In this post I wanted to share the list of books I read along the year (1) with a small comment for each one and links to some Twitter threads where I shared some passages that caught my attention while reading the books. I have also included a small rating from one to three “+” depending on how much I do recommend its reading.
“Le Comte de Monte-Cristo“, tome II (by Alexandre Dumas) (+++): Great book, a must read. In this second part we see how justice and vengeance are meticulously delivered by the almighty count of Monte-Cristo. “Wait and hope”. [Twitter thread].
“Un coeur simple“, (by Gustave Flaubert) (+): Short and sad story about Félicité, a poor and simple servant who sees how her circle gets narrowed down to the point of idolizing a dead parrot. [Twitter thread].
“Heart of Darkness“, (by Joseph Conrad) (+): Marlow’s search for Kurtz, the most successful ivory trader of the company at an station by the river Congo. Danger, savages, darkness, “horror!”. [Twitter thread].
“Poetics“, (by Aristotle) (+): A treatise on tragedy: argumentation, characters, plotting and sufferings, music, scenery, metric… Unfortunately, the second part of the treatise covering comedy hasn’t been conserved till our time. [Twitter thread].
“Un paseo por los espacios n-dimensionales“, (by Esteban Ferrer and Soledad Le Clainche) (++): This is a book from a collection of 40 short books on mathematics that my mother gifted me with in 2019. My idea is to read a few of those books per year. This book was written by two professors from my alma mater and it’s a brief review of Algebra with notes on its evolution and some of its applications. [Twitter thread].
“Rhetoric“, (by Aristotle) (++): Being rhetoric the art of persuasion, in this book Aristotle discusses the different types of speeches, emotional states, rhythms, structures, choices of words… to better achieve the purpose of the speech. [Twitter thread].
“Hombres buenos“, (by Arturo Pérez-Reverte) (+++): A great novel based on a real trip to Paris made in 1785 by two members of the Spanish (language) Academy to get hold of a copy of the Encyclopédie by D’Alembert and Didérot, which was at that time censored in Spain. The book offers many details on the research for the novel, discusses many other relevant books of that time and depicts the struggles that the protagonists suffered in that quest to bring some enlightenment to Spain. [Twitter thread].
“Series y sucesiones“, (by Ángel M. Núñez) (+): A book written by a couple of teachers from my alma mater on series, successions and limits and the evolution of them, describing the contributions by mathematicians such as Nicolas d’ Oresme, D’Alembert, Cauchy or von Neumann. [Twitter thread].
“The world of yesterday“, (by Stefan Zweig) (+++): This book makes for a great read, very well written and with a good taste. The description of Vienna before 1914, the cultural activities of that society, the acquaintances of the author, the freedom they enjoyed, etc., makes for a beautiful picture of the world of yesterday. Then history turns for the worse: first world war, the poision of nationalism, hyperinflation destroying German society, the rise of Hitler, persecution of Jews, living in exile… both a historical recount and warning. [Twitter thread].
“La traición progresista“, (by Alejo Schapire) (+++): A brief and straightforward book lamenting the path followed by the political left and liberals in many Western countries with the focus given to identities. The book is rich on examples and references. [Twitter thread].
“Divine Comedy“, (by Dante Alighieri) (+++): This is an impressive landmark of literature. The book describes Dante’s passage through the inferno, purgatorio and paradiso, with the guidance of the poet Virgil. The structure of the book with the description of the different levels is remarkable. The amount of detailed information of historic or mythical characters from Tuscany, Rome, Greece, etc., is overwhelming, with the only downside of having to interrupt the reading of poetry to frequently consult footnotes. [Twitter thread].
“El fin de la fiesta“, (by Rubén Amón) (++): The book discusses the current situation of bullfighting, the challenges it faces with lack of appreciation from part of the society, the attacks it receives, and also some clues for its defence, its strengths and virtues. I liked the book and the message, but the style and narrative were repetitive at times. [Twitter thread].
“The righteous mind“, (by Jonathan Haidt) (+++): This book offers a review of the evolution of moral psychology and what the author calls Moral foundations theory, showing as well moral differences between liberals and conservatives, helping to understand people with different intuitions and morals. A very valuable book. [Twitter thread].
“Prey. Immigration, Islam and the erosion of women’s rights“, (by Ayaan Hirsi Ali) (++): Necessary book on an uncomfortable subject. The thesis is that women’s rights are receding and society cannot turn a blind eye on that fact. The reading of the book is at times tough and disgusting due to the nature of the cases, the cover ups by different institutions in several European countries… [Twitter thread].
“Tony Ryan. Ireland’s aviator“, (by Richard Aldous) (++): A biography of the man behind Guinness Peat Aviation (a major leasing company in the 70s and 80s, and arguably one of the creators of the aircraft leasing business as such) and Ryanair. A remarkable life with continuous ups and downs. [Twitter thread].
“La conquista de México“, (by Hugh Thomas) (+++): Historical relation of the different Spanish expeditions to what now is Mexico, including that of Hernán Cortés (and other ones such as those of Grijalva or Narváez) until the conquest of Tenochtitlan, of which 500th anniversary took place this year. The book is very exhaustive covering different aspects of the times and events: the greatness and beauty of the city of Tenochtitlan, the traditions of the Aztec or Mexica empire (including human sacrifices and heavy taxation onto other cities, which contributed to their demise), the tension between different Mexican peoples but also the intrigues between different Spanish conquerors (Cortés, Narváez, Velázquez, the son of Columbus…) and the legal charges and proceedings they faced back in Spain, the navigation details of their trips, the different settlements, commercial exchanges, the relationships and alliances built with some peoples (varying with time), the infighting in various places across several years especially including the “sad night” when the Spanish had to flee the city and were on the brink of a total defeat to the recovery period at Tlaxcala and the final assault and devastation of Tenochtitlan. Very good read even if a long one in which I was stuck for some weeks at some points of the narrative. [Twitter thread].
“Camino Winds“, (by John Grisham) (++): In this novel the author goes back to Camino Island and its community of writers that were presented in a previous novel. This time one of the authors is murdered the night a hurricane hits the village. The plot includes professional killers and big corporations. Very entertaining. [Twitter thread].
“Fables“, (by Aesop) (++): Compilation of fables from the VII-VI century b.C, most of them between animals (wolves, foxes, rabits, oxen, ants…) which form the basis of a big part of European popular culture. The fables are short, one or two paragraphs, and the edition I read included a line with the moral of the fable explicitly. [Twitter thread].
“Metamorphoses“, (by Ovid) (++): Written in the first century, the book is an epic poem that covers from the creation to the time of Caesar, describing up to 250 myths and legends of Greek and Roman mythology, with the transformation of many characters into different beings, animals, trees, rocks or rivers. At times the story is difficult to follow as the organization within the different chapters is a bit unclear even if the author worked on the transitions. [Twitter thread].
“Más allá de la razón áurea“, (by Fernando Blasco) (++): Another book of the maths collection. This one discusses the golden ratio and its use in different fields as well as some other mathematical constants including pi and e. The book includes some hard math but as well a few tricks that can be used as magic. [Twitter thread].
I started 2021 reading at a good pace until summer holidays, then a couple of trips interrupted my rhythm and it took me months to recover it, as always, thanks to the rigorous approach following these two tips:
a blog post from Farnam Street blog “Just Twenty-Five Pages a Day“, which was published well after I had adopted such an approach to reading but captures it very well,
the Wikipedia article about the Pomodoro Technique, which enables you to efficiently use the last hours of the day.
Another question that I have got a couple of times is about the source of the list of some of the classics that I read. That one comes from yet another blog post from Farnam Street blog. That post mentioned theGreat Books curriculum for the bachelor in arts of Saint John’s College in Annapolis. You can get the list from the Wikipedia or directly from the college website. As I am not reading exclusively those books I advance at a pace of 5 to 8 books out of that curriculum per year, thus it will take me other 20 years to finish the program.
In this post I wanted to share the list of books I read along the year (1) with a small comment for each one and links to some Twitter threads where I shared some passages that caught my attention while reading the books. I have also included a small rating from one to three “+” depending on how much I do recommend its reading.
“Le Vicomte de Bragelonne“, tome I (by Alexandre Dumas) (+++): This is the second sequel, or the third book in the series of the Three Musketeers, where D’Artagnan, Athos, Portos and Aramis are portrayed ~35 years after the first adventures. The novel follows the same engaging style and the use of historical context at convenience, this time describing in France events with Louis XIV as king, Colbert as finance minister, or in England the restoration of Charles II. [Twitter thread].
“Julio. La biografía” (by Óscar García) (++): Nice biography of Julio Iglesias, written in a light style. It follows a chronological structure going from its beginnings, first songs, life in Madrid, describing his different albums, tours, collaborations, his successes abroad, the struggles with the family life.
