Ask HN: Books you plan to read in 2020?
Any great books you cannot wait to read next year? Maybe something you wish to learn? Curious about all kinds of great book suggestions for 2020. Thank you for sharing! (And I wish you all a great, educational new year)
320 comments
I hilariously overestimate the number of books I can get through when I make these lists, but my current list for 2020 is as follows:
Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World
The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution
Book of Proof
Designing Data-Intensive Applications: The Big Ideas Behind Reliable, Scalable, and Maintainable Systems
Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
We Make the Road by Walking: A Year-Long Quest for Spiritual Formation, Reorientation, and Activation
Soul Repair: Recovering from Moral Injury after War (for a friend)
Master and Commander
Educated
Without Getting Killed or Caught: The Life and Music of Guy Clark
Stretch goal: The Power Broker, as a warm-up for Caro's LBJ series
The Bible (perpetual, I don't get through it every year, but I get through much of it, often)
EDIT: I also hilariously underestimate the number of books I want to read. Here's one more I think is vital for my 2020:
The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science
Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World
The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution
Book of Proof
Designing Data-Intensive Applications: The Big Ideas Behind Reliable, Scalable, and Maintainable Systems
Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
We Make the Road by Walking: A Year-Long Quest for Spiritual Formation, Reorientation, and Activation
Soul Repair: Recovering from Moral Injury after War (for a friend)
Master and Commander
Educated
Without Getting Killed or Caught: The Life and Music of Guy Clark
Stretch goal: The Power Broker, as a warm-up for Caro's LBJ series
The Bible (perpetual, I don't get through it every year, but I get through much of it, often)
EDIT: I also hilariously underestimate the number of books I want to read. Here's one more I think is vital for my 2020:
The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science
My top priority books:
Software Requirements - Karl Wiegers
Programming TypeScript - Boris Cherny
Associate Cloud Engineer Study - Dan Sullivan
Design Patterns - Gang of Four
Refactoring - Kent Beck, Martin Fowler
Programming Pearls - Jon Bentley
Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture - Martin Fowler
The Pragmatic Programmer - David Thomas, Andrew Hunt
CSS: The Definitive Guide - Eric A. Meyer, Estelle Weyl
Working Effectively with Legacy Code - Michael Feathers
Head First Design Patterns - Eric Freeman, Bert Bates
Code Complete - Steve McConnell
Peopleware - Tim Lister, Tom DeMarco
Clean Code - Robert C. Martin
The Clean Coder - Robert C. Martin
Clean Architecture - Robert C. Martin
Don't Make Me Think - Steve Krug
Functional Design Patterns for Express.js - Jonathan Lee Martin
The Surrender Experiment - Michael A. Singer
Principles - Ray Dalio
The Power of Now - Eckhart Tolle
The Effective Executive - Peter F. Drucker
Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill
Extreme Ownership - Jocko Willink, Leif Babin
Influence - Robert B. Cialdini
The Startup Way - Eric Ries
The Lean Startup - Eric Ries
12 Rules for Life - Jordan B. Peterson
Measure What Matters - John Doerr, Larry Page
The Fish That Ate the Whale - Rich Cohen
The E-Myth Revisited - Michael E. Gerber
The Score Takes Care of Itself - Bill Walsh, Steve Jamison, Craig Walsh
Management - Peter F. Drucker
Thinking in Systems - Donella H. Meadows
Blue Ocean Strategy - W. Chan Kim, Renee MauborgneI've begun reading The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco, his first novel. It's left a very good impression so far. It's a fourteenth century murder mystery, set in a monastery, where the mystery is mostly an excuse for exploring the historical and cultural contexts, which are very interesting. Wikipedia has a nice summary: "an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies, and literary theory". Eco was a semiotician and a philosopher and he brings the best of that to the table in this book.
I look forward to read “Meditations”[1] by Marcus Aurelius and re-read “Black Swan”[2]. On the _craftsperson_ front I’ve heard good things about “Designing Data-Intensive Applications”[3] by Martin Kleppman.
