My Reading List of 2024
Nothing of a ranking; just books I’ve read this year
I am a slow reader in general, and reading in a learned language is even slower. My occupation is not connected to literature in any way, so the time for reading is always a time free from work. Maybe this is one of the reasons why I cherish the time with a book so tenderly: like a reward, a holiday, a time exclusive and sacred.
As the year ends, I’d like to share with my subscribers which readings inspired me, which disappointed, to which perhaps I should become a more accomplished reader.
Don’t expect exhaustive information on books and their authors in the way literary critics provide. I do neither recommend (for a few books, I do!) nor discourage; I do nothing more here than share my personal impressions.
(Number of pages under each title is indicative; rounded number excluding indexes or endnotes)
Portable Magic
by Emma Smith
A History of Books and Their Readers
320 pages
Rather than a historical monograph on a book as a thing, this is a vibrant collection of adventures of particular titles. Above all, it is a discovery, how books have been intertwined with all kinds of human activity; how the notion of a book itself makes sense only in the dynamics of interaction with humans. Books change people, and every person imprints his or her traces on every volume read, too.
The Notebook. A History of Thinking on Paper
by Roland Allen
390 pages
From dirty roots, beautiful flowers sprout. In a similar way how many of technological innovations which make our lives easier originated in the military, the benefit of ink and paper started from the necessity to count goods and money in a reliable way. From a stem of practicality, a beauty of art flourished. The book is a thoroughly researched history of putting thoughts on paper, not necessarily in the form of words. Artists and scientists, philosophers and caregivers, prolific writers and authors of nothing more than one secret diary in school times, we all rely on taking notes on paper. So strongly, that notes jotted down by nurses or loved ones of COVID patients put on ventilator, helped them fill the gap in consciousness after recovery.
Liberation Day (Stories)
by George Saunders
(Read in fragments)
230 pages
Impeccably precise in his narrative tone George Saunders perhaps exceeds my ability to grasp the language in full. In this collection, the stories which have left a moral anxiety (how would I act in a similar situation?) are “Love Letter” (from an old man to his grandson), and “The Mom of Bold Action”.
Definitely a reading to come back to, along with Lincoln in the Bardo, after having become fluent with easier narrations. The author for whom it is worth to become more mature in literary discerning.
If I were asked how to start a literary adventure with George Saunders, I would point to “Victory Lap”, a story from his earlier collection The Tenth of December. Dynamic, gripping, opening the door to his, uncommon, world of fiction.
American Prometheus
by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin
The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
600 pages
I haven’t seen the lauded movie about J. R. Oppenheimer. I’ve read this thick volume instead.
It is easy to judge from the vintage point of over half a century that has passed. For a person who faces the unknown, and has the power to change the course of history, the choices are not so obvious.
I wish the rich and the mighty of the world today expressed at least a fraction of this moral consideration which Oppenheimer grappled with. The more that they have the advantage of living a long time after Hiroshima. The book provides a deep study of human inventiveness, involvement, doubtfulness and responsibility; compelling not only for those interested in politics or in quantum physics.
An Immense World
by Ed Yong
How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us
355 pages
One of the most perspective-changing books I’ve ever read. Our, human, perception is neither the most accurate nor of the widest range among the living creatures. Read this book to humbly step down from the plinth of the “top of creation”, to choose a correct colour of a ball you want your dog to fetch, and to give up on catching a fly, because it is an uphill battle. Above all, read it to learn more about the immense world, of which we are only a tiny fraction.
Burma Sahib
by Paul Theroux
390 pages
For sure you know, at least vaguely, Animal Farm and 1984 by George Orwell. Books forbidden in our country decades ago for their anti-regime message. Would they be written so, if the author did not serve in his youth as a policeman of British government in Burma (now Myanmar)?
Based on Orwell’s (then Eric Blair’s) Burmese Days, Theroux’s piece of fiction shows how a young man finds himself unfit for the service for which he has been recruited, how he loathes it, and finds a diametrically different vocation.
“There is a short period in everyone’s life when his character is fixed for ever” - Eric Blair, Burmese Days.
I could not help but think of my year of obligatory service in the army, time when my loath against anything military congealed for good, and time when I read demanding works on the history of ideas.
