the majority of last year (2017) was spent commuting back and forth to Glasgow, which provided time to indulge in some reading. in no particular order, because I am struggling to remember them all let alone when I read them, are what I can see on the bookshelf and kindle.
‘Homo Deus’ by Yuval Noah Harari – should be read by everyone, especially the under 20’s along with Silk Road. Eyes wide open type of book.
‘Black Box Thinking’ by Matthew Syed – was a fascinating read speculating the sliding scale of “risk” across industries and how we continuously fail to learn from real world failure in favour of theoretical “risks” imagined by the press and politicians. Interesting read and well written.
‘Histories of Nations’ edited by Peter Furtado – if you haven’t read “Silk Road” then try it instead. A meta data skim through history with no real passion or enjoyment.
‘Sleeping Giants’ and ‘Waking Gods’ by Sylvain Neural – loved these, was reading too much work/factual and first ‘Sleeping Giants’ grabbed me and I think I had it read in 2 days and was ordering the next one after a couple of chapters and can’t wait the for the 3rd book. OOOO exciting stuff – aliens, death, destruction and epic world wide conflict – I am sure the movie rights have been long sold and 2019 blockbuster is being planned.
‘The New Digital Age’ by Eric Schmit and Jared Cohen – can’t remember this one, hmmmm, and yep I only got half way through. Coming back – a bit boring and similar books/authors have a much better way of presenting their ideas and convincing you to join the ride. Maybe I’ll go back and finish it. Hmmm have either of them done a TED talk on it I can watch instead?
‘The midnight Line’ by Lee Child, you cannot beat a bit of Jack Reacher from the old stoner Lee. Was an enjoyable kick ass romp in the middle of america somewhere and the bad guys get their asses kicked and Jack gets on a bus at the end. I am sure I have read another Jack Reacher story just like that?
‘The Walkers Guide to Outdoor Clues and Signs’ by Tristan Goodley – is my new best friend while out walking, and walking is the new running DYK, so what I like to do is choose a topic or chapter and explore it when out. I now walk alone mainly due to constantly stopping and being a know-it-all thanks to this book. Who knew nature could be so interesting.
‘the 5 people you meet in Heaven’ by Mitch Albom – is a fantastic little book and beautifully written. Such an interesting concept and if there was such a thing as Heaven then this is a much better representation of it then anything I’ve seen. Amazing book – keep a hanky handy.
‘Why the Dutch are Different’ by Ben Coates – now I started this on a trip to Amsterdam at the beginning of the year and I remember the first 2 chapters but the rest, like those few days in the Dam I cannot.
‘Physics of the Future’ by Michio Kaku – is a great read, I think I listened to the majority of this one, walking and at the gym, so maybe heightened endorphins make me recall this book with pleasure? But the concepts are fantastic from nanobots to space lifts from tomorrow to 100+ years in the future and what may or may not realistically come to pass and what it will actually look like. The master has spoken these things will come to pass.
‘Surviving AI’ by Callum Chace – is another future prediction book but weights the pros and cons in a nice way and even has some fictional scenarios which I quite enjoyed. Worth a read.
‘Doughnut Economics’ by Kate Raworth – is my current material and so far so good.