Preamble about why I’m starting this list:

Growing up, I used to always have a book handy to read while I ate and stayed up all night reading the latest Harry Potter. But starting in high school, books became part of a mandatory reading list, and I stopped reading for fun.

Fast forward to shortly after college, when I realized two things: 1) I now had the power to choose what to read and learn about, and 2) I needed to read more long-form text because I feared that social media was shortening my attention span.

So I began reading again. I first started with just 1 book every two months to get back into the habit. Then it organically became 1 book a month. For the last 3 years, it’s become around 2 books a month, averaging around 25 books a year. Now in the last 10 years, I’ve read 123 books.

Reading became a habit and now a hobby that I share with friends. I even inadvertently started a book club one day, when we randomly all were talking about wanting to read Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. Reading became cool again to me. I share this not to use the number of books I read as a vanity metric or bragging rights but more to say that anyone can become a recovering book reader. Books are a gateway to the world. Pick books that interest you and surprise you, and through them, you can learn anything.

As both a function to help me remember the books I read and to share what I already share with friends, below I’ve written shorthand thoughts about the books I read and curated them into lists. I’ll go through the lists in parts, first with my top reads of the year.

Sidenote reflection on my 2024 reads – I went heavier on fiction this year than ever before. This was a natural gravitation in part to balance out 2023, when I over-indexed on non-fiction leadership, business, and productivity books as I was building out my management courses.

Fiction sometimes gets a bad rep because it can seem not as instructive, productive, or serious as non-fiction. But this year, I’ve seen the power of learning about humanity, history, and humility through fiction. With that, enjoy the list and reach out with any questions on books or more.

My Top 5 Reads

1. Yellowface – R. F. Kuang

   Another brilliant piece from a brilliant author. R. F. Kuang is a genius with her characters, her commentary on the publishing industry and identity, and the way she examined all the dimensions of what it means to tell an authentic story. This was on the list for our next book club pick, and I ended up finishing it before the one we were already reading, and I have no regrets. Read this and then go read R. F. Kuang’s other work of genius – Babel (which I’ll talk about in another list).

2. The Candy House – Jennifer Egan

   One of those brilliant books that tells various stories with different characters that somehow are all connected together (à la Cloud Atlas or The Overstory). And I will admit, I’m a sucker for those kinds of books because of the sheer work it takes to do that kind of storytelling, but I especially loved this one because 1) of its creative dystopian future imagining the future of social media, 2) it’s commentary on social media without talking about social media, and 3) the richness and originality of all the characters

3. Unreasonable Hospitality – Will Guidara

   I love a good book on leadership through the lens of another industry. The fact that this book wasn’t intended to be a book on leadership makes it a superb read. Written by the general manager of Eleven Madison Park (the #1 best restaurant in the world) about how he built the culture of “unreasonable hospitality” at the restaurant. Also especially fun to to 1) see how “The Bear” drew a lot of inspiration from Guidara’s real-life situations, and 2) to hear some tea about the NYC restaurant scene rivalry in 2010s and familiar chefs/ places I’ve been to (looking at you, David Chang and Momofuku).

4. The Love Prescription – John Gottman

   I’ve known about the Gottmans for years – first through their famous research on “bids,” then at Stanford that uses their work as the basis for “Touchy Feely,” and then by friends who talked about their podcast. But I was finally convinced to read their books after I heard them talk very thoughtfully on a podcast and wanted to learn more. And I’m glad I did. Even as someone who was pretty familiar with their work, I learned a lot of useful, tactical, and, at times, illuminating frameworks on how to have a better relationship. The books can be a bit overlapping, but easy to skim. Don’t be thrown off by the clickbaity titles. They’re well-written, explained, and, most importantly, researched.

5. Beartown – Fredrick Backman

   a. Fredrick Backman always breaks my heart, and Beartown was no exception. I didn’t think I’d like this book because it’s about teenage boys and hockey, and the description was very lackluster (“this is a story about a town and a game”), but wow. This book crushed my soul and brought it back again. I loved the variety in characters and again am impressed in both how Backman can get to the core of what makes us human and the breadth in how he does it. I probably will read another Backman book next year, but for now I need to pause in between all the heartache.

Stay tuned, and I’ll dive into Part 2, where I’ll cover the rest of my notes for books in 2024, including 3 books I reread and still loved, top 5 honorable mention books, and books that people recommended but I didn’t love.

For reference, here’s the full list of books I read in 2024, in chronological order:

1. Yellowface – R. F. Kuang
2. Lessons in Chemistry – Bonnie Garmus
3. Expecting Better – Emily Oster
4. If I Had Your Face – Frances Cha
5. Sea of Tranquility – Emily St. John Mandel
6. The Candy House – Jennifer Egan
7. What No One Tells You – Alexandra Sacks
8. The Self Driven Child – William Stixrud and Ned Johnson
9. Silo (Wool) – Hugh Howry
10. Silo (Shift) – Hugh Howry
11. Unreasonable Hospitality – Will Guidara
12. Compound Effect – Darren Harding
13. Almanac of Naval Ravikant – Eric Jorgenson
14. The Nightingale – Kirstin Hannah
15. Stay True – Hua Hsu
16. Cribsheet – Emily Oster
17. Beartown – Fredrick Backman
18. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo – Taylor Jenkins Reid
19. The Last Lecture – Randy Pausch
20. The Love Prescription – John Gottman, Julie Gottman
21. Olga Dies Dreaming – Xochitl Gonzalez
22. Fight Right – John Gottman, Julie Gottman
23. Little Fires Everywhere – Celeste Ng
24. Tiny Beautiful Things – Cheryl Strayed
25. Poor Charlie’s Almanack – Charlie Munger