The Books of 2020
““Develop into a lifelong self-learner through voracious reading; cultivate curiosity and strive to become a little wiser every day.”
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2020 marks the 5th year of this annual reading roundup. Putting it together has been a great addition to my year end reflections, and will inform my reading choices for the year to come.
Although 2020 has been a challenging year for all of us in our own way, I hope that the time we’ve been forced to spend at home has at least allowed you to explore a few great books. Stay curious, feed your imagination, and spend time with the best that others have discovered.
Wishing you a wonderful New Year, with strength, courage and understanding to endure and thrive throughout whatever 2021 has in store.
Mark
P.S. If you’d like me to send over my top reads from 2020 and to join BookMark for 2021, I would absolutely love to share this endless reading journey with you. With your email below, I promise an incredibly value adding once per month note full of my curated reading recommendations and reviews.
If you are still curious, you can also check out the lists I put together for 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.
On to the books…
Biography
Autumn by Karl Ove Knausgård
Having enjoyed Karl Ove’s previous books, I felt particularly drawn to this one. Framed as a letter to his unborn daughter, this book is the first of an autobiographical series based on the four seasons. His ability to examine the mundane and see the wonder in everyday objects and occurrences is spectacular. It's like reading the world described through the eyes of a child, maintaining that sense of childlike wonder. A truly beautiful, inspiring collection of writing.
Winter by Karl Ove Knausgård
Continuing this series, I absolutely loved this book. The idea of a project of letters from a father to an unborn child is very attractive to me, and it is written beautifully.
Spring by Karl Ove Knausgård
While the previous two were mostly short dissections of various everyday objects and occurrences, Spring focused on looking at just one day in his infant daughter's life as if though through a microscope. Karl Ove lingers on every little aspect, and you would think reading an entire book about a single day would get boring, but the way he sees and describes things truly captures the attention. It's like getting a glimpse into the workings of his mind and thoughts. The mundane becomes a chance for intense reflection, and few authors I’ve read have his ability to make the ordinary aspects of everyday life fascinating.
Inadvertent (Why I Write) by Karl Ove Knausgård
I love reading books about the creative process, and find Karl Ove to be a master at clearly communicating his inner dialogue. I enjoy losing myself in the words, his writing is just fun for me to read. I came across this review which sums up this particular book concisely: "Karl Ove discourses on why he writes. He doesn't answer the question, but the way in which he didn't answer it was interesting and engaging."
The Mamba Mentality: How I Play by Kobe Bryant
I really enjoyed the recent Michael Jordan doc The Last Dance. I've never really understood basketball, and the few NBA games I've been to I found incredibly slow and boring. Both the documentary and this book sort of opened that world up to me, and I feel like I "get it" a bit more. The battle of wills, the game within the game. One thing stood out to me as a commonality between the greatness of both Jordan and Kobe- their ability to stay completely present and in the moment. Their mastery of energy, flow and mental state. This book is pretty heavy on basketball tactics and specific players, but the insight into Kobe's mindset is amazing. Another commonality that stands out to me that I want to incorporate more into my life: Kobe's endless curiosity and willingness to ask questions, to the point of being annoying. If someone inspired him or he wanted to learn something, he would just call and pick their brain (at all hours of the day). A great example that Chris Sacca likes to share is the story of Kobe's obsessive approach to startups and investing after retirement:
"Look, if you're serious about this, then prove it to me." Sacca said, "I'm going to send you a bunch of stuff that you should read, a bunch of TED Talks and other videos you should watch, and if you do your homework then I'll talk to you about investing." It was funny because I didn't think he was going to do it. I thought it was kind of a nice way to let him off easy.
So, sure enough, for the next few months my phone never stops buzzing in the middle of the night. It's Kobe, reading this article, checking out this tweet, following this guy, diving into this Ted Talk, diving into the Y Combinator Demo Day stuff. And I'm getting these texts, literally two or three in the morning, and my wife is like, "Are you having an affair with Kobe Bryant? What is happening here?"
Eat a Peach by David Chang
I picked this up on a whim visiting Old Faithful in Gastown and read it in a few sittings. I like a good memoir, and this didn't disappoint. He talks about his journey and growth of Momofuku, from opening a simple noodle restaurant to expanding to 15 locations along with a great Netflix show. I appreciated his honesty about mental health and struggles with success. On a related note, I've enjoyed Dave's podcast, which has a few "Dads" episodes where he discusses parenting wins and failures with friends.
Philosophy
Lives of the Stoics: The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
I was passively interested for this to come out, because although I’m a huge Ryan Holiday fan, this seemed like it might be too academic/potentially boring. That definitely wasn’t the case. Following a detailed timeline and mini-biographies of key stoic figures, the lessons from their lives and insight into the history of Rome was a pleasure to read. I tried to read through one bio each day for a month, and found myself really looking forward to the next character.
Business/Other
Range by David Epstein
This book is one of those that I had heard about in multiple places, and high praise from people I trust pushed it to the top of my priority list. The authors podcast with David Chang gives a good introduction, and the subtitle "Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World" sparked my interest. It really resonated with the strategy I am trying to take in building up knowledge across a broad range of domains so as to have plenty of examples, ideas and concepts to combine in novel ways. It reinforced and helped justify my aim of being an interdisciplinary, multi-hyphenate individual.