“Ultralearning” (by Scott H. Young) (++): The book provides some principles and tactics to take on individual, focused learning projects. Some of those can be applied to any learning project and could be seen as common sense (investing time in advance in the what, how…, focus, directness, retrieval/memory check approach, feedback…). The book is though short of examples as it comes back once and again to the same few the author had gathered from his experience and some others.
“On the Nature of Things” (by Lucretius) (+++): Written in the first century BC, the book is a great exercise of observation and deduction. The author tries to describe the universe, matter, the forces, death, the soul, etc. [Twitter thread].
“Sense and Sensibility” (by Jane Austen) (+): Published in 1811 in this book Austen elaborates on the quest of partners for two sisters: Elinor who has much too sense and little assertiveness and Marianne who has more innocence than sensibility. I struggled with Austen’s use of never ending complicated sentences.
“Noticia de un secuestro” (by Gabriel García Márquez) (++): In this book written in 1996, García Márquez describes the kidnapping, life in custody and liberation of several journalists at the beginning of the 90s by the terrorist group FARC. It describes the nuances of the “extraditables“, how the FARC negotiated to secure that Pablo Escobar and others would not be extradited to the USA when surrendering. [Twitter thread].
“Business adventures“, (by John Brooks) (++): I bought this book years ago as it was highly recommended both by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. Written in 1966, the book is composed of a collection of stories on product launches, insider trading, income tax, trade balance and devaluations, stockholders meetings, trade secrets, communication in business, etc. Some of them are very interesting and you can learn a lot about those subjects and business in general, but it is not for the faint-hearted reader. [Twitter thread].
“Managing uncertainty” (by by M Syrett and M Devine) (++): I had this book at home since years ago as a compliment from The Economist for answering to some survey. It was written in 2012, based on surveys and interviews following the 2008/09 financial crisis. The editing job was poor. Otherwise, I read during the first weeks of lock down following the Covid-19 outbreak in March 2020 in Europe and it provided valuable feedback and examples. Elements discussed: flexibility and responsiveness, anticipation and scenarios, looking for opportunities, strong leadership, sense of direction, motivation, confidence in the organisation, transparency, accountability, governance, speed and informed decisions, engaging staff. [Twitter thread].
“La Peste” (by Albert Camus) (+++): This is a classic from 1947 that had to be read during the first weeks of the lock down following the Covid-19 outbreak. The book describes the development of a plague in the city of Oran (Algeria). The parallels to what we could live or learn from Covid-19 were many along the book: from the illness and desperation of the sick, to the confinement, the lack of resources, drastic measures, anguish, the loss of loved ones… [Twitter thread].
“A sangre y fuego” (by Manuel Chaves Nogales) (+++): The book was written by the author shortly after leaving Spain in 1937 to be exiled first in Paris. It is a collection of stories of the Spanish Civil War based on real facts. It conveys the horror of the war, the hatred with which both sides acted both in the front and in the rearward, the disorganization of the republican side (where the author was while in Madrid), the fights and disputes between militias from the republican side, the lawlessness… A must read. [Twitter thread].
“Glory Lost and Found” (by Seth Kaplan and Jay Shabat) (++): The book was written in 2016 and provides a very detailed review of Delta Airlines’ history from its creation and especially its remarkable turnaround post 9/11, including a year by year (2002-2014) review of the industry. When the Covid-19 crisis is past, the book will deserve a follow up. [Twitter thread].
“En el principio fue el número” (by Francisco Javier Mateos Maroto) (++): This is the first book of a collection of 40 short books on mathematics that my mother gifted me with in 2019. My idea is to read about 5-8 of those books per year. This book introduces the origin of numbers, numbering systems in different cultures, notation, numbers’ position, the origin of zero, etc. [Twitter thread].
“El infinito. ¿Es un viaje o un destino?” (by F. Rossell i Pujos) (+): The 2nd book of the math collection. Its beginning (discussion of Greeks, Aquinas, Bernouilli…) and its ending (Brunelleschi, Planck) were interesting but half of the book was too technical (Cantor set theories…).
“Tragedies” (by Euripides) (+++): The book I read is a compilation of 9 of the 18 tragedies that have survived to our days, the following ones: Alcestis, Medea, Hippolytus, Hecuba, The Trojan Women, Iphigenia in Tauris, Iphigenia in Aulis, Bacchae, Cyclops. A must read together with Aeschylus, Sophocles, the Iliad and the Odyssey. [Twitter thread].
“Números irracionales” (by Bartolo Luque and Jorge Calero) (++): Another book from the math collection. This one offers an entertaining foray into the discovery of different irrational numbers (pi, e, 2^1/2…) throughout history and how they were estimated. [Twitter thread].
“Todo es número” (by Manuel Alfonseca) (+++): Another book from the math collection. This book takes the reader through a light review of the history of philosophy and science since ancient Greece till today. [Twitter thread].
“Pride and Prejudice” (by Jane Austen) (++): In this novel the story centres around the quest of partners for the Bennet sisters. I liked this novel much more than “Sense and Sensibility”. It has very good twists in the plot, it shows how the mistrust between social classes difficults open relationships from the outset, its reading is more fluid and it has a very strong protagonist in Elizabeth. And I loved this line by the end “Now be sincere, did you admire me for my impertinence?” [Twitter thread].
“Meditations” (by Marcus Aurelius) (+++): Marcus Aurelius was a Roman emperor in the late II century AD. This book consists of a collection of his thoughts, advice, quotes and reflections on several subjects. He wrote them as a guidance for self-improvement, being part of the Roman Stoicism school. [Twitter thread].
“Parmenides” (by Plato) (+): This is one of the dialogues of Plato, though it is a very difficult one to read. Either you are very motivated to attempt it or I would not recommend it. It discusses its theory of ideas, the one which is, the one which is not, the Others. A tough one. [Twitter thread].
“Argonautica” (by ApolloniusRhodius) (++): Written in the III century BC, this book tells the story of the trip that Jason and the rest of the heroes on board of the ship Argo make in search of the Golden fleece (which is in the region of Colchis in the East of the Black Sea), how they meet Medea and how they later flee making a detour around Europe. [Twitter thread].
“The brothers Karamazov” (by Fyodor Dostoevsky) (++): Lots of passion and difficult characters in this psychological novel from Dostoevsky, especially the father Fyodor, the older brother Dimitri (Mitya) and Grushenka. At times it gets a bit boring, especially the spells around the starets Zosima and the monastery. The last quarter of the book with the dialogues and speculations around the trial is great. [Twitter thread].
“The Clouds. Lysistrata. Wealth” (by Aristophanes) (+++): This book contained 3 of the 11 surviving comedies by Aristophanes. The first one is a critique of intellectuals in Athens and a caricature of Socrates. The second shows the bargaining power of abstinence as proved by the stance taken by the Spartan women of the play during the Peloponesian war. The third one portrays poverty as a virtue, a call for a fairer redistribution of wealth and shows the incentives that money creates. I found the comedy of Aristophanes quite direct and rich in double meaning. [Twitter thread].
“El archivero de la Lubianka” (by Travis Holland) (+): I received this book as a present many years ago but I forgot from whom. The story is based on a clerk working in the literary archives of the Lubianka. It depicts the fear, the lack of freedom and the arbitrary prosecution in the times of the Soviet Union under Stalin in 1939. [Twitter thread].
“Este no es el titulo de este libro” (by Nelo Alberto Maestre Blanco) (++): Another book from the math collection. This book discusses some paradoxes, axioms and fundamentals of mathematics. It touches the work of several mathematicians from the past: Euclid, Leibniz, Boole, Cantor, Frege, Russell, Hilbert, Peano, Gödel, Turing, Shannon.
“Los secretos de la defensa de Madrid” (by Manuel Chaves Nogales) (+++): This is another great book from the journalist Chaves Nogales. It describes the details of the defence of the city of Madrid during the first months of the Spanish civil war in 1936 while it was besieged by the rebels and defended by the republicans and other militias. It provides a very positive depiction of the general Miaja (loyal to the Republic) and a rather negative one of Largo Caballero (PSOE), and of actions carried by the unions (CNT and UGT) in the republican side, such as stealing food, weapons and ammunition either from the people of Madrid or the republican army defending Madrid at the front. The book provides a very detailed account of the fights and moves street by street, parks, bridges and around Ciudad Universitaria. [Twitter thread].
“The birds. The frogs. The assemblywomen” (by Aristophanes) (+): This book contained 3 of the 11 surviving comedies by Aristophanes. The first one is a comedy about gods. The second one mainly centres around a duel bewteen Euripides and Aeschylus in the Hades. The third one is a sexual and scatological comedy where women rebel and take control of the government. I found these 3 comedies a bit softer than the others I read from Aristophanes. [Twitter thread].