Also hope to get some good recommendations here :)
[1]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30659.Meditations?ac=1&f...
[2]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/242472.The_Black_Swan?ac...
[3]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23463279-designing-data-...
Also hope to get some good recommendations here :)
[1]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30659.Meditations?ac=1&f...
[2]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/242472.The_Black_Swan?ac...
[3]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23463279-designing-data-...
My compiled list for 2020, as suggested by friends I respect and HN:
General
====
- Master & Margarita (w reader's guide)
- Why we sleep
- The righteous mind: why good people are divided by politics and religion
- The wisdom of insecurity
- The denial of death
- The three body problem (friend's advice: slow burn, stick with it)
- The dubliners
- The devils (Dostoyevski)
- The name of the rose
- Enten-Oller (Kierkegaard)
- Zero to one (Peter Thiel, recommended reading as palantir new joiner - not fantastic but has some thought provoking ideas; i.e. which very important truth would very few people agree with you on?)
Economy/finance
===
- Basic economics (Thomas Sowell)
- How an economy grows and why it crashes
- Know the city
Math
===
- Coffee time in Memphis
- Real analysis (mathematics textbook)
- Problems from the book (Halfway through this one, and I found it really enjoyable, even with only a CS bachelors)
If anyone has read any and has feedback/notes, I'm looking forward to hearing them!
General
====
- Master & Margarita (w reader's guide)
- Why we sleep
- The righteous mind: why good people are divided by politics and religion
- The wisdom of insecurity
- The denial of death
- The three body problem (friend's advice: slow burn, stick with it)
- The dubliners
- The devils (Dostoyevski)
- The name of the rose
- Enten-Oller (Kierkegaard)
- Zero to one (Peter Thiel, recommended reading as palantir new joiner - not fantastic but has some thought provoking ideas; i.e. which very important truth would very few people agree with you on?)
Economy/finance
===
- Basic economics (Thomas Sowell)
- How an economy grows and why it crashes
- Know the city
Math
===
- Coffee time in Memphis
- Real analysis (mathematics textbook)
- Problems from the book (Halfway through this one, and I found it really enjoyable, even with only a CS bachelors)
If anyone has read any and has feedback/notes, I'm looking forward to hearing them!
The Dune movie isn't due until December 2020, but I figured I'd get started with Dune the book, which has been sitting on my bookshelf for a while. Maybe if I enjoy it I will get my hands on the rest of the Dune series.
I plan to reread a couple core works for myself. Of that list the ones that I’d recommend for others are:
Aurelius (trans. Martin Hammond)
Fear and Trembling
Man’s Search for Meaning
Tolstoy’s Confessions
Kundera’s The Art of the Novel
After doing a thorough reading of “How to Read a Book” I decided to try rereading a few books to pull more out of them.
I can’t recommend “How to Read a Book” enough - despite its anachronisms and glaring faults, it’s the only book I’ve found that has genuinely made me feel that I’ve not really read a single book in my life.
After doing a thorough reading of “How to Read a Book” I decided to try rereading a few books to pull more out of them.
I can’t recommend “How to Read a Book” enough - despite its anachronisms and glaring faults, it’s the only book I’ve found that has genuinely made me feel that I’ve not really read a single book in my life.
To start the year off, my casual just-before-sleep reading will be "Ender's Shadow", which is a story that isn't a prequel or a sequel to "Ender's Game", but a story parallel to it.
"What We Cannot Know", which is an exploration of all the topics that we might never be able to know, such as how to predict the weather, is the universe infinite etc.
"Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder", because it's dauntingly long and I'm feeling masochistic.
"Commodore - A Company on the Edge" because I really enjoyed "Revolution in the Valley: The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made", so I think I'll also like seeing how another computer I really like (the Commodore 64) came about.
"What We Cannot Know", which is an exploration of all the topics that we might never be able to know, such as how to predict the weather, is the universe infinite etc.
"Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder", because it's dauntingly long and I'm feeling masochistic.
