I read 15 books in 2023, finished 10 of them, and am still working through five of them. This post lists out those books, arranged in chronological order of when they were finished. Each section includes excerpts from each book, distinguished in grey, along with any of my notes that I wanted to share with you.
If you read only one book from this list, read Robert Fitzgerald’s translation of The Iliad, by Homer. If you read two books from this list, read How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life, by Russ Roberts. And if you read a third, read Not a Partnership, by Tod Jacobs and Peter Lynn.
1. The Iliad, by Homer, Translated by Robert Fitzgerald
I wasn’t expecting to love this book as much as I did. It took a while to figure out how to take in the style and poem format, but once it clicked, it was an inspiring and thrilling read, truly brutal and savage.
“No need to sit with me like mourning doves making your gentle noise by turns. I hate as I hate Hell’s own gate that man who hides one thought within him while he speaks another. What I shall say is what I see and think.” (207, Akhilleus the great runner)
2. Freedom, by Sebastian Junger
You have to put your mind in one room and your body in another and just don’t let them talk, I thought. That way the more you hurt the less you feel. (129)
3. Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology, by Chris Miller
So long as [Jerry Sanders] was CEO, AMD, the company he founded , stayed in the business of manufacturing logic chips, like processors for PCs. Old-school Silicon Valley CEOs kept insisting that separating the fabrication of semiconductors from their design caused inefficiencies. But it was culture, not business reasoning, that kept chip design and chip fabrication integrated for so long. Sanders could still remember the days of Bob Noyce tinkering away in Fairchild’s lab. His argument in favor of keeping AMD’s manufacturing in-house relied on macho-man posturing that was quickly going out of date. When he heard a quip from a journalist in the 1990s that “real men have fabs,” he adopted the phrase as his own. “Now hear me and hear me well,” Sanders declared at one industry conference. “Real men have fabs.” (208, emphasis mine)
4. The Odyssey, by Homer, Translated by Robert Fitzgerald
My note above from The Iliad applies here as well, though The Odyssey was less brutal and savage, it was still brutal and savage, and an inspiring read.
“If any god has marked me out again for shipwreck, my tough heart can undergo it. What hardship have I not long since endured at sea, in battle! Let the trial come.” (87, the strategist Odysseus.
Also, as part of my 2023 goal to memorize things, I memorized the first 22 lines of the book, commonly referred to as the “invocation of the Muse.” It begins: “Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story of that man, skilled in all ways of contending, the wanderer, harried for years on end after he plundered the stronghold on the proud height of Troy.”
5. Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is Wrong — and What You Really Need to Know, by Emily Oster
The one negative consequence of an epidural for the baby is related to a maternal complication. For some reason (possibly due to the inability to seat enough when nerves are blocked), women who get an epidural are much more likely to run a fever during labor. The fever is a known side effect of the epidural, but doctors can’t tell if it’s a real fever (due to an infection) or just a side effect. This leads them to react as if Mom has an infection, which often means treating the baby with antibiotics. (244)
6. The World Behind the World: Consciousness, Free Will, and the Limits of Science, by Erik Hoel
This book, and this EconTalk interview with the author, were excellent and eye-opening. Also very dense. After being convinced years ago that free will is a myth — in no small part by Robert Sapolsky’s book, Behave, which I talk about in my article Mythology Mobility — I am now not so sure. In fact, I’ve swung back the other way, and am no longer convinced the scientism premise holds and that biology can effectively, eventually, explain everything, even free will. It’s such an interesting topic, and right on cue, Mr. Sapolsky has a new book out entitled, Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will, that will probably swing me back the other way when I read it this coming year.
7. Not A Partnership: Why We Keep Getting Marriage Wrong, & How We Can Get It Right, by Tod Jacobs & Peter Lynn
Giving is the secret elixir that creates a great marriage and a great human being. (30-31)
Marriage is a living laboratory for working on one’s character. (176)
8. Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon, by Michael Lewis
“I deeply believe and act as if people are probability distributions, not their means,” [Sam Bankman-Fried] wrote. “It’s pretty important to me that others engage on that level as well.” (112)
9. How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life: An Unexpected Guide to Human Nature and Happiness, by Russ Roberts
By holding others accountable, by refusing to honor dishonorable behavior, we “play a role in breaking an unvirtuous circle.” Don’t be “part of those who are discouraging the norms and culture of loveliness.” (196)
I like the Talmud’s attitude toward transforming the world: “It is not up to you to finish the work. But you are not free to desist from it.” You alone make very little difference. But you make your contribution. That’s good for you. And when you join in with others, you make all the difference. (199)
“Say little, do much.” — Talmud, Avot 1:14 (I couldn’t find where this was referenced in the book, but it was in my associated notes.)
10. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, by Cal Newport
Clarity about what matters provides clarity about what does not. (62)
Books I started and haven’t finished
- The Nourishing Traditions Book of Baby & Child Care, by Sally Fallon Morell and Thomas S. Cowan, MD
- Red Memory: The Afterlives of China’s Cultural Revolution, by Tania Branigan
- Take Command: Find Your Inner Strength, Build Enduring Relationships, and Live the Life You Want, by Joe Hart and Michael Crom
- Lessons from an American Stoic: How Emerson Can Change Your Life, by Mark Matousek
- The Creative Act: A Way of Being, by Rick Rubin
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