“Historia de la Guerra del Peloponeso” (by Thucydides) (+): For this work Thucydides is considered by some the father of scientific history or the first historian, as he applied a rigorous chronological description of the Peloponnesian war providing analysis without the intervention of Greek deities and from a neutral perspective, despite him being an Athenian general during the war. It covers the war between Athens and Peloponnesian League (led by Sparta). Some of the main historical characters appearing along the battles are: Brasidas, Pericles, Demosthenes, Alcibiades (a quite controversial character who changes sides a few times betraying his camp to avoid justice and advance in his career), Agis, Hermocrates… The books shows the importance of the naval power and dominance of the seas, and the ephemeral nature of alliances. [Twitter thread].
“Factfulness” (by Hans Rosling) (+++): The late Hans Rosling advocated for decades for a good comprehension of the World through knowing basic data about it and to improve the decision making processes. This book is organized around a series of 10 biases or “instincts” that we need to be aware of when analyzing data (e.g., size, gaps, linear extrapolations…) and provides some rules of thumb or tips to overcome them. [Twitter thread].
“The Rooster Bar” (by John Grisham) (++): A fine novel by Grisham, in which the protagonists are Law students dropouts illegally practicing law in order to get out of their student’s debt. It also touches on the difficulties of illegal immigrants in the US. [Twitter thread].
“The Rational Optimist” (by Matt Ridley) (++): Written in 2010, this book is a defence of exchanges, free trade, the value of ideas, the gains obtained from specialization, the advances achieved through technology, the importance of institutions, the overall improvement of societies thanks to continuous growth vs regression. It is an ode to the market economy in times when it is attacked from many fronts. [Twitter thread].
“The age of innocence” (by Edith Wharton) (++): Written in 1920, the book shows how was family and social life, and the morals of the old New York of 1870s. The change of that society at the turn of the century. At times the prose and language are rather baroque, and lack rhythm, but I want to remark the impressive last chapter with unexpected twists through the last sentence. [Twitter thread].
“This side of paradise” (by F. Scott Fitzgerald) (+): Written in 1920, the book portrays the young Amory Blaine forming his personality before and after WWI, throughout his years studying at Princeton, his attitude and relationship with girls, his first loves, the life New York, his failures… A fast paced first novel of the author.[Twitter thread].
“The wealth of nations” (by Adam Smith) (+++): First published in 1776, the book is for a reason a masterpiece of economic analysis. It covers in a didactic way and with several historical examples a large variety of economic subjects: the division of labour, competition and free trade vs monopolies, income from wages, land and stock, the relationship of the European powers (mainly England, Spain, Portugal and The Netherlands) with their colonies, public finances. [Twitter thread].
“Le Comte de Monte-Cristo“, tome I (by Alexandre Dumas) (+++): I started reading this first part of the story to try to read it at the same time as my brother. It portrays the story of Edmond Dantès and his transformation through injustice inflicted upon him into the Count of Monte-Cristo. In his comeback he looks for the characters of his previous life to reward them or seek vengeance. All in the historical context of the escape from the island of Elba and the hundred days of Napoleon followed by the Bourbons restoration.
“Midiendo el cielo y la Tierra” (by Fernando J. Ballesteros) (+++): Another book of the maths collection. This one describes the evolution of estimating and measuring distances both in the Earth (latitudes, longitudes, navigation, the size of it) and in outer space (distances to the Moon, other planets, the Sun, other stars), including the triangulations used, Thales theorem, trigonometry, Kelper’s laws and the tools employed. [Twitter thread].
“The Guardians” (by John Grisham) (+++): This fast paced novel is centred on a small law firm, practically pro bono, which operates mainly in South Georgia and North Florida trying to get innocent inmates that have been wrongly convicted. In doing so they confront sheriffs, prosecutors, drug traffickers…
“Cambiemos el mundo” (by Greta Thunberg) (-): This is a short book with a collection of the speeches that Thunberg had given up to some point in 2019. It was a thought provoking present from last Christmas. The book in itself is badly edited as there are no references, bibliography or any support to the claims the speaker does, which may be normal in a speech but not so in a book. The editing job was poor. Other than that, in the speeches she did nothing but advocate for degrowth and forecast the doom. Surely solutions will come through technologies, policies and investments that she does not bother to go into.
—
During this year, with the lock-downs, confinements, etc., there was plenty of time to read and I have been able to read at a good pace thanks to the rigorous approach following these two tips:
a blog post from Farnam Street blog “Just Twenty-Five Pages a Day“, which was published well after I had adopted such an approach to reading but captures it very well,
the Wikipedia article about the Pomodoro Technique, which enables you to efficiently use the last hours of the day.
Another question that I have got a couple of times is about the source of the list of some of the classics that I read. That one comes from yet another blog post from Farnam Street blog. That post mentioned theGreat Books curriculum for the bachelor in arts of Saint John’s College in Annapolis. You can get the list from the Wikipedia or directly from the college website. As I am not reading exclusively those books I advance at a pace of 5 to 8 books out of that curriculum per year, thus it will take me other 20 years to finish the program.
In this post I wanted to share the list of books I read along the year (1) with a small comment for each one and links to some Twitter threads where I shared some passages that caught my attention while reading the books. I have also included a small rating from one to three “+” depending on how much I do recommend its reading.
“La Biblia blanca” (by Ángel del Riego Anta and Marta del Riego Anta) (+++): this is a great book mainly for Real Madrid supporters. It provides a good overview of the history of the club with plenty of stories and anecdotes, adopting a curious structure: that of the Christian Bible with its old and new testaments, and drawing parallels between many of the chapters of the Bible and that of Real Madrid’s history, and between the main characters in both. I enjoyed it and learnt quite a few things from the football club.
“Limpieza de sangre” (by Arturo Perez-Reverte) (++): This book is part of the series of books about the character Captain Alatriste. In this one the plot takes place in Madrid and includes some real historical characters such as the writer Quevedo, an acquaintance of Alatriste. The plot of the book starts with the murder of woman and Alatriste is involved in its investigation which involves the Inquisition. [I leave here a link to the Twitter thread with some quotes or passages that captured from the book while reading it]
“Buying the big jets” (by Paul Clark) (+++): This is a great book about the processes and methods involved in the decision-making of buying large commercial airplanes. The book is a great tool to understand some key concepts of fleet planning, network planning, aircraft performance and economics, etc., and how they influence the investment decision of acquiring airplanes. This was a great recommendation from my colleague Peter. [Twitter thread].
“Le Misanthrope” (by Moliere) (+): I read this play after having read three others from Moliere (École de femmes, Tartuffe, Don Juan) and this is the only one I didn’t really like, while the three others were very engaging and entertaining. In this one, Moliere criticizes society’s hypocrisy by portraying the different personalities of Alceste and Célimène along other of her lovers. [Twitter thread]
“Une ville flottante” (by Jules Verne) (+): Published in 1871, this book covers the trip from Liverpool to New York of the Great Eastern, a large ship transporting thousands of travelers. The book mixes some technical descriptions and explanations about the boat, the navigation or other engineering works, with the day to day life of the passengers, very much in Verne’s style. However, I must say that I found it quite dull at some times. [Twitter thread]
“Leonardo Da Vinci” (by Walter Isaacson) (+++): This book was a present from my mother in law and I read it in this 2019 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo, well ahead of our summer trip to Italy where we saw some of his greatest paintings and where we visited is birthplace in Anchiano, close to Vinci. The biography is great. It takes you through the life of the artist, showing and explaining his personal struggles at the same time that it offers an insight into the techniques he developed (smufato, sketching, use of light…), an analysis of his works and possible interpretations. A great painter, even if not constant with completing the works he was commissioned, a frustrated military engineer, a complex character and without a doubt a very talented and innovative individual. [Twitter thread]
“Straight & Level, Practical Airline Economics” (by Stephen Holloway) (+++): This is a detailed review (over 600 pages in the edition I read) of the airline industry economics, operating revenue and cost (traffic, price and yield, output and unit cost), capacity management (network management, fleet management and revenue management) and the relationships between all those concepts. The book is extremely thorough in the presentation and discussions of the different concepts and the variables influencing them. Not for the faint reader. [Twitter thread]
“The Customer Rules” (by Lee Cockerell) (+++): I had this book at home after having received it from the magazine The Economist following a response to one of their surveys. I decided to read it thinking it would be good fit with the new job I was about to get, closer to the customers. Written by Lee Cockerel, a former Disney executive VP, the book is structured along 39 tips to improve customer service. With plenty of anecdotes, experiences, very short chapters with no nonsense, the book is an enjoyable fast read. [Twitter thread]
“La Chanson de Roland” (possibly by Turold) (++): This is a French epic poem written in the XI century describing the battle in Roncesvalles (Roncevaux) in 778 between Spanish Muslims of the king Marsile, based in Zazragoza, and the army of Charlemagne. The main character, Roland, Charlemagne’s nephew, antagonizes with his stepfather who sets him up to cover the rear of the Franks’ army and is then fatally attacked by the Muslims. His call for help, sounding his horn, comes too late to be helped by Charlemagne and he dies in Roncesvalles along with his companion Oliver. I found it especially interesting 1) the outcome that the book gives to his sword in comparison with the many legends about it that have reached our days (Rocamadour, Gavarnie, church in Roncesvalles…), and 2) the many references to Spain and the kingdom of Spain. [Twitter thread]
“La Republica o El Estado” (by Plato) (+++): In this book of dialogues, Plato portrays Socrates discussing about justice (giving what’s due and appropriate), education, virtues, the arts… but what I liked the most was the book (chapter) in which he discusses the different forms of government, what defines them and how the abuse of some aspect in them leads to the adoption of another subsequent form of government. I loved to discover that among the different models he presented, the one presented as the ideal one was aristocracy and not democracy. So much for… [Twitter thread]
“Etica a Nicomaco” (by Aristotle) (++): Aristotle’s text book on ethics, possibly compiled from the notes he used in the Lyceum. Where he defines and discusses virtues, distinguishing from virtues of character and moral virtues. Then he discusses happiness to end with the need for education.
