What Books Do You Recommend Reading for 2022?

I just finished a Web Serial that's in the process of being edited and published called Mother of Learning by Domagoj Kurmaic. So far, only the first arc has been formally published, [0] but the entire story is available for free online. [1]

It's a fantasy story about a young mage attending an academy to study magic when he finds himself stuck inside a time loop that lasts a month before resetting. The worldbuilding is very well realized, it has a fascinating magic system that rewards ingenuity, and most importantly, has one of the most satisfying endings I've ever read in any medium.

It takes a few chapters to pick up, but there were times where I laughed, cried, and even moments where I thought deeply about the philosophical implications of the narrative.

Overall, it solidified itself as one of my favorite books of all time, and I would recommend it to nearly any fan of fantasy. I can't possibly do it justice, but it's the #1 rated story on Royal Road and the most favorited story on Fiction Press. (at least in it's genre)

[0] https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/59661342-mother-of-le... [1] https://www.fictionpress.com/s/2961893/1/Mother-of-Learning

I'm currently going through a science fiction phase and recently completed reading the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy [0] by Cixin Liu. It's a page-turning space opera thriller I can highly recommend.

If you are into fantasy crime fiction (think Godfather with some fantasy elements), do check out The Green Bone Saga [1] by Fonda Lee.

[0] https://www.goodreads.com/series/189931-remembrance-of-earth... [1] https://www.goodreads.com/series/216281-the-green-bone-saga

Just finished The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow - highly recommended if you're into human history.

You've probably read some variation on this idea: our simple hunter-gatherer ancestors lived an egalitarian life, until we discovered agriculture and started down the path of hierarchy, domination and all the inevitable ills of civilization. This book does an expert job of picking that argument to pieces and presents a tome of empirical evidence to the contrary - the story of our ancestors was far more complex and interesting.

Vaclav Smil, "Growth, From Microorganisms to Megacities"

It's a fascinating subject, of great and current import, treated in an astonishingly informed and clear manner. It's hard to describe the refreshing feeling of being exposed to such a mind. It's like reading a book written by Spock.

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Bill Mollison, "Permaculture Designer's Manual"

Pretty much the best book on design (of all kinds, not just farms) that I've ever run across. It's also a manual for creating ecologically harmonious, profitable farms that improve the environment and biodiversity and all that good stuff.

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Christopher Alexander, "A Pattern Language" et. al.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Pattern_Language

Disillusioned toward novel modernity, I prefer reading more deeply the remnants of our intellectual lineage. We have lost so much.

I found this on HN yesterday, a curated list of scattered esoteric topics:

https://www.globalgreyebooks.com/index.html

You can check my 2022 to-read list: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/22253621?shelf=2022

I'm in the middle of The Ministry For the Future[1] by Kim Stanley Robinson. I keep conflating what I read in the news and what I read in the book. It gets in your head that well.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ministry_for_the_Future

I'm currently reading "No More Mr. Nice Guy" by Robert Glover. I'm most of the way through, and it has been a real paradigm shift in the way I view myself and my interactions with other people. I've actually owned it for years, but kept putting off reading it because the title convinced me it was some pro-"alpha bro" mentality. But it has been nothing of the sort. So far I haven't done any of the exercises, I've just been reading it and processing it. I'll probably reread it after the first read through and do the exercises.

I’m reading The Critique of Pure Reason right now. If anyone else is interested we can start a book club, it’s slow going.

I recently got into the "Revelation Space" series having missed it earlier. I was always a big fan of "the culture" novels by Iain M Banks, and this to me feels very similar (though darker).

I'm planning to read a mixture of classic 20th century novels, sci-fi (which has some intersection with 20th century classics..) and historical non-fiction. So far I've read one from each of those categories: A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, The Doomed City by the Strugatsky Brothers and October by China Mievelle.

I like to roughly alternate between fiction and non-fiction. It keeps things refreshing. I also find reading fiction after reading non-fiction makes it easier to glean the ideas the fiction book is trying to convey as you're still in the information processing mindset of reading a non-fiction book. This adds an extra layer of appreciation beyond enjoying the story.

In terms of choosing a book to read - just think of things you've always been interested in and then ask for recommendations for books (fiction or non-fiction) that discuss the topic, or use that topic as a major plot point. A good general rule of thumb I've found is not to bother with books with less than a rating of 4 on Goodreads unless it's a subject you really think is going to interest you, or an author you know you like already.