"Commodore - A Company on the Edge" because I really enjoyed "Revolution in the Valley: The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made", so I think I'll also like seeing how another computer I really like (the Commodore 64) came about.
Lifespan: Why We Age-and Why We Don't Have To - David Sinclair [1]
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Lifespan-Why-Age-Dont-Have-ebook/dp/B...
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Lifespan-Why-Age-Dont-Have-ebook/dp/B...
USMC Commandant's 2020 Reading List.
This year I am finishing up the Harvard Classics and am looking for a new view point. https://www.myharvardclassics.com/categories/20120612_1
Unfortunately, the military only publish on New Years Day (traditionally as a sort of holiday gift to those under command), so the 2020 list is not out yet. Every title is free via either the base library or the Navy Digital Library. Most have free audio book narration. There are discussion guides also provided for free. The website is very easy to use and poke around in, I'd suggest looking at it from a Dev standpoint alone. That said, the 2019 list is here: https://grc-usmcu.libguides.com/usmc-reading-list
There are a LOT of titles so here are the Poolee through PFC levels:
Poolee:
BATTLE CRY by Leon Uris
CORPS VALUES by Zell Miller
GATES OF FIRE: AN EPIC NOVEL OF THE BATTLE OF THERMOPYLAE by Steven Pressfield
GRIT: THE POWER OF PASSION AND PERSEVERANCE by Angela Duckworth
STARSHIP TROOPERS by Robert A. Heinlein
PFC through Lance Corporal:
CHESTY by Jon T. Hoffman
ENDER'S GAME by Orson Scott Card
THE LAST STAND OF FOX COMPANY: A TRUE STORY OF U.S. MARINES IN COMBAT by Bob Drury
THE MARINES OF MONTFORD POINT: AMERICA'S FIRST BLACK MARINES by Melton Alonza McLaurin
ON CALL IN HELL by Richard Jadick; Thomas Hayden
READY PLAYER ONE by Ernest Cline
RIFLEMAN DODD: A NOVEL OF THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN by C. S. Forester
THE WARRIOR ETHOS by Steven Pressfield
The 2020 list should have some froth in it (Greitens likely won't stay, but who knows, judge the art not the artist). I think it'll be a good look into a Corps that has been punched for a long time in Afghanistan. Still, some great titles in there.
This year I am finishing up the Harvard Classics and am looking for a new view point. https://www.myharvardclassics.com/categories/20120612_1
Unfortunately, the military only publish on New Years Day (traditionally as a sort of holiday gift to those under command), so the 2020 list is not out yet. Every title is free via either the base library or the Navy Digital Library. Most have free audio book narration. There are discussion guides also provided for free. The website is very easy to use and poke around in, I'd suggest looking at it from a Dev standpoint alone. That said, the 2019 list is here: https://grc-usmcu.libguides.com/usmc-reading-list
There are a LOT of titles so here are the Poolee through PFC levels:
Poolee:
BATTLE CRY by Leon Uris
CORPS VALUES by Zell Miller
GATES OF FIRE: AN EPIC NOVEL OF THE BATTLE OF THERMOPYLAE by Steven Pressfield
GRIT: THE POWER OF PASSION AND PERSEVERANCE by Angela Duckworth
STARSHIP TROOPERS by Robert A. Heinlein
PFC through Lance Corporal:
CHESTY by Jon T. Hoffman
ENDER'S GAME by Orson Scott Card
THE LAST STAND OF FOX COMPANY: A TRUE STORY OF U.S. MARINES IN COMBAT by Bob Drury
THE MARINES OF MONTFORD POINT: AMERICA'S FIRST BLACK MARINES by Melton Alonza McLaurin
ON CALL IN HELL by Richard Jadick; Thomas Hayden
READY PLAYER ONE by Ernest Cline
RIFLEMAN DODD: A NOVEL OF THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN by C. S. Forester
THE WARRIOR ETHOS by Steven Pressfield
The 2020 list should have some froth in it (Greitens likely won't stay, but who knows, judge the art not the artist). I think it'll be a good look into a Corps that has been punched for a long time in Afghanistan. Still, some great titles in there.
