Recapping 2023: Compilation of 24 books read
Published: December 31, 2023
This year, one of my new year resolutions was to start reading books. For someone like me who did not read at all, building up reading habit is quite tough.
Why? As we live in the world of social media, binge-watching, youtube, and news websites with bite-sized articles, out attention span has suffered greatly. I personally had a problem focusing on things for an extended period of time.
Reading, as it requires a prolonged commitment, is inherently a long-focus activity. This is why a lot of people who grew up among short-attention requiring tasks have hard time building a robust reading habit.
However, I was able to exceed my wildest dreams in 2023 and finished reading 24 books! On top of this, I have read 2 books in Japanese as part of an effort to push my Japanese to native level.
So as the year comes to end, I wanted to list up the books I've read this year and rank them between 1-5 based on below principles:
1. Is it practical/ relevant?
Theoretical/ old books get a lower score as the information provided in them can not be leveraged in real life.
2. Is it succinct?
Some books migh have 1-2 strong messages that can be summarized in an article. But in order to publish a book, you need 100+ written pages. Books that have a lot of filler informtaion have lower ratings.
3. Is it coherent?
Some authors talk about many things, and fail to convey at least 1 important message. It is important to have a strong take-away message in a book, and other important things can be covered in another book/ article.
4. Is it engaging?
Some authors get all of the above 3 right, but the way the book is written makes it very difficult to read. Books from good storyteller are highly rated in this listed.
So without further ado, here are the 24 books I've read this year and hheir accompanying ratings. Note that books are ordered based on their ratings.
Shoe Dog
Rating: 5
Steve Jobs
Rating: 5
Don’t Make Me Think
Rating: 5
Fall in Love With The Problem
Rating: 5
Deep Work
Rating: 5
High Output Management
Rating: 5
Netflix: No Rules Rules
Rating: 5
Elon Musk
Rating: 4
Start With Why
Rating: 4
Quiet
Rating: 4
Purple Cow
Rating: 4
Crossing The Chasm
Rating: 4
Blitzscaling
Rating: 4
企業の科学
Rating: 4
Grit
Rating: 3
The Ride of a Lifetime
Rating: 3
Four Thousand Weeks
Rating: 3
Amp It Up
Rating: 3
Oppenheimer
Rating: 3
Sprint
Rating: 3
Mythical Man Month
Rating: 2
Innovators
Rating: 2
Viral Loop
Rating: 1
The Design of Everyday Things
Rating: 1
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