“Nuts! Southwest airlines…” (by Kevin & Jackie Freiberg) (+++): Great book about the airline Southwest. The authors had been consulting for Southwest before they decided to write the book and they are a couple of cheerleaders of the airline (they even include such a disclaimer at the beginning), and despite of that the book is very enjoyable with an extremely positive note. There is no criticism to the airline in the book but plenty of details and anecdotes compiled from dozens of interviews with employees. It is written as a kind of business management book which can also be applied for personal development, with a sort of reference check list at the end of each chapter. If I had to highlight a single takeaway from the book it would the going the extra mile by the individual employees to provide what they call positively outrageous service, and only afterwards thinking about who will pay, what the procedure says, what their boss would say… [Twitter thread]
“Primo Viaggio intorno al Globo” (by Antonio Pigafetta) (++): I decided to read this book on the first circumnavigation of the Earth to celebrate the 500th anniversary of their departure from Sevilla and Sanlúcar de Barrameda. The author, the Venetian Antonio Pigafetta, was one of the few survivors that completed the round the world trip that lasted three years. He started as a secretary to the expedition commander, the Portuguese Magellan. He describes with detail the adventures they went through, the navigation, what they ate, the illnesses they suffered, the landscapes, how they procured food, gold, silver and other materials. He described the exchanges with the different local rulers, which surprisingly were mostly delighted to enter into commercial terms with the king of Spain. It is interesting to note that even though after the death of Magellan in Mactan (which is described in the book) the Spanish Elcano became the commander of what was left from the original expedition, Pigafetta does not mention him not even once in the book; plausibly due to differences with him, as he described tensions and rivalries between the captains of different nationalities taking part in the expedition.
“The Reckoning” (by John Grisham) (+): In this book Grisham shows very early the facts: the victim, the killer, the sentence. What is left unknown is the motive. Most of the book then is dedicated to backtrack the life of the killer, from rural Mississippi to West Point, his marriage and family building, life as a farmer, his participation world war II and the sequels that it brought… However, I must say that I found it too long, though I confess that I loved the final twist.
“Skygods. The Fall of Pan Am” (by Robert Gandt) (+): This book about the rise and fall of the airline Pan Am is very easy to read, a bit repetitive with some expressions, not very elaborate, but entertaining. I found interesting in it the explanations about the many things that didn’t work and didn’t make sense in the operation of Pan Am: from not having a domestic network to feed their international destinations, to being politically denied one time after the other the possibility to develop or acquire such network, the madness surrounding it (seeking super sonic trips, trips to the moon, the NY headquarters, keeping the 747 flying empty to the most exotic locations…). At the same time, Pan Am was a pillar of the American landscape of the time: flying the Berlin service, its standards of service (including its lounges around the world, more like embassies), its support to the military by flying troops as part of the civil reserve fleet, etc. [Twitter thread]
“Camino Island” (by John Grisham) (++): Interesting novel in which Grisham deviates from the legal world and dives into characters of the book industry: writers, editors, sellers, dealers, collectors. The story runs along the robbery and placement in the black market of some manuscripts of Scott Fitzgerald novels, in parallel with the investigation to find the manuscripts and the people involved in the crime. A nice read.
“Cinq semaines en ballon” (by Jules Verne) (+): This book describes the journey of doctor Ferguson and his two companions from Zanzibar to Senegal in a balloon, in their quest to find the sources of the river Nile and confirming many of the discoveries in Africa of previous explorers of their time while avoiding many of the dangers of traveling in Africa by doing so through the air instead of on the ground. On the positive side of the book are the technical descriptions of the physics behind the balloon, the devices they use and may the operations and maneuvers they perform. That is a mark of Jules Verne. A negative note is the language used to describe Africans in general, black people or Arabs, clearly a language that may have passed in 1863 when the book was published but not today. [Twitter thread]
During this year, I have been able to read at a good pace during the first and last quarters (not so during the middle months while switching jobs and going through training) thanks to the rigorous approach following these two tips:
a blog post from Farnam Street blog “Just Twenty-Five Pages a Day“, which was published well after I had adopted such an approach to reading but captures it very well,
the Wikipedia article about the Pomodoro Technique, which enables you to efficiently use the last hours of the day.
In this post I wanted to share the list of books I read along the year (1) with a small comment for each one and links to some Twitter threads where I shared some passages that caught my attention while reading the book. I have also included a small rating from one to three “+” depending on how much do I recommend its reading.
“Dom Juan” (by Molière) (+++): Molière wrote this play for his theater group in 1665 when he faced troubles with Le Tartuffe and inspired by the work of Tirso de Molina. It tells the story of Don Juan, an unscrupulous adulterer who finds a counter point in his servant Sganarelle, with the action taking place in Sicily. I found in the book a good critique of hypocrisy and defence of good morals. [I leave here a Twitter thread with some passages that caught my attention while reading the book]
“To Kill a Mockingbird” (by Harper Lee) (++): Written in 1960 and winner of the Pulitzer prize, this novel tells the story of Atticus Finch, widower lawyer and single parent who is raising his two children in a principled way in a setting that does not help: segregationist Alabama in the 1960s in the midst of a trial in which Atticus is defending the weaker part, a black man who has been accused of raping a young white woman.
“Aeneid” (by Virgil) (++): the book tells the story of Aeneas, a Trojan character mentioned in the Iliad, who travels to Italy and becomes the ancestor of the Romans. I found the book a good epic legend for Italy, I liked that it mixes the adventurous side of the Odyssey and the cruelty and violence of the combats of the Iliad. However, I found it a bit tedious compared to the other two. [Twitter thread]
“Caligula” (by Albert Camus) (++): This play, published in 1944, and part of the cycle de l’absurde, is centered around the Roman emperor Caligula, who following the death of Drusilla engages in different dialogues, at times humorous, absurd or abusive, where he experiences and plays around the impossible, power and finally plots his own assassination. [Twitter thread]
“L’Étranger” (Albert Camus) (++): in this novel written in 1942, the main character, Meursault is an French Algerian, who epitomizes indifference. The novel starts with the death of his mother, which already does not move him much. Later, he sees himself hanging around with friends when they are assaulted. Without much thought he finds himself committing a crime, poorly defending himself in court and seeing life go by in front of him in the death row. [Twitter thread]
“Skunk Works” (by Ben Rich & Leo Janos) (+++): This book, the biography of Ben Rich (coauthored by Leo Janos, coauthor as well of “Yeager”), tells the fascinating story behind great engineers and legendary airplanes such as P-38, Starfighter, U-2, SR-71 Blackbird or the F-117 Nighthawk. The book includes some insight of the struggle of engineers and managers in developing those programs with the pressure from the authorities and the bureaucracies linked to them. It includes as well some light insight into the engineering innovations behind the successes of those aircraft, mixed with many witty remarks and plenty of humour and passion for aviation, It’s definitely a must read. [Twitter thread]
“Juan Belmonte, matador de toros” (by Manuel Chaves Nogales) (+++): I had come across the book as being referred by Spanish author Perez Reverte as the best biography in Spanish language, no less. Written by the journalist Chaves Nogales, it tells the life of Belmonte, a bullfighter from the beginning of the XX century, who had a close “rivalry” with Joselito. From the stories of his childhood in Seville (sneaking naked with friends in the night into the properties of bulls’ breeders to practice the fight), to his becoming a figure of bullfighting (his great days, the times he was injured), to his trips to Latin America (where even he got married by power of attorney as he found ceremonies rather dull!), the life of Belmonte is the life of character to be found only novels. [Twitter thread]
“Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” (by Yuval Noah Harari) (++): written in 2014, I quickly saw this book being very positively referred to in multiple publications, thus I had marked it in my to-read list. I finally did it this year. I was disappointed. The author, a historian, covers in this book the different revolutions of human kind, which he classifies in: cognitive revolution, agricultural revolution, unification of humankind and scientific revolution. It is an entertaining read, with a few original ideas and provoking questions at the end. Otherwise, I found that 70% of the content of the book must have been in my high school history/biology courses’ content. Highly overrated. [Twitter thread]
“War and peace” (by Leo Tolstoy) (++): With almost 1,500 pages in the Spanish version that I read, this master piece from Tolstoy is according to him neither a novel, nor a poem, essay or chronicle, but a mix of all those genres. It is a monumental and historical piece, where the author mixes real characters and situations (e.g. battlefields) with fictional (or masked) ones. It chronicles the Napeoleonic wars with the campaigns in Austerlitz and Russia, it describes the life of Russian nobility and bourgeoisie, the missery of the war. This one is definitely a must read. [Twitter thread]
“Checklist manifesto: How to get things right” (by Atul Gawande) (++): Gawande, a surgeon at a Boston hospital and professor at Harvard, wrote this book in 2009 and since years ago I had been wanting to read it. It includes a compelling message: use of checklists to improve safety, mainly in operations related to healthcare in general and in operating rooms worldwide. He approached the subject following requests from the World Health Organisation to find ways to drastically improve safety. And he found in check lists, like the ones used in aviation since the 1930s (when Boeing developed the B-17 Flying Fortress, much more complex to fly than previous aircraft), a cheap and effective way to improve operations. There are other lessons to be drawn from the book from the importance of preparation, communication, rehearsing or visualizing in advance the critical steps to be performed, etc.