I want to finish to read Snowden’s autobiography: “Permanent Record”.
I started during a long train trip recently and found that I really enjoyed the tone of the first few chapters.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_Record_(autobiogra...
I started during a long train trip recently and found that I really enjoyed the tone of the first few chapters.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_Record_(autobiogra...
I'm hoping to tackle this list in 2020, I've been wanting to read Caro's LBJ series for a while now.
=====
Robert Caro - Lyndon B. Johnson series & The Power Broker
S.C Gwynne - Empire of the Summer Moon
Nassim Nicholas Taleb - Black Swan & Antifragile
Graham Hancock - America Before
Jared Diamond - Guns, Germs and Steel
Safi Bahcall - Loonshots
=====
Robert Caro - Lyndon B. Johnson series & The Power Broker
S.C Gwynne - Empire of the Summer Moon
Nassim Nicholas Taleb - Black Swan & Antifragile
Graham Hancock - America Before
Jared Diamond - Guns, Germs and Steel
Safi Bahcall - Loonshots
My 2019 reading list
"Between the world and me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates
"A people's history of the United States" by Howard Zinn
"A people's history of the United States" by Howard Zinn
My bare minimum is learn more about Alan Watts and his books. I saw him mentioned here many times but it wasn’t until I started reading one of the books that I got hooked by his way of explaining fundamental life stuff.
The Body - Bill Bryson
Seven Brief Lessons on Physics - Rovelli, Carlo
Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman
Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment - Robert Wright
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind - Yuval Noah Harari
Seven Brief Lessons on Physics - Rovelli, Carlo
Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman
Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment - Robert Wright
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind - Yuval Noah Harari
Leisure Stuff:
Boom Town: The Fantastical Saga Of Oklahoma City, It's Chaotic Founding... by Sam Anderson
Midnight In Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham
Dune by Frank Herbert
The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu (tried it this year and stopped, want to give it another go)
Stories of Your Life and Others - Ted Chiang (just finished Exhalation and I think it's great)
An Ursula K. Le Guin novel, have not picked one out yet
A book related to basketball (possibly Dream Team, but IDK yet)
Less Leisure Stuff:
Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration and How to Achieve Real Reform by John Pfaff
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
The End Of Policing by Alex S Vitale
Either Manufacturing Consent or Understanding Power by Chomsky
The Annotated Turing by Charles Petzold
Work:
Code Complete 2 by Steve McConnell
The Web Application Hacker's Handbook: Finding and Exploiting Security Flaws by Dafydd Stuttard, Marcus Pinto
Finish Writing An Interpreter In Go by Thorsten Ball
If I can get through all of these, I will be very pleased. Throw in a book or two at recommendation from friends and I think I'm full for the year.
Boom Town: The Fantastical Saga Of Oklahoma City, It's Chaotic Founding... by Sam Anderson
Midnight In Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham
Dune by Frank Herbert
The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu (tried it this year and stopped, want to give it another go)
Stories of Your Life and Others - Ted Chiang (just finished Exhalation and I think it's great)
An Ursula K. Le Guin novel, have not picked one out yet
A book related to basketball (possibly Dream Team, but IDK yet)
Less Leisure Stuff:
Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration and How to Achieve Real Reform by John Pfaff
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
The End Of Policing by Alex S Vitale
Either Manufacturing Consent or Understanding Power by Chomsky
The Annotated Turing by Charles Petzold
Work:
Code Complete 2 by Steve McConnell
The Web Application Hacker's Handbook: Finding and Exploiting Security Flaws by Dafydd Stuttard, Marcus Pinto
Finish Writing An Interpreter In Go by Thorsten Ball
If I can get through all of these, I will be very pleased. Throw in a book or two at recommendation from friends and I think I'm full for the year.
