Closing out my book list for 2024:

1. Atomic Habits – one of the “read this at least once a year because it is so excellent.” And, this time, it helped me make changes to my diet, sleep patterns, and writing patterns.
2. Going Infinite – Michael Lewis is amazing. This was a great tale. I still don’t speculate in crypto, but I understand its story better.
3. Never Split the Difference – Sunny’s recommendation; I found it a bit plodding the second time around, but I think there are great lessons. “How am I supposed to do that?” is the big takeaway this time.
4. The Champion’s Mind – a fun read, and I think it is worth another pass in the future.
5. Midlife: A Philosophical Guide – I read this again because…well, there is a lot to unpack right now. I really hope Setiya writes a few more about future decades, too – his writing voice is reassuring and calm, and I feel better capable of dealing with these years having read this.
6. The Art of Gathering – a recommendation from one of Daniel’s friend’s parents, Xander. It is absolutely astounding, and I feel like it would have changed the entire trajectory of my life if I had read it 20 years ago. It validated a lot of what I have done hosting parties and events, but it also had so many more tips that are extremely useful for anyone who has meetings or organizes parties or eats lunch with other people. I’m working on not being a chill host, and we started to implement some of the suggestions at our Christmas party and at a couple of lunches we hosted. I finished it a few weeks ago, and already want to revisit it.
7. No Filter – I met the founders of Instagram about a week after they had sold their company to Facebook. At the time, I thought that I had never met anyone so absolutely stoned; after reading this, I think that they were just really overwhelmed, and I can now understand why. I feel sorry for them. This also caused me to delete my Instagram account for good.
8. Liliana’s Invincible Summer – I got a beautiful bookmark from Alice for Christmas – like, as soon as I touched it, I thought: this is the bookmark I want to use for the rest of my life. And I then thought: it needs to go into really excellent books; I don’t want to read crap anymore. I also got a lot of Pulitzer books this year, and Liliana’s Invincible Summer was on the top of the stack. It took a short time to get into her style – she writes brief passages that describe a point, a scene, a time, and then moves on – but, in the end, this worked incredibly well for describing the community that surrounded her murdered sister and the feelings she had, and still has. It was a beautiful tribute.

Top books of the year:

1. All Fours – I gave this to my sister, and she liked it, so it must be amazing. I think July’s voice is one of the most captivating in modern writing – and I still laugh at You and Me and Everyone We Know.
2. Stay True – absolutely stunning.
3. Fewer, Better Things – this laid out a great way to think about stuff, and souvenirs.
4. Easy Beauty – beautiful and thought-provoking writing, and we followed so much of her path in Italy.
5. Midlife: A Philosophical Guide – as above, a great book to have at 45.
6. The Aeneid – I decided that I wanted to listen to this as a spoken, epic poem. I’ll never forget a particular Sunday morning, 6:00 a.m., running on a treadmill in a subterranean gym in Rome, the clang of swords ringing in my imagination, the wheeling of horses, the shouts of soldiers, Turnus’s pride and then despair.
7. You Can Be a Stock Market Genius – I read this in June and invested in a small selection of stocks based on its “spinoff” strategy. It’s currently up about 70% in the last six months, and I now have a subscription to the Wall Street Journal, just because they seem to have good spinoff coverage, and they have made me a lot of money.
8. The Psychology of Money – too much wisdom for one reading.
9. James – a page or two in, I thought: “of course.” When they announced it was short-listed for the Booker, I knew it wouldn’t win – it is excellent. I also just got Everett’s book, “A History of the African-American People (Proposed) by Strom Thurmond” because I suspect he is a genius, and I want to confirm my suspicions.
10. Liliana’s Invincible Summer – three days, and what a world she writes. RIP, Liliana.