See also: books read in 2018 | 2017 | 2016
Book are categorized by nonfiction / fiction and then loosely organized from most to least recommended. Many of this year’s books were read to glean insights for my quest to get my life to a proper baseline of effectiveness; results from that initiative are in the two preceding posts.
Nonfiction
The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming – David Wallace-Wells
For most people, “climate change” conjures up mental images of cities underwater and warmer winters. Not a big deal—just don’t live anywhere coastal or hot, right?
Wrong. Wallace-Wells explains how climate change means problems that gravely impact everyone: massive food and water shortages, plagues, unbreathable air, and perpetual war.
Wallace-Wells’ beautiful writing makes the tragedies he foretells all the more visceral. You can get a good sense of the book from the article that originated it.
Guide to the Good Life – William B. Irvine
Guide to the Good Life is an approachable introductory guide to Stoicism. This book is replete with obvious-yet-remarkable gems like:
“We can either spend this moment wishing it could be different, or we can embrace this moment. If we habitually do the former, we will spend much of our life in a state of dissatisfaction; if we habitually do the latter, we will enjoy our life.”
The Stoics valued tranquility of spirit, and by looking through their eyes, I examined my life and saw how I routinely disturbed my tranquility with foolish thoughts and behaviors. Here’s an example of how Seneca watches for such foolish thoughts and corrects them:
At a banquet, Seneca was not seated in the place of honor he thought he deserved. Consequently, he spent the banquet angry at those who planned the seating and envious of those who had better seats than he did. His assessment of his behavior: “You lunatic, what difference does it make what part of the couch you put your weight on?”
Irvine views the Stoics as master psychologists. They prescribed, for example, negative visualization as a way to prevent hedonic adaptation. For instance, to help guard against the desire for a new phone, imagine your current phone being smashed to pieces. Or imagine being in a world without smartphones at all. Or imagine not having use of your hands and thus smartphones simply existing as a source of frustration. With daily negative visualization, it’s easier to stay appreciative of how much you have.
One of my favorite techniques in the book is only pursuing things you can control. For example, if you are playing tennis, instead of playing to win, your goal would be to play the best you can. You can’t control winning but you can control playing the best you can. And paradoxically, focusing on playing the best you can instead of winning is a better strategy for winning.
While time will tell how lasting the changes are, I felt that in reading this book I had at last found a compass for my life and was able to delineate which goals and behaviors are worth pursuing. I look forward to practicing the prescribed methods and further studying Stoicism as well as what seems to be its Eastern cousin, Buddhism.
Principles: Life & Work – Ray Dalio
I can see why so many people recommend this book: it is the distillation of a lifetime of unconventional yet effective wisdom. I was particularly inspired by how Dalio ran a wildly successful firm using radical honesty. As there’s too much to unpack in one read, I look forward to rereading it soon. This video is a great introduction:
Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World – Cal Newport
A great book that inspired me to take more time without media. Recommended for anyone with a smartphone. Full review here.
Ultralearning – Scott Young
Scott Young is an overachiever. After graduating with a degree he didn’t care for, he did an experiment to learn MIT’s 4-year computer science curriculum in two years without taking classes. After that, he attempted to learn four languages in a year. Ultralearning is his strategy for aggressive, self-directed learning. I had a few takeaways about how to learn more effectively, but my biggest takeaway was inspiration to embark on my own ultralearning challenge.
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear – Elizabeth Gilbert
A beautiful book on creativity. I’m enamored by Gilbert’s enchanted view that ideas live in a realm of their own and come to Earth to find people to materialize them. Gilbert is an inspiring figure in that she has devoted her life to her writing without ever expecting it to pay her way. She worked various restaurant jobs to pay the bills while writing novel after novel, all of which came to no acclaim before her breakout Eat, Pray, Love. I believe most people with a creative calling will find something insightful in the book.
Better Than Before – Gretchen Rubin
This became one of my favorite books on habits, but I think more than any particular piece of advice in this, Rubin became a role model to me. Her personality is quite similar to mine, and so I came to think: “If Gretchen Rubin can do X, Y, and Z, why can’t I?” She became my inspiration to, e.g., wake up early and get more done.
Eat, Pray, Love – Elizabeth Gilbert
I wrote off this book because it was so mainstream and come on, there’s a movie version with Julia Roberts. But I got curious to read it because I loved Big Magic so much, and I’m glad I did. It’s a gorgeous story that I couldn’t put down. If you’re interested in spirituality, travel, and self-discovery, give it a try.