“Apology (of Socrates)“, “Meno“, “Cratylus” (by Plato) (++): Apology is the Socratic dialogue which describes the defence that Socrates made of himself in the trial that that condemned him to death. I especially liked that dialogue and the high moral status that portrays of Socrates. In Meno, Socrates tries to define what is virtue and whether it can be taught. In Cratylus Socrates discusses the nature of the names given to concepts and whether they are linked to them, digging into their etymology. [Twitter thread]
“Protagoras“, “Gorgias“, “Seventh Letter” (by Plato) (++): In Protagoras Socrates takes on Sophists and further discusses about virtue, what it is and whether it can be taught. In Gorgias Socrates takes again on Sophists and the use of rhetoric for persuasion. The Seventh Letter is an autobiographical account by Plato of his activities in Sicily and his exchanges with Dion. [Twitter thread]
“Ion“, “Timaeus“, “Critias” (by Plato) (+): In Ion Socrates takes on a rhapsode and discusses about skills in different fields of work. Timaeus is a kind of text about physics, chemistry and biology, a kind of genesis… which I absolutely recommend not entering into it. In Critias Plato tells the story of Atlantis and its attempt to conquer Athens. I would not read it either. [Twitter thread]
“Normandy 1944” (Remy Desquesnes) (++): During our visit to the Normandy coast in the month of May, I purchased this book to complement what I had learnt through the reading of the panels, the monuments, and the museum at Vierville-sur-Mer. The book in itself is easily read. It covers the preparation, previous attempts by the Allies to land in continental Europe, the refinement of the strategy and the Operation Over Lord itself from different points of view. It includes several maps of the theatre of operations, pictures, figures. Even if the edition of the book (by Ouest France) is not very good (some paragraphs are uncompleted), the reading of the book did provide a good complement to the visit. [Twitter thread]
“Fahrenheit 451” (by Ray Bradbury) (++): written in 1953, it presents a future society in which books are forbidden and firemen are employed to search and burn books or the houses in which they are stored. The main character is Guy Montag, on of such firemen. The story shows him troubled by getting in contact with a neighbor who secretly reads or a woman who choses to burn herself rather than parting ways from her books. This makes Montag question some aspects of his society. [Twitter thread]
“The Whistler” (by John Grisham) (++): the nth book from Grisham that I read. In this one the plot has a mafia taking benefit of a casino handed to the Native American tribe living in an area in the north of Florida. A team of three lawyers from the Board of Judicial Conduct start investigating the conspiracy with almost no means and serious risk to their lives until late into the story when they manage to get the FBI onboard. Thrilling and engaging as always.
“Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” (by Robert Cialdini) (+++): written in 1984, the book is today a classic of influence, persuasion or negotiation. It introduces what he calls the six weapons of influence and in different chapters he explains how they work in the setting of a negotiation or a sale, providing real life examples and, in the edition that I read, feedback from readers of the previous editions. The six weapons being: reciprocation, commitment and consistency, social proof, liking, authority and scarcity. A very good read. [Twitter thread]
“Hergé, Tintin et les avions” (by Jose Miguel de la Viuda Sainz) (+++): this book, written in 2018 by a work colleague, is a compilation of the airplanes that appear in the different books of Tintin by Hergé. The book was edited in parallel to an exhibition about Tintin and airplanes at the Aeroscopia museum in Toulouse Blagnac. For each of those planes, the author reviews the plot of the Tintin book, the setting of the airplane(s) that appear in the book and discusses some technical features of the plane, whether in the book they are adapted from the real plane, whether those planes were marking a moment in aviation history at the time, etc. It is a rather short book (65 pages) but highly enjoyable. [Twitter thread]
“Why Nations Fail. The origins of power, prosperity and poverty” (by Daren Acemoglu and James A. Robinson) (++): The thesis of the book is that the main driver determining whether countries follow a path of prosperity or the reverse is whether they have inclusive (vs extractive) political and economic institutions, i.e., democratic institutions, checks and balances, separation of powers, but as well respect for private property, contract law enforcement, etc. The book is well written, reads easily, and have quite a few facts that I discovered while reading the book, but I found it too long, as once the idea has been transmitted, the book becomes repetitive. [Twitter thread]
“Les Fleurs de Mal” (by Charles Baudelaire) (+): The most famous volume of poetry by Baudelaire, published in 1857, it was a must read if I wanted to venture into French poetry. With it Baudelaire tried to extract beauty from decadence, evil, mal. I especially liked the following poems: “La mort des pauvres”, “L’horloge”, “L’homme et la mer”, “Les Phares” and “Spleen”. [Twitter thread]
“Le rouge et le noir” (by Stendhal) (+): I took on this book, regarded as one of the best novels from the author, looking for a similar read to Les Miserables (by Victor Hugo), i.e. the struggle of a character from the lower ranks of French society of the XIX century. I was disappointed with the book. The book tells the story of Julien Sorel from his village Verrières to the Parisian society, the jobs he has to take, the relationships he entertains, the parties of the nobility… but I found too much storyline around his love affairs with Madame de Rênal and Mathilde de la Mole and I found the narrative very slow. [Twitter thread]
“Le Cid” (by Pierre Corneille) (+): I learned about Corneille and its Cid in one diagram about French literature included in the dossier of one of the Moliere’s books that I had read. Being the Cid a legendary Spanish knight about which I had recently read, I quickly put it into the to-read list. Whereas the Spanish “Cantar del Cid” is an epic poem, this “Le Cid” is a tragedy play for theatre. It confronts the hero Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar and his father with Ximena and her father. Ximena’s father offended Rodrigo’s one and this forces Rodrigo to search vengeance to save the honour of the family. Once that is settled, the course of action for Ximena is in question: whether to follow is loved one or not, once he has killed her own father. [Twitter thread]
“Captain of Hungary” (by Ferenc Puskas) (++): Ferenc Puskas was a great football player in the 1940s and 1950s. In 1954, at age 27, after having won a Olympics in 1952 and finishing second in the 1954 World Cup, he wrote this autobiography, when he still had ten years ahead as player and his best pages as club football player to be written. In the book he covers from his first games in the fields of Kispest during his childhood, to being called for the local club junior categories, to his promotion to the first league and national team. He very much focusses on his exploits with the national team with the other big teams of the time: England, Austria, Yugoslavia, Germany, Brazil. His passion for the sport, his dedication to the training and self-improvement and the importance of the tactical innovations, including the playing as a team and sacrificing oneself for the team, are constant themes along the book. [Twitter thread]
“Vingt ans après” (by Alexandre Dumas) (+++): “Twenty Years After”, published in 1845 as a serialized novel, is a sequel to the “The Three Musketeers” and precedes “The Vicomte de Bragelonne”. The main characters are the same (i.e. D’Artagnan, Athos, Porthos and Aramis) though after 20 years their personal situation has changed. The France in which the live has also changed. Now the setting is the Fronde, with cardinal Mazarin and Anne d’Autriche in France, and Cromwell and Charles I in England. The book is as entertaining as the first book of the series, with continuous plots, adventures, surprises, fights, witty dialogues and gasconnades from D’Artagnan. [Twitter thread]
“The Sun also rises” (by Ernest Hemingway) (+): After a few visits to the fiesta of San Fermin in Pamplona, Hemingway published in 1926 this book, which has become possibly his most popular work. The plot portrays a group of American and British friends that organize a trip to Pamplona passing by Bayonne, San Sebastian and a few days in the mountains. I did not like much the half of the book that runs the lives of rather decadent characters in Paris, I did not like the intricated relationships among them, but I did like the way the bullfighting (corrida) and the bull run (encierro) are explained. Pamplona’s encierros have world fame, and even if not thoroughly described in the book, they do get a few pages of fast, intense narrative. The corridas get a longer share of the book as they include a fictional bullfigher, Romero, and Belmonte. There is a delicious full page describing the final moments of a corrida, when the bull’s ear is finally handed to Romero. I definitely recommend reading the last ~ 40 pages. [Twitter thread]
“Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder” (by Nassim Nicholas Taleb) (++): With this book written in 2012, Taleb built on concepts exposed its previous books to offer a new main idea: antifragility, as opposed to fragility and to what would be a midway concept of robustness. He invites the reader to look for situations in which one can gain from situations of disorder, crisis, uncertainty. Some steps in that direction would be to reduce the exposure to situations in which he is fragile, to question calls for action when inaction might be more appropriate (via negativa), to question third party forecasts, to pay attention to the effect of low probability risks (fat tails), etc. [Twitter thread]
“The first 90 days” (by Michael Watkins) (++): published in 2006, this book is a useful guide about how to face the transition into a new job position. It helps to focus on some aspects of the business, the processes, the relationships involved, questions to be made, the learning process to be had, etc. The book does not bring any breakthrough idea, but it’s a useful reminder of some basic and common sense elements to keep in mind during the transition.