I feel like I'm way behind on fundamentals so mostly textbooks. I'm focused on CS, maths, and finance mainly, not sure I'll achieve this in a year, kind of my perpetual read this within 10 years list. I'm also interested in literature but prefer reading to enrich my knowledge and skills as opposed to reading for leisure :
Maths:
James Stewart's Precalculus
Spivak's Calculus
How to Solve It
Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
I Am a Strange Loop
Introduction to Linear Algebra
Euclid's Elements
The Principia: The Authoritative Translation and Guide: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
CS:
The Algorithm Design Manual
Finish SICP
Computer Networking: A Top Down Approach
Computer Systems: A Programmer's Persepctive
C Programming: A Modern Approach, 2nd Edition
Operating Systems: 3 Easy pieces
Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment
Hacking: The Art of Exploitation
The Elements of Computing Systems: Building a Modern Computer from First Principles
Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools
Lions' Commentary on Unix
TCP/IP Illustrated
Finance/Econ/Business:
Liar's Poker
Investor Z (Manga)
Trading & Exchanges
Dynamic Hedging: Managing Vanilla and Exotic Options
Python for Finance: Mastering Data-Driven Finance
Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on it
Alpha Masters
Fooling Some of the People All of Time
Dark Pools
When Genius Failed
Advances in Financial Machine Learning
Algorithmic Trading
Other:
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free productivity
Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes
Chaos: Making a New Science
Networks, Crowds, and Markets: Reasoning about a Highly Connected World
Data and Reality: A Timeless Perspective on Perceiving and Managing Information in Our Imprecise World
Maths:
James Stewart's Precalculus
Spivak's Calculus
How to Solve It
Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
I Am a Strange Loop
Introduction to Linear Algebra
Euclid's Elements
The Principia: The Authoritative Translation and Guide: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
CS:
The Algorithm Design Manual
Finish SICP
Computer Networking: A Top Down Approach
Computer Systems: A Programmer's Persepctive
C Programming: A Modern Approach, 2nd Edition
Operating Systems: 3 Easy pieces
Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment
Hacking: The Art of Exploitation
The Elements of Computing Systems: Building a Modern Computer from First Principles
Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools
Lions' Commentary on Unix
TCP/IP Illustrated
Finance/Econ/Business:
Liar's Poker
Investor Z (Manga)
Trading & Exchanges
Dynamic Hedging: Managing Vanilla and Exotic Options
Python for Finance: Mastering Data-Driven Finance
Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on it
Alpha Masters
Fooling Some of the People All of Time
Dark Pools
When Genius Failed
Advances in Financial Machine Learning
Algorithmic Trading
Other:
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free productivity
Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes
Chaos: Making a New Science
Networks, Crowds, and Markets: Reasoning about a Highly Connected World
Data and Reality: A Timeless Perspective on Perceiving and Managing Information in Our Imprecise World
Next up on my list is Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
I was given it as a gift from a friend and have seen it recommend here on HN
I was given it as a gift from a friend and have seen it recommend here on HN
AH! So many books to read.. I always get excited when I see these type of threads (because I can get new worthy books to add to my list), but on the other hand I get depressed that it is pretty damn hard to catch up with everything that I want to read.
My list would be too long to post, but these are the ones next in line: - Meditations - Digital Minimalism - I Ching - Art of War - Tao Te King - Steppenwolf - Think and grow rich
In general want to focus on books of: business, leadership, self development, productivity and spiritualism (mostly buddhism).
My list would be too long to post, but these are the ones next in line: - Meditations - Digital Minimalism - I Ching - Art of War - Tao Te King - Steppenwolf - Think and grow rich
In general want to focus on books of: business, leadership, self development, productivity and spiritualism (mostly buddhism).
3 or 4 Discworld books, as in every year. Starting with Soul Music this time, in publication order.
Designing Data Intensive Applications.
Some books on leadership from the recent HN discussion, not decided which yet.
Death's End (book 3 of The Three Body Problem). The first two were really good.
