Books I read in 2024
I never read as many books as I want to. But 2024 was particularly bad. I could read – cover to cover – only 11 books, down by nearly one-third from 16 books I finished in 2023.
I want to blame the change in my job – and the change in my country of residence – for the poor reading record. But that wouldn’t be entirely true. I should’ve spent less time watching, rewatching and re-rewatching stupid sitcoms on Netflix.
Also, I started reading many books only to leave them midway. Here, I’m tempted to blame the writers for bad writing, though I think my rapidly shrinking attention span has a lot to do with it.
By the way, I gave in and bought a Kindle in 2024! I read eight of the 11 books on this beautiful machine. Thanks to the good fellas at Library Genesis, I got all these books for free. E-reading isn’t as bad as I suspected.
Here’re the books I read – and thoroughly enjoyed – in 2024. I’m listing these in no particular order.
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates.
We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates
The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Coates is the conscience of our time. One can always look at him and adjust their moral compass accordingly.
Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger by Charlie Munger. Words of wisdom from an under-appreciated intellectual giant.
Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire by David Remnick. Remnick is a god of writing. This book won Pulitzer. Enough said.
Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built by Duncan Clark.
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance. Really, really great writing.
Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson. The best book I read in 2024.
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard Feynman. It’s a classic.
The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War by Malcolm Gladwell. My takeaway was that Israel could’ve wiped out Hamas without carpet-bombing Gaza. It could do it, but it didn’t.
Trump and Me by Mark Singer. LOL-ROFL kind of hilarious.