Nadia's Reading List Email for November 2020
This year it seemed as if just about everything was outside my control—except for my writing. I chose not to share it with many people, but I started working on a book back in March.
As months went by, I became obsessed with it and pushed myself to the limit of my mental and physical capabilities. Writing was exhausting, but it also became my safe harbor away from pain, death, and the seemingly endless supply of injustice.
When I was in the process of writing the book, it sometimes felt like it was killing me. Now it seems that it was the only thing keeping me from breaking down. It saved me this year.
And it’s finally out 🎉 🎉🎉
It’s hard to describe what it feels like. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever felt. It also feels weird to feel unabashedly proud of the result. But this is an objectively good book, and I know a thing or two about books.
If you or someone you know would like to change careers and break into tech, I suggest you buy the book. If you have enjoyed my newsletters, consider buying the book as a way to show support and appreciation for me reading a crazy amount of books and reviewing them for you.
And with this link, you will get a special 30% off deal for subscribers of this newsletter.
With the plug out of the way, let’s go back to our usual programming.
“Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck
Where do I start with this book? It ripped me apart as few other books did, and I couldn’t sleep for hours after I finished it, which shows just how smart I am reading Steinbeck before bed… I doubt I’ll ever be able to get Steinbeck’s imagery out of my head: people burning oranges, slaughtering pigs, and dumping potatoes into the river—all with the goal of keeping the prices up and the statist delusion going. All with the people dying of hunger, kids crying for a piece of anything edible, whole families moving across the country and picking cotton for a dollar a day just to buy bread. Honestly, if this book doesn’t make you hate big government, I don’t know what will.
There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.
“Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense” by Rory Sutherland
Probably one of the wittiest marketing books out there. One of those books where you nod along through the whole thing—“oh yes, that’s right, happened to me many times”—and later can’t remember the particular point the author was making at the moment, but just remember that you enjoyed the hell out of it. The central point of the book is easy to remember though: there are many ideas that work but make no sense, just as there are many ideas that make sense but don’t work. What all of this means is that to come up with new products and new solutions, we have to be able to take a break from rational thinking, consider crazy ideas, and ask stupid questions.
And yes, get the audiobook. Rory’s accent is reason enough to spend several hours listening to this book. Bloody good fun!
“Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology” by Neil Postman
I’ve read this book a few times and I never give it more than 3 stars out of 5, but only because it does get really hard to follow in the middle (and gets better towards the end). However, parts of the book are so brilliant that they always make it worthwhile to get through the whole thing. As it happens with Postman, much of his writing is so prescient that it’s hard to believe he wrote it before computers became prevalent. I often wonder what he would have thought about the state of technopoly in 2020, and I am kinda glad he didn’t get to see just how awful it all got.
“Technopoly” is alright, but if you read just one book of media/technology criticism, read “Amusing Ourselves to Death” instead. That’s one hell of a terrifying book that I read once a year, and the more I read, the scarier it gets.
Miscellaneous
I like to say that my secret to getting all that reading done is to not watch TV series, but this November was an exception. Like everyone else on the planet, I watched “The Queen’s Gambit”. And yes, it’s as brilliant as everyone says, so if you haven’t, watch it. Rarely do we get to see a good story being told in such a masterful way, with talented acting and superb lighting.
I also watched the fourth season of “The Crown” which was the series’ most dreadful yet (if you ask me, the whole thing went downhill when they got rid of Matt Smith). I guess the goal of the season was to make everyone hate Margaret Thatcher (even more than everyone supposedly already hates her), but the Royal family itself was shown in such a disgusting light, that Thatcher somehow looked tolerable in contrast. If you wish to learn more about who Thatcher really was and why she was adored—and reviled—go watch "Thatcher: Death of a Revolutionary" documentary (it has just got taken off YouTube, but you’ll find a way).
December is already here, which means 2020 reading challenges are coming to an end soon. How have you done? I’m on book 96 out of 100 planned, and it looks like my crazy experiment of reading 100 books this year might very well succeed. It has been real, but I doubt I’ll be doing that again next year. More on that later.
If you enjoyed my newsletter, be sure to forward it to someone else who loves and appreciates books.
Keep reading!
Cheerio,
Nadia.