The Algorithm Design Manual. Domain Driven Design.
Some chess books. Some general science and history. The yearly random self help book.
If I manage all that plus whatever I'll decide I want in the actual year, it will be a good year for reading, but maybe I need to have some more focus. We'll see.
Designing Data Intensive Applications.
Some books on leadership from the recent HN discussion, not decided which yet.
Death's End (book 3 of The Three Body Problem). The first two were really good.
The Algorithm Design Manual. Domain Driven Design.
Some chess books. Some general science and history. The yearly random self help book.
If I manage all that plus whatever I'll decide I want in the actual year, it will be a good year for reading, but maybe I need to have some more focus. We'll see.
These are on my list:
Five Dysfuncitons of a Team: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21343.The_Five_Dysfuncti...
The Advantage: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12975375-the-advantage
Five Dysfuncitons of a Team: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21343.The_Five_Dysfuncti...
The Advantage: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12975375-the-advantage
I don’t have a list handy but I do intend to read a lot. Every year I make the same New Year’s Resolution: read one book a week. The closest I came to 52 was in 2011 when I read 36. I do this because I calculated that if I met my goal from the age of 16 to 90, I’d only read 3,900 books. I grew up an avid reader and the decline in my intake bums me out. So here’s to 52 in 2020!
Everyone else with nice collections of books.
Mine :
Harry Potter
Mine :
Harry Potter
Well here are the books I’m currently reading (physical, kindle, and audible). I bounce around a lot. Sometimes it takes me a week to finish a book, other times I take a few months. Sometimes I never finish. But these are the ones I have some progress on so far:
1. Faust by goethe
2. I am That
3. Book of why
4. The gift by hafiz
5. Simulacra and simulation
6. Candide by Voltaire
7. Meeting the shadow: the hidden power of the dark side of human nature
8. Nonviolent communication
9. After the ecstasy, the laundry
10. Watchmen
11. Noble heart by Pena chodron
12. Developer hegemony
13. Brothers karamazov
1. Faust by goethe
2. I am That
3. Book of why
4. The gift by hafiz
5. Simulacra and simulation
6. Candide by Voltaire
7. Meeting the shadow: the hidden power of the dark side of human nature
8. Nonviolent communication
9. After the ecstasy, the laundry
10. Watchmen
11. Noble heart by Pena chodron
12. Developer hegemony
13. Brothers karamazov
Hopefully I'll knock at least a couple off my "most shameful not to have read" list:
- Paradise Lost
- The Divine Comedy
- The Aeneid
- Moby Dick
- Middlemarch
- Othello & at least the lesser Henriad
- Any of several Russian novels, of which I've read none (War and Peace, Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment probably being the biggest)
- Kafka's The Trial
- The Canterbury Tales (I've read Sir Gawain & The Green Knight but not this, WTF is wrong with me?)
- Don Quixote
- Paradise Lost
- The Divine Comedy
- The Aeneid
- Moby Dick
- Middlemarch
- Othello & at least the lesser Henriad
- Any of several Russian novels, of which I've read none (War and Peace, Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment probably being the biggest)
- Kafka's The Trial
- The Canterbury Tales (I've read Sir Gawain & The Green Knight but not this, WTF is wrong with me?)
- Don Quixote
[deleted]
A lot of what I read in 2020 will involve just finishing titles I started in 2019 (or before). So my "To read in 2020" list already has a lot of stuff on it.
But to name ones that I very specifically want to read/finish sooner than later... hmm... there are a number of books that fall more into the realms of history / anthropology / etc., that I have been meaning to read. Books like Guns, Germs, and Steel, and Sapiens - things of that nature. One of those that I'm already on, but probably won't finish before Jan 1, is Human Universals by Donald Brown.
I also want to get through some books on writing/reading mathematical proofs. Mathematical Reasoning: Writing and Proof by Ted Sundstrom, or The Book of Proof by Richard Hammack.
Another one I hope to get through is Designing Data-Intensive Applications.
