Ananyo Bhattacharya, The Man From the Future – A biography not only of the genius’s genius, John von Neumann, but also of von Neumann’s ideas and influence, which are nearly impossible to exaggerate. Serious and brilliantly-written.
His annual books-of-the-year list, each title with his own one- or two-line verdict. The post states that its Bookshop and Amazon links may generate referral fees, so every entry from it is marked affiliate.
Michael Brooks, The Art of More – The history of how ideas in mathematics (such as algebra, geometry, statistics and accountancy) helped to shape the modern world. Given my own predelictions I was delighted with this book.
His annual books-of-the-year list, each title with his own one- or two-line verdict. The post states that its Bookshop and Amazon links may generate referral fees, so every entry from it is marked affiliate.
Adam Rutherford and Hannah Fry, The Complete Guide to Absolutely Everything – just delightful, wide-ranging stuff from the surely best science-communication double-act in the world. The perfect gift for the nerd in your life.
His annual books-of-the-year list, each title with his own one- or two-line verdict. The post states that its Bookshop and Amazon links may generate referral fees, so every entry from it is marked affiliate.
David Bodanis, The Art of Fairness – A delightful and moving exploration of nice guys, nasty guys, and what it takes to succeed without being a jerk.
His annual books-of-the-year list, each title with his own one- or two-line verdict. The post states that its Bookshop and Amazon links may generate referral fees, so every entry from it is marked affiliate.
Burkeman’s book is one of the hits of the summer and deservedly so.
His annual books-of-the-year list, each title with his own one- or two-line verdict. The post states that its Bookshop and Amazon links may generate referral fees, so every entry from it is marked affiliate.
Jordan Ellenberg, Shape – A really fun, witty exploration of ideas in geometry and their surprisingly wide-ranging application.
His annual books-of-the-year list, each title with his own one- or two-line verdict. The post states that its Bookshop and Amazon links may generate referral fees, so every entry from it is marked affiliate.
Julia Galef, The Scout Mindset – A charming and original contribution to the genre on being open-minded and curious. Great stories and ideas, alongside a serious argument for the virtues of exploring rather than defending ideas.
His annual books-of-the-year list, each title with his own one- or two-line verdict. The post states that its Bookshop and Amazon links may generate referral fees, so every entry from it is marked affiliate.
Malcolm Gladwell, The Bomber Mafia – Gladwell’s podcast company Pushkin publishes my Cautionary Tales podcast, but is also experimenting with ‘enhanced audiobooks’. This is their first attempt and it’s a cracker.
His annual books-of-the-year list; he discloses in this entry that Gladwell’s Pushkin publishes his own podcast. The post also states its Bookshop and Amazon links may generate referral fees.
Adam Grant, Think Again – Grant is always witty and humane, but assembles a terrific range of ideas and research to analyse and overcome the obstacles to rethinking our own views and (even harder) persuading others to rethink theirs.
His annual books-of-the-year list, each title with his own one- or two-line verdict. The post states that its Bookshop and Amazon links may generate referral fees, so every entry from it is marked affiliate.
Steven Johnson, Extra Life – Johnson explores the astonishing expansion in life expectancy over the last two hundred years, and asks how we measure it and who – and what – deserves the credit. Wide ranging and a pleasure to read.
His annual books-of-the-year list, each title with his own one- or two-line verdict. The post states that its Bookshop and Amazon links may generate referral fees, so every entry from it is marked affiliate.
Cal Newport, A World Without Email – this is marketed as a self-help book by a self-help guy, but it’s much more than that.
His annual books-of-the-year list, each title with his own one- or two-line verdict. The post states that its Bookshop and Amazon links may generate referral fees, so every entry from it is marked affiliate.
Steven Pinker, Rationality – the joy of this book (other than Pinker’s playful wit) is the sheer range.
His annual books-of-the-year list, each title with his own one- or two-line verdict. The post states that its Bookshop and Amazon links may generate referral fees, so every entry from it is marked affiliate.
Gillian Tett, Anthro-Vision – my colleague Gillian Tett makes the case for thinking like an anthropologist in business and in life. The description of how KitKats took Japan by storm is a particular delight.
His annual books-of-the-year list, each title with his own one- or two-line verdict. The post states that its Bookshop and Amazon links may generate referral fees, so every entry from it is marked affiliate.
Every entry is a verbatim quote and a link to the public post it came from. Nothing is paraphrased. If it is not on record somewhere public, it is not here.
The verdict is what they actually said: loved and liked are explicit; recommended means they told others to get it; uses means they only say they use it; read is a book on their public shelf with no verdict; mixed and disliked are kept too.
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The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is for its kind of thing.
The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is, for its kind of thing. Fully green is recent. It drains a quarter at a time as the post gets older, and is empty once it reads as dated.
What counts as old depends on the thing. A laptop praised four years ago has been replaced twice; a book loved twenty years ago is probably still loved. The shading is gone after about:
Hardware, services4 years
Software5 years
Podcasts, courses, other8 years
Books25 years
Stripes mean the post carries no date and the date shown is an estimate. No date at all, no shading.