During this year again, I have been able to read at a higher pace than years ago, before I adopted a more rigorous approach following these two tips:
a blog post from Farnam Street blog “Just Twenty-Five Pages a Day“, which was published well after I had adopted such an approach to reading but captures it very well,
the Wikipedia article about the Pomodoro Technique, which enables you to efficiently use the last hours of the day.
In this post I wanted to share the list of books I read along the year (1) with a small comment for each one and links to some articles in this blog where I wrote a book review for a few of them. I have also included a small rating from one to three “+” depending on how much do I recommend its reading:
“Reales Ordenanzas” (by Carlos III, King of Spain 1759-1788) (+): these are the set of rules for the Spanish Armed Forces issued in 1768 under the rule of the king Carlos III and which were kept in use until 1978. They are structured in titles and articles, quite like a legal text. Some of the main values conveyed through the rules are respect for the orders received and education in the dealings with subordinates. Find a post with the book review I wrote about it here.
“Cronica de una muerte anunciada” (by Gabriel Garcia Marquez) (+++): in this book Garcia Marquez explores a mix of styles between journalism and crime fiction to cover the plot of the murder of Santiago Nasar, and how despite being widely announced, as the time of the death approaches it cannot be prevented by the people who try to do so. Find a post with the book review I wrote about it here.
“The Capital in the XXI century” (by Thomas Piketty) (+++): arguably the economics book of 2013, it is a review of the evolution and distribution of wealth and income from the XVIII century till today mainly in Europe and the United States. It discusses how in times of small growth the rate of return of capital becomes the main source of wealth increase and how that contributes to the increasing and maintaining of inequality. A follow-on conclusion is his call for a global tax on wealth.
“Common Sense” (by Thomas Paine) (+): published in 1776, it is one of the best selling books in America of all time. The book is a short treatise on the government, democracy, monarchy and a call for the freedom of independence of the American colonies from England.
“Pilote de guerre” (by Antoine de Saint-Exupery) (++): published in 1942 while he was living in New York, this book describes Saint-Exupery’s experiences during the battle of France (1940) when he flew aboard a Bloch MB.170 reconnaissance missions over Germany. The English version of the book was published under the title “Flight to Arras”.
“Club Dumas” (by Arturo Perez-Reverte) (+++): this novel is centered on Lucas Corso, a fictional book dealer specialized in finding collectors items. Corso is commissioned to find copies of a book and that will take him to travel between Spain, Portugal and France living situations that resemble very much to those of The Three Musketeers, the novel by Alexandre Dumas. The book in itself is an invitation to read other books and to cultivate a passion for reading.
“Gray Mountain” (by John Grisham) (+++): published in the fall of 2014, this legal thriller by Grisham tells the story of the lawyer Samantha Koffer, on leave from a big law firm in NY due to the Great Recession, she joins the practice of a small firm in Virginian Appalachia region where she will defend the victims of big coal mining corporations.
“El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha” (by Miguel de Cervantes) (+++): Cervantes published the two books that have become the masterpieces of literature in Spanish language between 1605 and 1615, since then, they have become two of the most sold and read books. They cover the stories and encounters of the hidalgo (knight) Don Quixote with Sancho Panza as his helper. Those adventures are used by Cervantes to reflect by way of the characters on different aspects of life, pose rhetorical questions, criticize institutions, etc. Find a post with the book review I wrote about it here.
“El sol de Breda” (by Arturo Perez-Reverte) (++): this book is the third one of the series of the fictional Captain Alatriste. In this book, the story is framed around the siege of Breda (1625). The book covers extensively the detail of life at the trenches, the feelings of some of the characters and how they face the uncertainty of the war. He also reflects on the Spanish history and some features that he sees as part of the national character. Find a post with the book review I wrote about it here.
“Terre des hommes” (by Antoine de Saint-Exupery) (+++): this is a compilation book of some memories of the aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry of his time at the airmail carrier l’Aéropostale.The book was published in 1939, two years later he received the US National Book Award for it. In the book, Saint-Exupéry pays tribute to some of his colleagues, mainly Henri Guillaumet and Jean Mermoz, and he shares some experiences which today seem unbelievable. Find a post with the book review I wrote about it here.
“La falsa bonanza” (by Miguel Sebastian) (+++): Miguel Sebastian is an economist who served in the cabinet of Spanish prime minister as economic adviser and as minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism from 2008 to 2011. Those were the years following the financial crash and in which the bubble who had been going on for years in Spain finally exploded. In this book, Sebastian intends to find the causes that fuelled that bubble, the policies that helped it, the actions that were not taken, the institutions that failed at stopping it, etc., with the aim of being better equipped to avoid a similar development in the future. The book is written in a very readable fashion, provides plenty of tables, graphics and references, and at the same time is very synthetic.
“Le Tour du monde en 80 jours” (by Jules Verne) (++): Willeas Fog, a character about whom not much is known, bets with his colleagues of the Reform club in London that he is able to travel around the world in 80 days, and so he does embark himself in such endeavor with his assistant, Passpartout. A the same time, there is an ongoing investigation of a robbery of the Bank of England which makes a police investigator, Fix, to follow Fog all along the trip (as he is a suspect), waiting for an authorization coming from England to arrest him before he evades justice. The reader is conflicted by the suspicion laid upon Fog, as all the acts of the character in the story describe an orderly, integer, compassionate person, even if not much is known about him, his profession, origins or his past. Find a post with the book review I wrote about it here.
“Les Parisiens comme ils sont” (by Honoré de Balzac) (+): I approached this book, part of the large series “La Comédie humaine“, as a first encounter with the work of Balzac in advance to a trip to Paris. The style of Balzac in this book is very readable, light, direct. I would even say opinionated. I did not particularly like the book very much, especially the chapters referring to how women should behave, dress, and the comparisons between women of Paris and the provinces. It may reflect a view of his time and class, but did not resonate with me today.
“The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money” (by John Maynard Keynes) (+++): this book, published in 1936, is considered the magnum opus of Keynes, a character whose contribution to the development of economics and politics cannot be overstated. The book pointed to some of the shortcomings of the classical theory (lack of competition) and introduced some key concepts such as the propensity to consume, the multiplier, the consumption function, the marginal efficiency of capital, etc. The book was not intended for the general public and I must say that it has been one of the most difficult reads I have encountered so far. Nevertheless, I consider it a must read for those having an interest in economy. I may write a dedicated post reviewing it at a later point in time.
“El Junkers Ju-52/3m CASA C-352” (by Luis Gonzalez Pavon) (+++): this is a book written by a colleague from CASA (the former name of the Spanish part of Airbus) where he dives in great detail into the history of the aircraft Junkers 52, from the origins of his designers to its production in Germany and under license in Spain. He collected plenty of information on the aircraft from different sources, serial number by serial number, recording the changes of tail numbers, registry numbers, the roles played by each and every aircraft, and in particular the crucial mission they played during the first stages of the Spanish Civil War on the Nationalist side. The book includes at the end charts, drawings and tables with the technical data of the aircraft.
“What I talk about when I talk about running” (by Haruki Murakami) (++): Murakami is a quite accomplished runner since the beginning of the 1980s. In this book, published in 2007, he described what running means and has meant to him. Personally, it was very easy to relate to him, sharing not only his passion for running, but a bunch of experiences, from having run marathons in New York or Athens, to having completed a 100km ultra marathon, to 6am morning runs. Find a post with the book review I wrote about it here.
