Annual traditions have to start somewhere! Every year, I try to read a good number of books. I used to set hard goals (eg “I’m going to read 50 books this year!”)… but I learned that optimizing a process for any metric tends to have unintended consequences. I found myself reading easier/shorter books, trying to rush through them, and sticking with boring books I lost interest in because I needed to “finish” it.
In any case, here is a sampling of the books I read this year. You can find reviews for some, as well as the full list of books and more at my Goodreads profile.
- Genentech: The Beginnings of Biotech - Sally Smith Hughes
- The Great American Drug Deal - Peter Kolchinsky
- Dark Remedy: The Impact of Thalidomide and Its Revival as a Vital Medicine - Trent Stephens, Rock Brynner
- Hillbilly Elegy - JD Vance
- Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China - Jung Chang
- Manna: Two Views of Humanity’s Future - Marshall Brain
- Exhalation - Ted Chiang
- On Sparta - Plutarch
- Industrial Society and its Future - Ted Kaczynski
- Peter Thiel + Blake Master’s CS183 lecture notes