2020 reading list
I made it a point to read every day in 2020. Most days I read first thing every morning and every night before bed; sometimes it would be no more than a few pages, but even that adds up over time. Altogether I read 54 books, with a few rereads.
The general themes of this year were history, political philosophy, Kierkegaard, and technology. I generally found books through recommendations from authors, Tyler Cowen, or the citations of books I found good.
In the coming year I am striving to read specific authors and topics deeply. I am thinking I will continue reading Kierkegaard, political philosophy, and perhaps progress studies. I always appreciate recommendations if you have them.
These were my top reads of the year:
Here’s this year’s reads, starting with what I read most recently:
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Has the West Lost it? by Kishore Mahbubani
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Making Moonshots by Rahul Rana
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Stubborn Attachment by Tyler Cowen
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The True Believer by Eric Hoffer
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Working in Public by Nadia Eghbal
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The Kierkegaard and Girard Option by Charles K. Bellinger
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Notes from the Underground by Dostoevsky
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History has Begun by Bruno Maçães
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Existential America by George Cotz
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Inventing The Individual: The Origins of Western Liberalism by Larry Siedentop
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Exile and The Kingdom by Albert Camus
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The Decadent Society by Ross Douthat
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An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back by Elisabeth Rosenthal
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Lifespan by David Sinclair
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Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling: a reader by Clare Carlisle
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The Telomere Effect: A Revolutionary Approach to Living Younger, Healthier, Longer by Elizabeth Blackburn
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Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke
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The Present Age by Kierkegaard
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Kierkegaard on The Present Age by Gordon Marino
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The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus
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The Tycoons by Charles R. Morris
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The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn by Richard Hamming
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Zero to One by Peter Thiel
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Philosopher of the Heart: The Restless Life of Soren Kierkegaard by Clare Carlisle
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History Has Begun by Bruno Maçães
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The Sickness Unto Death: A Christian Psychological Exposition for Upbuilding and Awakening by Soren Kierkegaard
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Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
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Letters to a Young Contrarian by Christopher Hitchens
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How Asia Works: Success and Failure in the World's Most Dynamic Region by Joe Studwell
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The Concept of Anxiety: A Simple Psychologically Oriented Deliberation in View of the Dogmatic Problem of Hereditary Sin by Soren Kierkegaard
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The Pursuit of Glory: Europe 1648-1815 by Timothy C.W. Blanning
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The Death of Jesus by J.M. Coetzee
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The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World and Globalization Began by Valerie Hansen
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Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World by Rene Girard
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The Evolution of New Markets by P.A. Geroski
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The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect by Judea Pearl
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The Future and Its Enemies: The Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise, and Progress by Virginia Postrel
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Synthetic: How Life Got Made by Sophia Roosth
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The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee
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The Beautiful Cure: Harnessing Your Body's Natural Defences by Daniel M. Davis
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Long Shot: Vaccines for National Defense by Kendall Hoyt
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Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier and Happier by Edward L. Glaeser
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Create Dangerously: The Power and Responsibility of the Artist by Albert Camus
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Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar by Tom Holland
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Reputation and Power: Organizational Image and Pharmaceutical Regulation at the FDA by Daniel Carpenter
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The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority by Martin Gurri
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The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success by Ross Douthat
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The Quotable Kierkegaard by Gordon Marino
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Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World by Tom Holland
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Why Liberalism Failed by Patrick J. Deneen
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A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy (Graz Schumpeter Lectures) by Joel Mokyr
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Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella H. Meadows