“Man’s search for meaning” (by Viktor E. Frankl) (++): Frankl was a psychiatrist who developed a therapy called logotherapy based on the will for meaning. He later became prisoner at several concentration camps during the second world war, which he survived. He described in this book the experiences he and some of his fellow prisoners endured during those years and how that will helped them to survive. That accounts for about two thirds of the book; the remaining third is dedicated to further explanations and clarifications of his therapy.
“Poema del Cid” (anonymous, Pedro Abad) (+++): this is oldest epic poem of Spanish literature, which tells the history of the Castilian knight Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, better known as Cid Campeador. The story goes from the loss by the Cid of the favor of the king Alfonso VI to his leaving of Castile, his continued profession of allegiance to the king, the fights and the conquest Valencia (where he settles), the coming closer againt to the king via the marriage of his daughters with Castilian noblemen and the following vengeance against his sons-in-law.
“Voyage au centre de la Terre” (by Jules Verne) (+): this is a science fiction novel centered around the figure of the fictional professor Otto Lidenbrock who has studied the works of the 16th-century Icelandic Arne Saknussemm and believes that getting into the Snæfellsjökull volcano he will be able to reach the centre of the earth. He is accompanied in his trip by a local guide and his nephew, with whom he discusses the scientific implications of such a trip and the features of the landscape they encounter as they travel downwards.
“Exploradores: La historia del yacimiento de Atapuerca” (by José María Bermúdez de Castro) (++): this book is a very informative and fascinating trip into archeological science, the different theories within it, the evolution and the discarding of some of those, the relevant place of the archeological site of Atapuerca in the recent developments in the science, etc.; all described by José María Bermúdez de Castro, one of the co-directors of the site since over 20 years ago and one of the persons who have seen all those developments first-hand, coined some of the theories and wrote the papers.
“Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” (by William Shakespeare) (+++): one of the best known plays by Shakespeare, the plot can be summarized (without spoiling it) as follows: Hamlet’s father, the previous king, has recently died and Hamlet is profoundly affected by his death. A ghost of his father appears to him and this sets Hamlet into the search of who has killed his father. The play takes place at the Kronborg castle, in Helsingør (Denmark), which we visited in August, take a look at the post about that visit here.
“American Capitalism, the concept of countervailing power” (by John K. Galbraith) (++): the American economist explains in this book, published in 1952, the concept of countervailing power, necessary to balance in favor of the weaker part situations in which imperfect competition is established, creating oligopolies or monopolies which otherwise would enjoy an extremely powerful hand against individual wage owners or small (farm) producers. The book is a critique to the classical theory, in that it shows that it assumes perfect competition, a kind of competition which in real life very often it is absent.
“Dubliners” (by James Joyce) (+): I came to reading this book ahead of a trip to Ireland and Dublin without knowing about it. The book, published in 1914, is a collection of short unconnected stories of the everyday life of common Dubliners. The book has some importance in the frame of the then-high momentum of Irish nationalism, but I particularly did not like it very much. However, apparently some of the characters and stories appear again and are continued in Ulysses, thus the groundwork of having read it may pay off at a later time.
“Yeager” (by General Chuck Yeager & Leo Janos) (+++): Chuck Yeager was the US Air Force flight test pilot that broke the sound barrier for the first time on October 14, 1947, flying on board of the rocket-propelled Bell X-1. Reading his autobiography you discover that he went from being an uneducated child in rural West Virginia to retiring as a general of the US Air Force, acquainted with several US presidents and other dignitaries, he was the first pilot to become ace in a single day by shooting down 5 German fighters at World War II. Find a post with the book review I wrote about it here.
“Le Père Goriot” (by Honoré de Balzac) (+): this book, published in 1835 and part of the large series “La Comédie humaine“, is considered to be the most important novel of Balzac. The story is centered around some characters who live in the boarding house of Mme. Vauquer, mainly the young Eugène de Rastignac, who is coming from a rural background and trying to reach the upper levels of Parisian society (initially at the cost of his family), and father Goriot, who had spent all his fortune on his daughters in order to marry them to wealthy individuals. Their lives are intertwined in a quite sad plot in which the daughters ignore the father when he is dying and Eugène befriends them and unsuccessfully tries to get them closer to the father.
“Candide, ou l’Optimisme” (by Voltaire) (+): this book, published in 1759 by the French philosopher François-Marie Arouet (Voltaire), follows Candide from the time when he is expelled by his uncle when he declares his love to his cousin Cunégonde. The story then takes Candide through Spain, Lisbon, South America, the Ottoman empire, etc., in a sequence of events in which Candide is confronted by situations and characters that put to the test his innate optimism.
“Metamorphosis” (by Franz Kafka) (++): this fiction novel, published in 1925, starts with the transformation of the salesman Gregor Samsa into a large vermin (insect-like creature). As the story goes, Gregor gets to learn how to live in his new condition and so does his family, which initially is profoundly impacted. The state of denial of the parents, the disgusting sight and smell of the creature, added to the discomfort of the new situation take a toll in the mood and relationships within the family.
“Romeo and Julliet” (by William Shakespeare) (+++): this play, published in 1597, tells the story of the love of two youngsters from rival families of Verona (Italy). This rivalry causes that both Romeo and Julliet have to hide their love and engage in secret with a priest of their confidence, while the family of Julliet wants her to marry a local nobleman, Paris. The bad timing of different events, miscommunications and bad chance steer the story into a fateful ending.
“Rogue Lawyer” (by John Grisham) (+++): published in the fall of 2015, this legal thriller by Grisham tells the story of Sebastian Rudd, a lawyer which does not hesitate to take the cases that nobody wants to take, providing a defense to people convicted for the worst kind of crimes. Working in the dark side of the legal system puts him in the situation to negotiate obscure arrangements with the federal institutions.
“The Importance of Being Earnest” (by Oscar Wilde) (+++): The play, a critical satire of some of Victorian England social institutions and values (in particular marriage, literary press, religion, honesty, punctuality), is centered around two friends, Algernon and Jack (John Worthing), who go about from criticizing each other’s habits, to sharing each other’s faked relatives, to proposing to each other’s cousin and ward. After drawing several parallels between the two characters and their fiancées, and going about several absurd situations, the play unravels in the most unexpected way. Find a post with the book review I wrote about it here.
“The picture of Dorian Gray” (by Oscar Wilde) (++): this book, published in 1890, created a great controversy at the time due to the backwards morals and social conventions of the time. The use of the language and the style of the novel are impressive. The story itself is centered around Dorian Gray, how he is influenced by Lord Henry and his focus on beauty and pleasure, and the painter Basil, who captured in a portrait of Dorian his essence, to the point that Dorian’s life will be very much influenced and even dominated by his relationship with the painting.
“Les Trois Mousquetaires” (by Alexandre Dumas) (+++): published in 1844, this masterpiece of Dumas, recounts the story of d’Artagnan, a real character of the XVII century, even if many of the facts of his life are twisted or made up for the novel. The plot includes several real life characters of XVII century France and some of the events taking place during 1625-28 (such as the siege of La Rochelle, the death of the Duke of Buckingham, etc.), though the plot in itself and the explanation of the causes intertwining the events are fictional. The over 800 pages (of the edition I have) read in a frantic pace thanks to the easy style of Dumas and the parallel progress on the different sides to the story.
“Wait” (by Franck Parnoy) (++): in this book the author studies the decision making process in situations that range from super fast trading, to the milliseconds before bating a baseball, to the longer term decisions involved in innovation. From the different stories covered in the book the lesson to be taken is the need to take some pause, to wait, to observe, process the information and orient ourselves before taking action.
During this year and the last quarter of 2015, I have been able to read at a higher pace than during the previous ones. I would suggest the reader of this post, if interested in reading more, to check out the following two tips:
a blog post from Farnam Street blog “Just Twenty-Five Pages a Day“, which was published well after I had adopted such an approach to reading but captures it very well,
the Wikipedia article about the Pomodoro Technique, which enables you to efficiently use the last hours of the day.
In this post I wanted to share the list of books I read along the year with a small comment for each one, the link to a post about the book in the blog (when applicable), links to Amazon (in case you want to get them) and to the authors. I have also included a small rating from one to three “+” depending on how much do I recommend its reading:
“Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger” (by Peter Bevelin) (++): this book is an interesting guide into how to improve our thinking process. It starts with reviewing what influences our thinking, then analyses misjudgments and provides some guidelines for better thinking. It draws heavily on quotations and passages from other authors such as Confucius, Charlie Munger, Charles Darwin, Warren Buffett, Cialdini, Kahneman… therefore if one has read one or several of their books (Thinking Fast and Slow, Influence, letters to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway, On the Origin of Species, Poor Charlie’s Almanack…) this book may seem redundant. One thing I liked about the book was the offering of key concepts after each chapter and its appendix on checklists.
“What management is“ (by Joan Magretta) (++): a brief book covering the different aspects of management (from value creation to managing people, business models, strategy, execution) in a very concise way though full of very vivid examples from different companies. While reading the book I marked dozens of passages, and I included one post in the blog about one of the anecdotes related to the Ford Pinto.
