Author: Robert Camilleri

2023 was a heavier, more introspective reading year — one that circled around meaning, power, and how people (and systems) actually behave.

It started deep in the human psyche with Notes from the Underground, The Diary of a Young Girl, Animal Farm, and Man’s Search for Meaning. Different voices, different eras, but all circling the same themes: suffering, dignity, oppression, resistance, and what people hold on to when everything else is stripped away.

Alongside that, I went digging into how we live and decide in the modern world: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, Atomic Habits, The Little Book of Psychology, The Black Swan, Good Strategy Bad Strategy, and The Almanack of Naval Ravikant all pushed in the same direction — be deliberate about what you care about, how you spend your attention, and how you respond to uncertainty.

On the more ideological and imaginative side, The Communist Manifesto, The Symposium, Fahrenheit 451, and The Fellowship of the Ring added politics, philosophy, censorship, and epic fantasy to the mix. Some of these I admired more for their place in history than for pure enjoyment, but they were still worth the time.

Below is the full list of what I read in 2023, along with a simple rating for how much each book stayed with me.

The Subtle Art Of Not Giving a F*ck

– Mark Manson –

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Diary Of A Young Girl

– Anne Frank –

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Notes From Underground

– Fyodor Dostoevsky –

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Little Book Of Psychology

– Emily Ralls –

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Man’s Search For Meaning

– Victor E. Franke –

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Atomic Habits

– James Clear –

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Good Strategy Bad Strategy

– Richard Rumelt –

⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Almanack Of Naval Ravikant

– Eric Jorgenson –

⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Black Swan

– Nassim Nicholas Taleb –

⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Symposium

– Plato –

⭐⭐

2022 was a year of reading across two main axes: how to think and worlds to get lost in. On one side, there were books about money, negotiation, leadership, systems, and learning – on the other, space marines, Norse gods, and epic fantasy battles.

It was the year I finally read The Psychology of Money and Seeking Wisdom, both of which changed how I think about decisions, risk, and incentives. I experimented with better ways to learn and write through How to Take Smart Notes, Ultralearning, and Principles, and picked up practical tools for work from Radical Candor, The Making of a Manager, and Never Split the Difference.

To balance the non-fiction, I spent time in other worlds: Old Man’s War, Red Rising, The Shadow of the Gods, and Norse Mythology gave me the kind of imaginative reset that only good sci-fi and fantasy can. Along the way, The Emperor’s Handbook and End of a Berlin Diary added a historical and philosophical layer to it all.

Below is the full list of what I read in 2022, along with a simple rating for how much each one stayed with me.

The Psychology of Money

– Morgan Housel –

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Seeking Wisdom

– Peter Bevelin –

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Radical Candor

– Kim Scott –

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Principles

– Ray Dalio –

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Old Man’s War

– John Scalzi –

⭐⭐⭐⭐

End Of A Berlin Diary

– William L. Shirer –

⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Making Of A Manager

– Julie Zhuo –

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Never Split The Difference

– Chris Voss –

⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Shadow Of The Gods

– John Gwynne –

⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Ghost Brigades

– John Scalzi –

⭐⭐⭐