This post will be a little off-topic for this blog, but since it’s the end of the year, and this seems like a fun post to do.
I finished 23 books in 2021, either in audio or text format, consciously decided not to finish 4, and have about 4 legitimately in progress.
Next year will probably be audiobook heavy, as the smallest members of my household require constant supervision, which is largely incompatible with reading text.
I’ll be linking to a few of my favorites from this year, but note that these are not Amazon affiliate links, just links of convenience.
Completed in 2021:
The Kill Chain by Christian Brose
The Storm Before the Storm by Mike Duncan
Disunited Nations by Peter Zeihan
One Giant Leap by Charles Fishman
Bubble in the Sun by Christopher Knowlton (audio)
The case for Mars by Robert Zubrin
Woodland Homestead by Brett McLeod
Devil Take the Hindmost (audio) by Edward Chancellor
First Principles by Thomas Ricks (audio)
Making Silicon Valley: Innovation and the Growth of High Tech by Christophe Lecuyer
Working Backwards by Colin Bryar
The Price of Tomorrow by Jeff Booth
Cattle Kingdom by Christopher Knowlton
More Money Than God by Sebastien Mallaby
Wanting By Luke Burgis (audio)
Lying for Money (audio) by Dan Davies
Case Red: The Collapse of France by Robert Forczyk (audio)
Powers of Earth by Travis J. I. Corcoran
Six Frigates by Ian Toll
Pacific Crucible by Ian Toll (audio)
The Dragon’s Banker by Scott Warren
Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson
City of Fortune Roger Crowley (audio)
Best of 2021:
Making Silicon Valley: Innovation and the Growth of High Tech
Christophe Lecuyer
This one was amazing. It spans from the era of the vacuum tube in the early 20th century to the 1970s right before the microprocessor was invented. There’s so much detail about how vacuum tubes were developed, became dominant, and were overtaken by semiconductors. It was striking to me how often a new, iconic semiconductor company was born out of a feeling of dissatisfaction and stagnation with the status quo. Also interesting: for a while stock options were viewed with suspicion and carried the taint of communism!
Disunited Nations
Peter Zeihan
Disunited Nations is pretty interesting, but you can get most of the content and the overall jist just from seeking out some of Zeihan’s podcast episode appearances. His whole thesis is that the global order will fragment as the United States willfully recedes from the world stage and that nation-state geography will play an outsized role in determining the new winners. Honestly, I have no idea if Zeihan is full of shit, but it’s an entertaining and thought-provoking read.
Bubble in the Sun
Christopher Knowlton
A fascinating history of land speculation in Florida from the late 1800s to the Great Depression. If you liked this you’ll probably also like Cattle Kingdom by the same author.
Six Frigates
Ian W. Toll
I picked this up after visiting the US Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis, this year. I realized my knowledge of the birth of the US Navy was wholly inadequate and luckily stumbled on Six Frigates. Ian Toll writes pretty compelling naval histories, and I’d recommend his other work as well. Really enjoyed Six Frigates, especially because of how totally unhinged and off-the-wall things could be in the early days of the American experiment.
City of Fortune
Roger Crowley
In a similar vein as above, City of Fortune is the story of the rise of Venice as the pre-eminent naval power of the Mediterranean. It starts with the Venetians getting the 4th Crusade into a lot of trouble and accidentally sacking Constantinople (oops!). Things get a little wild in the Mediterranean after that. Really puts the giant naval paintings adorning the Doge’s Palace into perspective.
Looking into 2022:
I’ve recently become pretty interested in organizational structures and organizational dysfunction1. The most interesting parts of my reading list above were the clear instances of human nature totally derailing a good thing, or poor management nearly destroying an endeavor. Will attempt to find more works in this vein to ‘read’ during my commute.
I was pretty disappointed by my fiction selections in 2021. They were OK at best, and I haven’t even included the books I tried and put down after a few chapters. The ultra-libertarian moon-colonization fantasy/ Heinlein homage, Powers of Earth, was a decent page turner. I came away pretty annoyed with Neal Stephenson’s 700 pages of nothing in the form of Termination Shock. The Dragon’s Banker was at least unique, if not particularly well written. I plan on making it a point to find some higher quality SF&F in 2022.
Another sign of old age?