Reading in 2023

Almost every year I post what books I have read that year. This serves as a replacement for Goodreads, somehow.

Interestingly I didn't blog here at all last year. Most of my writing was in other places, like a newsletter Bad Software Advice, which is growing in a scary way and honestly is a lot of fun to write.

Anyway, I read some books last year. Ones that I loved have an * next to them are bolded. New authors that I "discovered" in 2023 and will likely read more of:

• George Saunders - have known of him for years but hated the only short story I had read by him, but A Swim in the Pond in the Rain was so good, so lovely, that I'm now working through his short stories from the beginning.
• Kevin Wilson - I think I read his entire catalog in 2023. Holy crap. I wish there was a feature where you can just put an "auto-buy" on any book by a particular author.
• Rich Bragg - starting with an autobiography then reading people's articles is a good way to do things, if you are a robot. Which I guess I am a bit.

Overall, a good year in terms of quality. I have not included the ~12 books that I started but have not finished, or technical material that I should be reading for work that is 20% done.

The books:

• Reboot *
• There is No Antimemetics Division *
• Finding Ultra
• On Earth we are Briefly Gorgeous
• Tunneling to the center of the earth
• Baby, You're gonna be mine
• The Abridged History of Rainfall
• War of the Worldviews
• Four Thousand Weeks *
• The Year of Magical Thinking *
• Breakfast of Champions
• Nothing to See Here *
• The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, & Issa *
• Midnight Library
• All over but the shoutin
• You could make this place beautiful
• Less is Lost
• The Family Fang
• Perfect Little World
• The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil
• We have always lived in the castle *
• Chess Story
• Now is not the time to panic
• Death in Her Hands
• Seven Steeples - this book seems like it was generated from a dare - can you write a book with no plot, that is still somehow quite interesting and makes the reader keep turning the page?
• After the Funeral and other stories *: a side effect of reading The New Yorker occasionally is that the short stories are so good, you will have to buy 2-3 books a year
• Government Cheese
• The Creative Act: A Way of Being
• Dark Pools
• A Random Walk Down Wall Street
• I Am Code
• The Bozo Loop
• Still Life
• A Swim in a Pond in The Rain *
• Technology Strategy Patterns
• City Primeval
• Discipline is Destiny
• Congratulations, by the way
• Accidental Saints
• Put your Ass where Your Heart Wants to Be
• The Art of Thinking Clearly