A number of years ago I made a goal and started reading “50 books per year” with the vague intent to “Read ‘More’”. This approach wasn’t entirely haphazard and I deliberately decided to read books on a 5 book rotation; a fiction book, a non-fiction book, a work related book, a recommended book, and a “grab bag” book. The work related book could have been fiction or non-fiction as long as the topic was something involving work (historical fiction regarding the military like “Once and Eagle” by Anton Myrer or “Gates of Fire” by Steven Pressfield being two examples.) The recommended book was always one that, once I had asked someone expressly for a recommendation, I was not allowed to not read, with the intent that I broaden my reading landscape, even if I hated the book. ¹ Finally, the grab bag book could be any of the above and was set a “pressure release valve” so I didn’t feel I was trapping myself in this cycle.

Over the years I became less and less strict with how I followed the cycle and mostly tried to fill in gaps as I read something, so over the course of the year it kinda all came out right. At one point I added a “series” like Harry Potter or other longer sets of books because it felt like cheating to finish all my non-fiction and grab bag books all in a row. So while I was allowed to read series, they were intentionally in addition to the original 50. This resulted in putting me over 60-65 books in a few yeas.

I took a break the last couple years recording what I had read because I had achieved my goal after successfully reading 50 books for multiple years in a row. I would call that “More”. I have fallen off as of late and don’t think I have finished a book that was not an audio book in all of 2023 (not counting technical books…I never counted textbooks or anything computer/coding/electronics related, because I would almost never finish, just reading the applicable sections for what I was learning.) I also think it was far fewer than 50 this last year since I started listening to podcasts a lot more as well. While I do count audio books, there is something materially different about it with how the brain consumes them, especially when it comes to practical non-fiction. Anything with an exercise given to the reader to complete? I almost entirely gloss over it. I would take the exercise as a good principle, but never seriously interacted with it unless it intrigued me enough that I subsequently went and bought a physical copy expressly to return to the exercise. While I may not hold myself to a book a week this year I will track what I read this and try to consume more books in a physical medium. Then I’ll periodically evaluate how it affects my retention and involvement.² We’ll see how it goes!

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January

• 1 - The Fractal Prince - Hannu Rajaniemi - 1/1 - F A
• 2 - Aftermath: Star Wars - Chuck Wendig - 1/25 - F S A
• 3 - The Master of Go - Yasunari Kawabaata - 1/30 - R

February

• 4 - Blood of Elves - Andrzej Sapkowski - 2/2 - F S A
• 5 - I Am a Strange Loop - Douglas R. Hofstadter - 2/6 - N A
• 6 - The Time of Contempt - Andrzej Sapkowski - 2/13 - F S A
• 7 - Baptism of Fire - Andrzej Sapkowski - 2-29 - F S A

March

• 8 - The Tower of Swallows - Andrzej Sapkowski - 3/16 - F S A
• 9 - Across the Nightingale Floor - Lian Hearn - 3/20 - F R A
• 10 - The Causal Angel - Hannu Rajaniemi - 3/30 - N S

April

• 11 - Seveneves - Neal Stephenson - 4/1 - F A
• 12 - Getting Things Done - David Allen - 4/15 - W A
• 13 - Shogun, Part One - James Clavell - 4/25 - F A
• 14 - A Book of Five Rings - Miamoto Musashi - 4/26 - G N

May

• 15 - Shogun, Part Two - James Clavell - 5/9 - F A
• 16 - Star Wars: Life Debt - Aftermath, Book 2 - Chuck Wendig - 5/20 - F S A
• 17 - Star Wars: Empire’s End - Aftermath, Book 3 - Chuck Wendig - 5/31 - F S A

June

• 18 - Shadows of the Empire - Steve Perry - 6/1 - F G A
• 19 - Neuromancer - William Gibson - 6/7 - F S A
• 20 - Count Zero - William Gibson - 6/19 - F S A
• 21 - Mona Lisa Overdrive - William Gibson - 6/24 - F S A
• 22 - How to Be a Modern Samurai - Antony Cummins - 6/30 - N R A

July

• 23 - A Psalm for the Wild-Built - Becky Chanmbers - 7/6 - F S A
• 24 - A Prayer for the Crown-Shy - Becky Chanmbers - 7/9 - F S A
• 25 - The Lady of the Lake - Andrzej Sapkowski - 7/29 - F S A

August

• 26 - Season of Storms - Andrzej Sapkowski - 8/15 - F S A
• 27 - Illuminae - Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff - 8/20 - F S A
• 28 - Red Team Blues - Cory Doctorow - 8/25 - F S A
• 29 - The Bezzle - - Cory Doctorow - 8/29 - F S A
• 30 - The Call of Cthulhu - H.P. Lovecraft - 8/31 = F G A

September

• 31 - Expecting Better - Emily Oster - 9/3 - N R
• 32 - Little Brother - Cory Doctorow - 9/4 - F S A
• 33 - Gemina - Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff - 9/10 - F S A
• 34 - Homeland - Cory Doctorow - 9/20 - F S A

October

• 35 - Attack Surface - Cory Doctorow - 10/2 - F S A
• 36 - The Information - James GLeick - 10/12 - N A
• 37 - Pattern Recognition - William Gibson - 10/22 - F A
• 38 - The Midnight Library - Matt Haig - 10/26 - F A

November

• 39 - The Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson - 11/04 - F S A
• 40 - The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien - 11/25 - F A
• 41 - The Happiest Baby on the Block - Harvy Karp - 11/26 - N A
• 42 - Radicalized - Cory Doctorow - 11/28 - F G

December

• 43 - 2054 - Elliot Ackerman, James Stavridis - 12/9 - F S A
• 44 - The Birth Partner - Penny Simkin - 12/12 - N
• 45 - Bringing Up Bébé - Pamela Druckerman - 12/13 - N A

In Progress

• Striking Thoughts - Bruce Lee - N A
• Polostan - Neal Stephenson - F

Legend:
F	Fiction
N	Non-Fiction
W	Work Related
R	Recommended
G	Grab bag
S	Series
A	Audio book

I won’t hold myself to these categories in order this year but I will track them.