The Surrender Experiment – Michael A Singer
I became a Michael Singer fan when I read The Untethered Soul, one of the books I reread most often. This year I reread The Surrender Experiment after @bertstachios recommended it. While Singer wanted to live a quiet life of meditation, he decided to surrender to whatever was coming to him in life. This book recounts that tale and how that level of surrender transformed him.
The Obesity Code – Dr. Jason Fung
If you haven’t struggled with your weight, then congratulations! You have missed out on a world of suffering. Dr. Jason Fung dismantles the argument that “restrict calories and exercise more” is an effective weight loss strategy. Yes, calories play a factor, but humans are more complex than simple thermodynamic machines. If weight were as simple as “calories in, calories out,” then why do women gain fat during puberty and pregnancy when their caloric consumption doesn’t change? Hormones. In The Obesity Code, Fung discusses the hormonal factors that affect body composition. This was my second time reading this book and I got just as much out of it as the first time.
I Will Teach You to Be Rich – Ramit Sethi
This is still my favorite personal finance book. I read it again this year to get re-inspired about my savings goals, which worked. I made the change to put money into savings/investments and donations as soon as I receive it, which has been helpful. If you’re new to the world of personal finance, this is a great place to start.
What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast – Laura Vanderkam
Super short, fun read that profiles what different people do in their early mornings. I read it for inspiration about starting a habit to wake up at 6 am, and it did the trick.
Delay, Don’t Deny – Gin Stephens
This was the book that convinced me to give intermittent fasting a try. Stephens writes from a “here’s my story, here’s what worked for me” everyday person perspective. If you’re looking more for the science behind intermittent fasting, try another book.
The Fast Diet – Michael Mosley and Mimi Spencer
Apparently this was one of the first books to come out about intermittent fasting. The Fast Diet approach is to eat 500 calories or less two days per week. Apparently these days of calorie restriction mimic fasting. Seems reasonable, but I have yet to put it to the test.
Indistractable – Nir Eyal and Julie Li
In a very 2019 move, the author of Hooked, the bestselling book on how to get users hooked on products and apps, now writes a book on how to escape apps’ addictive distractions. I enjoyed reading it but not much stuck with me. If you haven’t read Deep Work yet, I would start with that.
Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as If Your Life Depended on It – Chris Voss
Voss is a former international hostage negotiator for the FBI. He makes a compelling case for using his method to negotiate. His examples are dramatic and keep the book exciting, but I would have probably gotten more out of examples that were closer to my life.
Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life – Bill Burnett and David Evans
This book would have been really helpful for me in high school when choosing a career path. I didn’t find it super helpful to my current life situation, but I still enjoyed reading the authors’ thoughtful approach. When it comes to life design, I found Stoicism to be more helpful.
Atomic Habits – James Clear
By the time I read Atomic Habits, I had read so many books on habit formation that I didn’t find Clear’s insights particularly helpful. I’d like to reread it down the road because I think it just wasn’t a match for where I was at the time.
The Happiness Equation – Neil Pasricha
Is “Want nothing + do anything = have everything” the formula for happiness? Not sure. This was fun to read but I didn’t find it had a lasting impact on me. This is why people wisely recommend reading classic books that have stood the test of time. I would have gotten more out of reading another volume on Stoicism.
Fiction / Poetry
The Way of Kings – Brandon Sanderson
This was a recommendation from a Twitter friend (thank you, @ModyVirag!) and is the first super-long book in a five-book series. I’m so glad I gave it a try; it’s the perfect fantasy escape with a tightly woven magical world, characters you fall in love with, and captivating storylines.
My favorite aspect of the book is the widely varying “spren,” elemental creatures that live in the Cognitive Realm and appear alongside phenomena like awe, creativity, honor, and rot.
I introduced this book to two people and they both loved it. I imagine Sanderson will someday be widely regarded as one of the masters of fantasy fiction.
Words of Radiance – Brandon Sanderson
This is the second book in the series and likewise recommended. I look forward to reading all of Sanderson’s work.
Bluets – Maggie Nelson
An inventive book of numbered short essays and poems about heartbreak centered around the author’s hypersensitive love for the color blue. I found the creative writing interesting but I stopped short with emotionally resonating with it, perhaps because I’ve never been exceedingly heartbroken (or felt much fondness for the color blue). Thank you to @joepetrowski for getting me out of my comfort zone with this recommendation.
A Discovery of Witches – Deborah Harkness
This book was bearable until the author had the characters act out her fantasies of drinking ridiculously expensive antique wines—then I gave up.
Looking for more book reviews? See also: 2018 | 2017 | 2016
An ask for you, dear reader
Do you have any books to recommend, especially nonfiction and fantasy? Please let me know. Message me on Twitter or email alex @ this domain.