The Great Passion
by James Runcie
260 pages
Whoever listened to, and fell in love with Johan Sebastian Bach’s Matthaus Passion, should make this fictional journey in print. This is a story about growing from boyhood to manhood, about discovering the power of love, and coming to terms with reality so different from one’s wishes.
In the age when “disruptive thinking out of the box” seems to be the most coveted skill, this book reminds about mentorship and apprenticeship, about long-term hard work required to become a master of a craft and to accomplish one’s goals.
Built. The Hidden Stories Behind Our Structures
by Roma Agrawal
275 pages
As a mechanical engineer, I approached this popular book as a fleeting curiosity, but I’ve learned from it a lot. About ancient and contemporary building methods; about salvaging a sinking cathedral in Mexico; how architects used to harness physics to provide water where it was scarce; who and how overhauled the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge; and more.
The author’s wisdom manifests in humility: despite working as a structural engineer on London’s The Shard, she is not dizzy with engineering possibilities.
“Ultimately, our humanity will hold us back from the mega-tall […] We might gaze upwards at our structures and marvel at them, but we also need to feel grounded.”
Angels and Ages
by Adam Gopnik
A Short Book about Darwin, Lincoln and Modern Life
230 pages
Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born on the same day, 12th of February, 1809. Both have imprinted indelible marks on modern understanding of human nature. Lincoln in politics, democracy, understanding of society and nation; Darwin in science: biology and evolution.
For me, parallels and similarities between the two men drawn in the book seem a bit overstretched, but in one brief volume we get two insightful biographies, with highlights on their legacy to our times.
Into the Wild
by Jon Krakauer
(~ 200 pages?)
This is the history of Christopher McCandless alias Alexander Supertramp; a gifted and promising graduate who renounced a career in the rich spheres of American society in the 70’s, and chose to live on his own in the wilderness.
Who knows the movie, will read a lot of background behind the story, learn more about McCandless family, and find alternative explanations of his fate.
Playground
by Richard Powers
380 pages
A multi-threaded novel pertinent to our times. Questions do not leave a reader’s mind long after the book is finished. What are the limits of a friendship, and where is the boundary between misunderstanding and betrayal? How to make a good use of prodigy skills and not harm the planet? What is a life-long passion, and can I recognise the sacrifices of a person who helps me to fulfil it? Perhaps one of the most meaningful novels for the incoming years.
Another Day in the Death of America
by Gary Younge
280 pages
This reportage is not about mass shootings. It is about everyday, single, barely mentioned deaths by guns, which there are several, or dozens of, every day in America.
Gary Younge is a Briton, not an American. “One of the things I struggled most to understand—indeed, one of the aspects of American culture most foreigners find hardest to understand—was the nation’s gun culture”. I cannot understand it too, how a nation which has sent people to the moon and safely back, cannot protect its children from guns. This is why I’ve read this book.
The Fraud
by Zadie Smith
(unfinished)
I have a reader’s problem with Zadie Smith. By all accounts she is a brilliant writer, and her historical novel teems with action, diverse voices, strong characters and disparate points of view. But having read half of it, I could not finish. Maybe, I must read a lot before, to become mature enough to this writing.
In Polish
Jon Krakauer, translated by Krystyna Palmowska
Wszystko za Everest (original title: Into Thin Air)
(Re-read)
The death of many members of two commercial expeditions on Mount Everest in 1986 poses questions about commercialisation of adventures which decades ago were within reach of very few, best-fit climbers. I read this book for the second time, now following people’s motivations and intentions rather than the sequence of facts.
Wrócimy po was. Historie alpejskie.
(We’ll Come to Your Rescue. Alpine Stories)
by Elżbieta Sieradzińska
Far from the widely reported Himalayan tragedies, and set many decades earlier, these are stories of rescue actions in the Alps. Before GPS, before radio communication, endangered climbers’ or tourists’ lives depended on presonal skills, strength and perseverance of the rescuers. Some of the actions succeeded, some did not. A long-lasting reading for every mountain lover.
Next readings in the queue
Orbital by Samantha Harvey and The History of Sound by Ben Shattuck, and a growing pile of other books.
Stay tuned, in the worst case until the next year!
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Thanks for reading; until next time!
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