This was an amazing year for reading. For a variety of reasons—some enjoyable, others less so—I ended up reading an unusually large number of books. This is noteworthy for me because I am a slow reader. Yet, by the end of 2024, I managed to finish 24 books, the most I’ve read in a year […]
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In 2023, I managed to finish reading 18 books, a bit more than the previous year but fewer than in 2020. During the pandemic in 2020, when I was spending long hours at home, I had more time to read. Even though I read more this year, I found myself losing interest in several books
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With so little time available and an abundance of books to read, I believe one of the most complex tasks is making choices. The presence of numerous good books makes it impossible to select the best ones. Therefore, I have decided that I will try to focus only on those books that have stood the
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For the first time since 2012 I read more than 20 books in a single year, including novels by Nobel Prize winners Naguib Mahfouz (Palace Walk) and Doris Lessing (The Fifth Child). I am a slow reader and typically I can read only at night, but still I am excited with this little accomplishment. If
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2020 obviously was a fantastic year for reading. I read 17 books, which is more that the double than the previous year. Here are some of the books that I enjoyed the most in 2020. Bill Bryson is one of my favorites of all times and it is always a pleasure to read about his
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Frank Brady’s Endgame tells the story of Bobby Fischer, one of the most famous chess players in history. From a young age, Fischer displayed an extraordinary talent for chess. However, he completely disregarded formal education, dedicating himself entirely to mastering the game and becoming the best player in the world. As a young and talented
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The Crusades Through Arab Eyes by Amin Maalouf was originally published in French in 1983. Maalouf, who comes from a Catholic family in Lebanon, was elected to the Académie française in 2011. I started this book after reading a chronicle about the Crusades by Hilaire Belloc, which I found fascinating. Maalouf’s work is equally good.
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Spillover by David Quammen. The book discusses zoonotic diseases, which are illnesses that originate in wild animals and are transmitted to humans, often through an intermediate host species. In Africa, zoonotic diseases sometimes spread when people consume wild animals such as gorillas or chimpanzees. One notable example in the book is the Hendra virus outbreak
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The Crusades by Hilaire Belloc. French-born British historian who wrote in the early 19th century, this book, first published in 1937, is fantastic. I’ve seen some criticism suggesting that Belloc’s Catholic upbringing heavily influenced his writing. However, from reading this book, I did not notice any religious undertones, either subtle or overt. One observation I
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The Wager by David Grann. This book, published in 2023, offers a fascinating glimpse into the challenges of navigating the world in the 18th century. It uses details from 280-year-old logbooks to create a genuine account of the adventure. In my opinion, this story feels more like fact than fiction, as the author has done
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Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah. Professor Gurnah, born in Tanzania, won the Nobel Prize in 2021. He teaches postcolonial literature at the University of Kent in the UK. This is a very unusual coming-of-age story. It begins when Yusuf, the main character, is about 11 years old. He is the younger child in a poor family
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Disgrace by John W. Coetzee. This book hit me hard. It’s one of those novels that leaves you reeling. Another one that had a similar effect on me was “Blindness” by Jose Saramago. I remember feeling down for days after finishing it. “Disgrace” is all about things going terribly wrong. It asks the question: when
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Destined for war: Can America and China escape Thucydides’s trap? by Graham Allison. Lately, I’ve been reading about current global conflicts, starting with “The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy” by John Mearsheimer and “Silent Invasion” by Hamilton Clive. Both authors are academics in the US and Australia, respectively, making their books well-crafted and thoroughly
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Many years ago, I read a short story by Alejandro Jodorowsky, and what blew my mind was how rapidly evolution takes place in this story, unfolding in various directions. Alejandro truly possesses an astonishing power of imagination. He writes in Spanish and resides in France, but I have never come across this story translated into
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