Here’s a quick recap of the books I read in 2023.
I read 27 books last year. That’s consistent with my pace for the past couple of years. I’m impressed by the truly prodigious tallies racked up by other readers I know!
All but one of these were nonfiction, with the fabulous Babel: An Arcane History by R. F. Kuang being the fiction outlier.
My main focus last year was on the environment, nature or climate change. Half the books I read fell into that bucket. The rest were kind of randomly drawn from history, philosophy, general science and wellness.
Some highlights:
Best writing: Under a White Sky by Elizabeth Kolbert, a darkly ironic look at some of the thorniest environmental problems we’ve created, and at some of the solutions too.
Most informative: Introduction to Modern Climate Change by Andrew Dessler, a college level textbook for both science and non-science majors but very accessible to anyone with high school math and chemistry. I learned a huge amount about basic climate science from this book.
Best fiction: Babel: An Arcane History by R. F. Kuang. An easy choice since this was the only novel I read last year! But it was hugely entertaining and wonderfully written too.
I’m looking forward to more great books in 2024.
Thanks for reading.
Unsolicited Feedback 
I gave Stolen Focus to my son for Christmas and he’s read it already and said it was good. I want to read it too — then I hope I’ll learn how to focus better so I can read and learn more!
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I’m glad your son liked it, but I have to say I gave it a mixed review. I think the author diagnoses the problem quite well, but his proposed solutions didn’t strike me as particularly useful. Anyway, here’s my review if you’d like to take a look: https://unsolicitedfeedback.blog/2023/07/13/stolen-focus-book-review/
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Too bad that element was weak, I hope future research will come up with more useful solutions.
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I’ve gotten behind in reading blogs, but I definitely wanted to circle back to congratulate you on these books. Such an important list! You’ve helped me tackle some harder books myself. Several of your books here have made it to my to-read list for 2024, thanks to your reviews through the year.
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Very kind of you Lisa! Thanks so much. Glad you find some of my reviews helpful.
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