But to name ones that I very specifically want to read/finish sooner than later... hmm... there are a number of books that fall more into the realms of history / anthropology / etc., that I have been meaning to read. Books like Guns, Germs, and Steel, and Sapiens - things of that nature. One of those that I'm already on, but probably won't finish before Jan 1, is Human Universals by Donald Brown.
I also want to get through some books on writing/reading mathematical proofs. Mathematical Reasoning: Writing and Proof by Ted Sundstrom, or The Book of Proof by Richard Hammack.
Another one I hope to get through is Designing Data-Intensive Applications.
The Body: A Guide for Occupants
The Topeka School: A Novel
The Yellow House
Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?
Life Undercover: Coming of Age in the CIA
AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order
The Strange Order of Things: Life, Feeling, and the Making of Cultures
Mastery
Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance
Places and Names: On War, Revolution, and Returning
Never Lost Again: The Google Mapping Revolution That Sparked New Industries and Augmented Our Reality
Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations
Alone at Dawn: Medal of Honor Recipient John Chapman and the Untold Story of the World's Deadliest Special Operations Force
Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead
Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don't Know
Some of the books in my 2020 to be read basket:
Cultural Amnesia by Clive James
Exhalation by Ted Chiang
Silver, Sword & Stone: Three Crucibles in the Latin American Story by Maria Arana
The World As I Found It by Bruce Duffy
Alice And Bob Meet The Wall Of Fire edited by Thomas Lin
Masscult and Midcult by Dwight Macdonald
Big Bang by David Bowman
White Noise by Don DeLillo
The Wizard and the Prophet by Charles C. Mann
A House for Mr. Biwas by V. S. Naipaul
A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace
On The Abolition Of All Political Parties by Simone Weil
Collected Stories by Bruno Schulz
On Being The Right Size by J. B. S. Haldane
Bela Tarr, The Time After by Jacques Ranciere
La Vida Breve by Juan Carlos Onetti
The Clown by Heinrich Boll
Memoirs From Beyond The Grave by Francois-Rene De Chateubriand
Blood Dark by Louis Guilloux
The Liberal Imagination by Lionel Trilling
Cuentos Completos by Juan Carlos Onetti
Balcony In The Forest by Julien Gracq
Historia De España Contada Para Escépticos by Juan Eslava Galán
Diez Lecciones Sobre Los Clásicos by Piero Boitani
Waiting For The Barbarians by J. M. Coetzee
97,196 Words by Emmanuel Carrere
Brief Interviews With Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace
El Zafarrancho Aquel De Via Merulana by Carlo Emilio Gadda
Cultural Amnesia by Clive James
Exhalation by Ted Chiang
Silver, Sword & Stone: Three Crucibles in the Latin American Story by Maria Arana
The World As I Found It by Bruce Duffy
Alice And Bob Meet The Wall Of Fire edited by Thomas Lin
Masscult and Midcult by Dwight Macdonald
Big Bang by David Bowman
White Noise by Don DeLillo
The Wizard and the Prophet by Charles C. Mann
A House for Mr. Biwas by V. S. Naipaul
A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace
On The Abolition Of All Political Parties by Simone Weil
Collected Stories by Bruno Schulz
On Being The Right Size by J. B. S. Haldane
Bela Tarr, The Time After by Jacques Ranciere
La Vida Breve by Juan Carlos Onetti
The Clown by Heinrich Boll
Memoirs From Beyond The Grave by Francois-Rene De Chateubriand
Blood Dark by Louis Guilloux
The Liberal Imagination by Lionel Trilling
Cuentos Completos by Juan Carlos Onetti
Balcony In The Forest by Julien Gracq
Historia De España Contada Para Escépticos by Juan Eslava Galán
Diez Lecciones Sobre Los Clásicos by Piero Boitani
Waiting For The Barbarians by J. M. Coetzee
97,196 Words by Emmanuel Carrere
Brief Interviews With Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace
El Zafarrancho Aquel De Via Merulana by Carlo Emilio Gadda