Levels of the Game by John McPhee
I could never seem to find a copy of this until heading to Powell's early in the year. It's an entire book about a single tennis match between Arthur Ashe and Clark Graebner in 1968, and Tim Ferriss has recommended it often enough that I've been meaning to check it out. It's a short read, but there is a ton packed into the pages. John McPhee not only brilliantly gives a stroke-by-stroke analysis of the match itself, but also elegantly describes the biographies of Ashe and Graebner along with the racial context of the time. The writing is extremely compact and concise, and provides an outstanding example of a well composed story.
Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It by Kamal Ravikant
This has been on my radar for years, and I learned that Kamal had just published this updated version. As a side note, his brother Naval is one of my favourite modern thinkers, and if you have Twitter I highly recommend giving him a follow. For a good introduction to Naval, check out his interview on the Joe Rogan podcast. As for this particular book, the recent conversation between Aubrey Marcus and Kamal was what inspired me to finally read it. It's short, with a simple message- simple, but not easy. What I'm learning more and more is that there are many things such as "loving yourself" that seem easy, but there's a reason there are endless podcast discussions and books written about these topics- we all seem to struggle with the same challenges. Loving yourself is a practice to be developed, and an extremely important one at that. This book is packed with great strategies and habits to incorporate into your life.
101 Things I Learned in Architecture School by Matthew Frederick
My interest in architecture continues to grow, and this brief read does a good job of simplifying basic principles and concepts.
A Place of My Own: The Architecture of Daydreams by Michael Pollen
I had listened to a podcast with Michael Pollen where he mentioned this book outlining his journey to build his own space to read, write and think. Well written and well researched, it also contains a lot of great information about the history and evolution of building and structures.
The Scientist in the Crib by Alison Gopnik, Andrew Meltzoff and Patricia Kuhl
“When we look attentively, carefully, and thoughtfully at the things around us, they invariably turn out to be more interesting, more orderly, more complex, more strange, and more wonderful than we ever would have imagined.” This passage could just have easily described “Autumn”. This book came heavily recommended from Steve Jurvetson via Tim Ferriss, and I spent a lot of time with it. It opened up plenty of ideas about learning and development, and it provided insight into my own learning process. More than usual, I found myself pausing to think and digest the findings and their implications, and this book shifted many of my long-held views and assumptions. “Celebrate the childlike mind”. A good reminder.
A Little Book of Japanese Contentments by Erin Niimi Longhurst
I was drawn to this wandering around Granville Island (oh how long until we can do that again?!). It's beautifully designed and provides a good introduction to Japanese concepts like Ikigai (purpose) and Wabi-sabi (the beauty of imperfection and impermanence).
Poor Charlie's Almanack by Charlie Munger
I returned to this book to take some detailed notes, and it’s my “start here” recommendation for anyone wanting to learn about business or thinking in general. Even as I flip through my notes, fireworks go off in my brain at each sentence. It’s just so good. In an ideal world, I'd want everyone I work with to have read this book. I’m always on the lookout for what economist Tyler Cowen calls “quake books”, pieces of writing that are so powerful they shake up your entire worldview, and this is definitely one of those books. One timely take away that I wanted to share: "Self-pity is always counter-productive, It's the wrong way to think. And when you avoid it you get a great advantage over everybody else or almost everybody else, because self-pity is a standard response. And you can train yourself out of it."
Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son by George Horace Lorimer
Ryan Holiday consistently recommends this as one of his favourite books. Made up of correspondence between a self-made millionaire to his young son, there are many timeless pieces of wisdom that are important to keep in mind moving through a career in business. Some of the references might be a bit dated (and sexist) as the letters are from the 1890s, but the general principles still resonate. A couple of my highlights:
"It isn't so much knowing a whole lot, as knowing a little and how to use it that counts"
"When you're through sizing up the other fellow, it's a good thing to step back from yourself and see how you look. Then add fifty percent to your estimate of your neighbour for virtues that you can't see, and deduct fifty percent from yourself for faults that you've missed in your inventory"
Living with a SEAL by Jesse Itzler
I LOVED this book- couldn't put it down. I've listened to podcasts with Jesse Itzler here and there, and after a recent one (the Forward podcast with Lance Armstrong), I decided to sit and give this a read. While not revealed in the book, SEAL turns out to be David Goggins. If you haven't heard of Goggins, look him up- his story of entering a 100 mile run at 240 pounds is one of the craziest things I've ever heard. The tale of how this book came to be is very similar to the one above with Kobe- Jesse has built an amazing network and life out of picking up the phone and asking great questions to people that inspire him. After witnessing Goggins' mental toughness and determination in that 100 mile race, Jesse cold-called him and invited him to live with he and his family for an entire month, hoping some of that mentality would rub off and help shake things up. It's a great read!
Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood by Michael Lewis
Michael Lewis (author of Moneyball, The Blind Side and The Big Short among others), decided to keep and share an account of life immediately after becoming a father. This book reads more like a series of blog posts, and was a light read. I'm trying my best to read through and get perspective on as many accounts of fatherhood as possible.
The Wedge: Evolution, Consciousness, Stress and the Key to Human Resilience by Scott Carney
I'm really drawn to this type of immersive writing. Having enjoyed his previous book with Wim Hof (What Doesn't Kill Us), I was excited for the release of this new one. "The Wedge" is his name for the space between stimulus and response, and he goes through a number of ways to hone that space using shamans, kettlebells, breathing, sensory deprivation and hallucinogens. Well executed and interesting throughout.
Complicated Simplicity: Island Life in the Pacific Northwest by Joy Davis
I remembered seeing this on a shelf somewhere, and it was in the back of my mind during a recent trip to Salt Spring Island. If you ever find yourself curious about what it would be like to live on an Island (and who hasn't dreamt of that at some point), this is an awesome insight with many stories of what makes it great and some of the negative sides that are easy to overlook.
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness by Eric Jorgenson
This is one of my new favourite books. Entrepreneur, philosopher and investor Naval Ravikant has become extremely popular amongst many people I admire, and this book collects and distills much of his wisdom and insight. Really great book. For an interesting introduction to Naval, check out this video:https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wZobf0MiWpE
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
I heard this book mentioned on a podcast with Jawad Mian where he spoke of his favourite books. It’s a very short read, and full of dense advise on creation and writing. One I will return to often for inspiration.
Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton
I had been looking to get a bit outside of text and explore photography- this book provides both. I think reading through things like this expands the imagination (a picture is worth a thousand words).
Fiction
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller
A trend I see emerging in my reading choices is digging deeper into people I admire and taking the time to explore books that have shaped the way they view the world. I began to develop a fascination with architect Bjarke Ingles this year, and came across this article of books that inspired him. I've never been much of a comic book guy, but I had some free time over the holidays and thought I'd give this a shot. I was somewhat shocked by how dark this was, and it gave a new perspective on the Batman character that I hadn't imagined before. A fun expansion from my typical reading.
Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar
During my January visit to Powell's, I remembered to pick this up at the last second, and I'm glad I did. Positioned as a long letter to his successor Marcus Aurelius, the book follows the life of Hadrian as told from his perspective. I knew very little of Hadrian prior, and reading this took me down somewhat of a rabbit hole, followed up by multiple podcasts on things like the Eleusinian Mysteries and his relationship with a young Antinous. I was fascinated to read the end notes from the author on over a decade of research and study that went into the writing. It is beautifully crafted, and the insight into the inner dialogue of Hadrian was incredible. I happened to be following an unrelated fascination with Brunello Cucinelli, and came across this interview where he recommends Memoirs of Hadrian for future generations of great minds. I tend to agree.
Ms Ice Sandwich by Mieko Kawakami
Light Japanese fiction to read in the evening. As you may know, I'm fascinated by Japanese novels, and Mieko Kawakami has been described as Haruki Murakami's "favourite young novelist." The title and colourful cover are what initially caught my attention. I wasn't sure how I felt about it after reading, but the more I sit with it and let it sink in, it starts to grow on me.
Slow Boat by Hideo Furukawa
I'm always eager to read anything influenced by Haruki Murakami. Although nothing ever quite lives up to it, little novels like this give me enough of a Murakami fix until he puts something new out.
Moonchild by Aleister Crowley
Very strange and esoteric. This was sitting on my shelf for a while and I wanted to fit in some fiction.
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
I decided to re-read The Alchemist after hearing it mentioned on a few podcasts. Books tend to impact you differently at different times in life, and now seemed like a good time to revisit this highly praised book. For all the people who claim it's their favourite book ever, I still don't quite get it. Maybe when I pick it up again in another 5 years it will connect with me more.
Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami
With a cover blurb from Haruki Murakami noting Mieko as his favorite young writer, I couldn't not read this. It "paints a portrait of contemporary womanhood in Japan," going well with my theme of trying to learn more about the female perspective.
The Fall by Albert Camus
This perhaps went over my head, it's a short philosophical read, but I didn't quite get it. I came across it from a podcast with Jawad Mian (who's Stray Reflections newsletter is great), and it might just be that at a different point in my life it will make sense.
The Lonesome Bodybuilder: Stories by Yukiko Motoya
More bizarre Japanese short stories. This type of imaginative fiction is what I often read before bed, and one review I saw has a line that describes why I like this kind of writing so much: “the familiar becomes unfamiliar”.
The Overstory by Richard Powers
I committed to this somewhat lengthy fiction book after hearing Hugh Jackman rave about it on Tim Ferriss' podcast (great episode by the way!). A Pulitzer prize winner, the book weaves together eight separate storylines in a brilliant way, ultimately questioning our notion of humans as the center of existence, opening your eyes to the great importance of trees, the back and forth struggle between humans and nature. One review I found helpful: "Richard Powers challenges us as individuals to see ourselves as tiny blips in a story that is so much longer and vaster than we can even begin to comprehend"