“The Early History of the Airplane“ (by Orville and Wilbur Wright) (++): it is a short book or rather a compilation of 3 articles by the brothers (30 pages in the e-reader version I used). The 3 articles are: The Wright Brothers’ Aeroplane (by Orville and Wilbur Wright), How We Made the First Flight (by Orville Wright) and Some Aeronautical Experiments (by Wilbur Wright). In these articles they provide some insight into how they became attracted to the problem of heavier-than-air self-powered controlled flight, what were the difficulties they faced, what schools of thought there were at the moment, who influenced them, what results and experiments from others they relied upon, the experiments they performed, the results at which they arrived… and, yes, they describe their first and subsequent flights. I wrote a post review the book, find it here.
“The Racketeer“ (by John Grisham) (++): in this novel the author has Malcolm Bannister, an attorney half way through his 10-year prison term for racketeering, maneuvering his way out of prison by negotiating with the FBI and helping to solve a crime investigation gone nowhere.
“Micro“ (by Michael Crichton and completed by Richard Preston) (+): the novel is about a group of graduate students seduced by Nanigen, scientific research company, to join them in Hawaii. The story develops in to a hunt of the students in the jungle as they had been miniaturized by the latest technology developed by the company. To my taste, a bit too much on the fantasy side.
“Hot, Flat, and Crowded” (by Thomas Friedman ) (+++): In this book, Friedman claims that as we are entering the “Energy-Climate Era” the world is getting hot (global warming), flat and crowded (soaring population growth), and clear action needs to be taken to address these issues. Government need to establish a clear regulatory framework, clear price signals to establish a market in which companies can innovate to solve the problems at hand. The author included in the book dozens of references, quotes from conversations, excerpts of speeches from leading figures, and several examples. I wrote a post review the book, find it here.
“The Roaring Nineties” (by Joseph E. Stiglitz ) (+++): Stiglitz wrote “The Roaring Nineties” in 2003 to offer an insider’s view of economic policy making and the economic boom and bust of the nineties. Stiglitz is frank in admitting that all the focus that the Clinton administration had at the beginning of the term in passing laws to improve the living of the disfavored ones was suddenly put aside due to the mantra of deficit reduction. He openly regrets it several times throughout the book and offers some criticism on the administration he took part in and others before and after. Especially Reagan’s and Bush II’s. I wrote a post review the book, find it here.
“El amor en los tiempos del cólera“ (by Gabriel García Márquez) (+++): the author was inspired to write this book by the story of his parents and other old couple who had to keep their relationship in secret all their lives. The novel describes the relationships along all their lives between mainly three characters: Fermina Daza, her husband, Juvenal Urbino, and her ever love from childhood and ever a candidate, Florentino Ariza. I have to say that I liked more this book than “One Hundred Years of Solitude”. I wrote a post review the book, find it here (in Spanish).
“Crime and Punishment“ (by Fyodor Dostoyevsky) (++): the book narrates the story of Rodion Raskolnikov, an poor student in Saint Petersburg who kills an unscrupulous pawnbroker for her cash. Raskolnikov had written an article in which he discussed how some crimes could be seen as acceptable in the name of a greater good by leading individuals. He convinces himself to be one of them. The story gets ever more complicated as his family comes to town for the marriage of his sister, the investigations by the police, the interrogatories, his errors due the constant illness he suffers from malnutrition, etc.
“Sycamore Row” (by John Grisham) (+++): in this book the author writes a kind of sequel to his all time best seller “A Time To Kill” with the appearance of the main characters of the former book: Jake Brigance, Judge Atlee, Harry Rex Vonner, Lucien Wilbanks… this time the case is about a will that is contested. A will from a white businessman leaving all his estate to his black maid, cutting his family out; a tough decision for Ford County, Mississippi.
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Note: You can find here my 2012 reading list, and here, embedded in my summary of 2013, the list of that year.
At the beginning of the year I set as a personal objective to read at least 15 books. This will be a low number for some of you and a high one for others. To me it looked challenging but achievable… though, I did not achieve it. I completed 10 books and started other 4 which I have not yet finished (they’ll be included in the next year reading list).
See below the list with a small comment for each one, the link to a post about the book in the blog (when applicable), links to Amazon (in case you want to get them) and sometimes to the authors. I have also included a small rating from one to three “+” depending on how much do I recommend its reading:
“Le Petit Prince” (by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry) (++): even if narrated as a children’s book, it contains several idealistic messages, fine criticisms of how adults behave, etc. The teachings are mainly transmitted through conversations between a child and the prince and encounters with other characters… I wrote a post about it “Le Petit Prince“.
“The consequences of the peace” (by John M. Keynes) (+++): the book was written at the time of the Versailles Conference after the World War I, which he attended as a delegate from the British Treasury. In the book, Keynes explained how the disaster in the making was being produced, due to lack of communication between representatives from USA, UK, France and Italy, and the intention from Clemenceau of taking as much as possible from Germany. Keynes makes a series of estimates of Germany’s production capabilities and that of the regions being taken from it and comparing them with the pretensions that were being included in the negotiations of the treaty. In the book, he warns well in advance the economic and social disaster that the treaty is going to send Germany into. (I have not yet written a specific review of the book, but since I had underlined several passages I don’t discard writing it).
“Le bal des ambitions” (by Véronique Guillermard and Yann le Galès) (+): the book tells the story behind the creation of EADS and its first years. Very much like in a thriller, it gives account about the characters involved, the battles for power, etc. I wrote a post about it “Le Bal des ambitions“.
“Desolé, nous avons raté la piste” (by Stephan Orth and Antje Blinda) (+): The book consists of a series of awkward situations in a flight described by passengers, pilots and cabin crew, mainly miscommunications between the crew and passengers or funny messages received from the cockpit. The book originated after a collection of the anecdotes posted by readers of the online version of Der Spiegel. . See the review I wrote about it “Sorry, I missed the runway“.
“Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger” (by Charlie Munger, compiled by Peter D. Kaufman) (+++): the book is a compilation of Munger’s speeches, quotes, interviews, articles, letters, etc. Some of his speeches are available in Youtube (e.g. this one given for the commencement of USC Law in 2007). One of the main takeaways is the use of several mental models to analyze situations we live in our lives (instead of being stalled in the few models which we are more comfortable with). Another recurring topic is the lack of training in psychology that we get (or even his criticism of how psychology is taught in faculties). I haven’t written a post about the book, but I think I should, if only to share more of his wit and wisdom with you.
“The Peter Principle: Why Things Go Wrong” (by Laurence J. Peter) (+++): the book is a hilarious account of situations that arise in companies and institutions of why and how people are promoted, cornered, etc., or in his words is a treatise on hierarchology. The name of the book comes from the Peter Principle which says: “In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence”. I already wrote about it here.
“2010 Odyssey Two” (by Arthur C. Clarke) (++): the book is a sequel to the famous “2001: A Space Odyssey“, and there is a movie as about this book. The story starts with doctor Heywood Lloyd travelling in a combined Soviet-American mission to Jupiter in order to find the spaceship Discovery One from the previous mission and what went wrong with it… I won’t tell more of the plot to avoid spoiling it for someone. I would say that I liked more this book (and movie) than the first one.
“The Litigators” (by John Grisham) (++): this novel is very much like most of John Grisham. In this one the plot is about a star young lawyer graduated from Harvard Law School who cannot stand the pressure from a big firm and quits it to join a mediocre small firm with two partners who chase victims of small accidents to help them get some compensation from insurance companies, with the hope of reaching the big class action which could make the rich.
“Soccernomics” (by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski) (+++): the authors use economics’ techniques, plenty of data, statistics, citing several papers, studies, etc., in order to bring up uncovered issues about football (such as transfer market, what makes some nations more successful in football…) or refocus the attention about other ones. See the review I wrote about it.
I also completed two other partial objectives: to read at least 2 books in French and 2 about politics/economy. And as always, on the learning side from reading there is Twitter (a source of information or distraction?), the subscriptions delivered to home of the weekly The Economist and the two monthly magazines Scientific American and Toastmasters.
I’ve lost count of how many John Grisham novels I have read, but they’re over a dozen. They all look the same: legal thrillers, young lawyers, similar location (South USA states), etc., and yet they’re grabbing your attention from start to finish. I guess that the guy picked the formula some 20 years ago and knows how to exploit it (the formula even calls for books of about 450 pages, with about 12 pages per chapter…).
This last one I read, “The confession“, is no exception to the rule. The plot: an innocent man in death row is about to be executed when the confessed killer pops up out of nowhere and will try to stop the execution and around them: a small firm led by an energetic single lawyer, and some despicable characters including a detective, district attorney, governor, hysterical mother of a victim, etc. The result: a rollercoaster of emotions and engaging novel. I even ended a couple of times with headache due to the anger produced by what I was reading!
The Blog by Javier 