading a book called “On Anger.” Somewhat felt like a premonition.
But it was also a great year where I found myself dragging my angry and weary self to my own cozy corner and just did whatever I enjoyed most. Reading being at the top of that.
Books I read and enjoyed in 2023
- Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership (Lee G. Bolman, Terrence E. Deal)
- Images of Organization (Gareth Morgan)
- Transactional to Transformational: How Banks Innovate 1st Edition (Christer Holloman)
- On Anger (Agnes Callard)
- Natural Complexity (Paul Charbonneau)
- Games, Design, and Play – A detailed approach to iterative game design – Colleen Macklin, John Sharp
- Eurogames – The Design, Culture, and Play of Modern European Board Games (Colleen Macklin, John Sharp)
- Snow Crash (Neal Stephenson)
- Beartown (Fredrik Backman)
- Kane & Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
- Selected stories of Phillip K. Dick (Phillp K. Dick)
Current reading plan for 2024
- The Software Engineer’s Guidebook: Navigating senior, tech lead, and staff engineer positions at tech companies and startups (Gergely Orosz)
- An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management (Will Larson)
- Staff Engineer: Leadership beyond the management track (Will Larson)
- Design is Storytelling (Ellen Lupton)
- About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design (Alan Cooper)
- Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals (Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic)
- The Staff Engineer’s Path: A Guide for Individual Contributors Navigating Growth and Change (Tanya Reilly)
- The Remains of the Day (Kazuo Ishiguro)
- The Flowers of Buffoonery (Osamu Dazai)