One title that I really look forward to reading is John Markoff’s new book: Whole Earth: The Many Lives of Stewart Brand.

Due for release in 02022-03-22. (See what I did there?)

It ought to be an interesting read.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/554161/whole-earth-...

Just finished (audiobook) Projections by Karl Deisseroth. Each chapter a personal story about a distinct mental disease, using narrative and neuroscience to span the gulf between patient and caregiver. Deisseroth worked on innovative diagnostic techniques like optogenetics. A brilliant, deeply empathic writer. Left me both melancholic and weirdly optimistic.

https://www.amazon.com/Projections-Story-Emotions-Karl-Deiss...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optogenetics

After David Graeber's Debt: The 5000 Years reprogrammed my brain, I've been binging on anarchistic-libertarian and adjacent ideas. Such as The Dawn of Everything by Graeber and Wengrow, everything by Jill Lepore such as If Then and These Truths. Next up is Mine! by Heller and Salzman.

I'm slowly chewing thru the podcast The History of Philosophy without Any Gaps. Penance for ignoring this stuff in my youth.

Highest recommendation for the podcasts Know Your Enemy, Volts (David Roberts), 5-4 (fivefourpod.com), You're Wrong About, Capitalisn't, Corecursive. Really, there are so many worthy podcasts. These are most notable to me for how much they've influenced and changed my thinking.

I really enjoyed Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir

I've recently read some old sci-fi "classics" and can recommend them all highly:

* A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge

* A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge

* Hyperion by Dan Simmons

* The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons

* Endymion by Dan Simmons

* The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons

* Exhalation by Ted Chiang

- Herodotus: The Histories (Landmark Series version highly recommended).

- Any book by Nassim Taleb (I'd recommend starting with Antifragile).

- The Count of Monte Cristo (Most fun novel I have ever read).

- Moby Dick or The Whale (One of the top two novels I've ever read).

- Blood Meridian or The Evening Redness in the West (Tied with Moby Dick for best novel I've ever read).

- The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Epic reading... worth the commitment).

Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan books are up to date again with the current political situation between NATO and Russia.

On the other hand, H.P. Lovecraft is always a good read.

All books from Robert Anton Wilson, but especially the Cosmic Trigger series and Quantum Psychology.

Also: The Goal.

If you're intellectually capable, they're life changing.

If you're more for leasure, consider reading the longest running science fiction series in history: Perry Rhodan.

It's been running for ... 60? ... years now. A new 60 page booklet every week.

There's the silver books, as well, instead of having to buy them all separately.

Snow Crash which has been the inspiration for the name Metaverse. Just ordered it, while not using it I might at least stay a bit up-to-date

Anything by Wodehouse. Only started reading him a couple of years back. Some of the funniest stuff I have ever read.

Out on the wire: the storytelling secrets of the new masters of radio by Jessica Abel.

It is a book-long conversation on storytelling with some of the best storytellers alive, in comic book format.

Can’t recommend it enough.

Superforecasting by Philip E. Tetlock

Completely changed how I look at political and financial pundits.

I recently finished Rosewater by Tade Thompson and am about 20% of the way through Neal Stephenson's latest, Termination Shock.

I recommend both. They are super fun and irreverent but with character depth and interesting sci-fi / future elements.

I read “Man’s Search for Meaning” after someone recommended on another thread and it felt like a great time to read it as the pandemic comes to an end.

I would suggest A Confederacy of Dunces in any year.

Atomic Habits if you haven't read it. I re-read it at the beginning of the year.

1984 by George Orwell. War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strenght.

I’m reading A Few Short Sentences About Writing and am loving it.

Less is More by Jason Hickel and The Day the World Stops Shopping by JB MacKinnon to explain the true state of capitalism and why we never can work less despite being more productive, why wages have stagnated, and why companies and choose profits over sustainability. The history of capitalism at start of Less Is More is eyeopening to say the least.

Nassim Taleb’s ones

A Life of One's Own by Marion Milner.

• Friedrich Hayek - Law, Legislation and Liberty (1973)

• Gerhard Buchwald - Vaccination - A Business Based on Fear (1994)

Gulag Archipelago Abridged version