a non-exhaustive list of books I've read.
First started recording on 5/30/2024
Score: 3.9/10
Completed: 3/19/2025
A less than mediocre book. The concept is good, but the character development and general story is not good. Many plot issues, questions like "why didn't they do _" and just weird comments and behavior by Finn make this a confusing read. Finn apparently has a way to communicate with people even though she is dead, but it is only discussed once or twice. The characters just frankly aren't likable. The ending doesn't give me hope for their future.
Score: 7.5/10
Completed: 3/9/2025
This book is a personal finance book that focuses on something called the FOO. The Financial Order of Operations. It is a series of steps that one should take to be able to reach their financial dreams. This is generally thought of as the steps to take once you have left the Baby Steps that Dave Ramsey talks about. I have listened to The Money Guy show for a while now, so a lot of this was already known to me, but I think this is a great book for someone who is beginning their personal finance journey, and isn't in a lot of debt.
Score: 8.7/10
Completed: 3/9/2025
This is the sequel to The Three Body Problem. I though that this was an awesome second book, and I though it was much better than the first book. This book takes us away from the modern world and towards the future. Luo Ji and the other wallfacers try to come up with a plan entirely in their mind to fight back agains the Trisolarians. This book goes deeply into the societal, economic, and psychological effects of war and how time fuzzys the memory of humans. The climax of this book is incredible and had my hairs up on end.
Score: 7.9/10
Completed: 3/3/2025
To follow my streak of science fiction books, I read this book. I think the concept of this book is very interesting and I enjoy just thinking about what would happen if aliens were to visit us. I thought the science in this book was solid and "made sense". Though most of this book was exposition for the later parts. It sort of felt like the book was being told to me rather than being immersed in the story; which isn't necessarily a dealbreaker, but there were definitely some parts where I just thought, can we get along with it?
Score: 5.0/10
Completed: 2/16/2025
This was another book by Blake Crouch that I was interested in reading. This one covers the concept of multiple dimensions. Similar to my dislike of time travel, I hate media's depiction of the multiverse. This book tries to reconcile some of the issues with multiverse, but leaves so many loose ends that I just couldn't take the book seriously.
Score: 7.7/10
Completed: 1/2025
This is a science fiction book with the premise: what if people could travel back in time through their memories? I generally really hate time travel type media because I can't believe it. But the way time travel is depicted in this book made more sense due to the time travel "rules". I thought the ending was interesting, but the theme seemed to be explicitly told near the end of the book which I didn't really like.
Score: 7.6/10
Completed: 1/2025
This book covers the idea of the Zettelkasten, or the Slip-box which is a method for storing and generating ideas. The main thing that I like about it, is that it gives you some great steps to follow and guides on remembering information in general. Anyone who wants to remember topics and concepts could take something away from this book.
Score: 9.2/10
Completed: 12/27/2024
This is the greatest book on investing I have ever read. The particular book that I read had both Graham's original text, and some extra modern elaboration on Graham's words and how they apply to today. This book is probably not for beginners, but beginners would also get some vital information on investing from this book. Graham speaks on his investing philosophy of value investing, or investing based on the value of the company. And once you read it, you won't be able to see investing in stocks the same way.
Score: 8.7/10
Completed: 11/2024
It took me a while to find another book that I wanted to read. I poked through a few books but didn't find any that tickled my fancy for a couple of months. I have a huge pile of books along my bedside table now that are all partially finished. But then I found this book! It is a great crash course on economics that focuses on case studies and realistic situations. The logic in this book is top notch in my opinion. And focuses on not only on what the first order effects of an economic policy would be, but what are the second and third effects. What are the incentives created by particular policies? I really enjoyed this book and will recommend it to others in the future.
This was a long book, but it was well worth it. Though it may be sufficient to read the abridged version for most people.
Score: 7.6/10
Completed: 8/2024
This book takes the theory that we live in a simulation and attempts to give a variety of reasons of why that might just be the case. Some of the ideas in the book are a little out there, but I think overall it gives a good overview of what would need to happen in order for us as humans to create our own simulation. If anything, it was a facinating book and covered some interesting aspects of quantum physics also.
Score: 7.7/10
Completed 7/25/2024
This book covers a brief history of Quantum Physics and Mechanics and tries to explain a bit more about the interesting world of quantum probabilities. It really opened my eyes to the strange stuff that goes on at the quantum level. I don't know why, but it is oddly comforting that we don't live in a deterministic universe... If Quantum Physics is true that is.
Score: 7.3/10
Completed 7/17/2024
This book covers a brief history of bacteria and the effects bacteria have on living organisms. If you are interested in biology. I think this is a must read. There is a whole world of symbiosis with these small cells that often goes unseen.
Score: 7.6/10
Completed 6/20/2024
I enjoyed this book quite a bit. It was a great summary of the history of physics and how the different forces have been unified from their fragmented parts, into more elegant explanations. It concludes discussing string theory, and that this may be the grand unified field theory that physicists have been searching for in decades. I wish that this book was longer and went into more depth!
Score: 4.2/10
Completed 6/16/2024
This book was a bit too shallow for me. The book can be summarized in the bullet points on the Amazon page: Do fewer things, work at a natural pace, obsess over quality. These may be groundbreaking for some, but not for me.
Score: 8.0/10
Completed 5/28/2024
This was an interesting look into the history of Apple and Pixar. With a glimpse into Microsoft, Disney, IMB, Dell, Google and a variety of other companies that shaped the landscape of tech today.