In this post I wanted to share the list of books I read along the year (1) with a small comment for each one. I have also included a small rating from one to three “+” depending on how much I do recommend its reading.
- “La familia de Pascual Duarte” by Camilo José Cela (++): this is the first book I have read by the last Spanish author awarded with the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1989. The novel is an exponent of “tremendismo” (from tremendous). It centers on the life of Pascual Duarte, who coming from a very poor background is haunted by bad luck, misfortunes, bad decisions and an inability of self-control. [Twitter thread]
- “Discurso del Método” (Discourse on the Method) and “Meditaciones Metafísicas” (Meditations on First Philosophy) by René Descartes (++): a key influenceing book on modern philosophy and the scientific method, mostly know by the famous quote “Je pense, donc je suis” (“Cogito, ergo sum“, “I think, therefore I am“). The four precepts of the method are: (1) not to admit anything as true without evidence, (2) to divide difficulties into smaller parts, (3) to think in an orderly manner, departing from the simplest and (4) to do a final integral review to be sure that nothing has been omitted. He then uses the method to proof the existence of Good, and the duality of soul and body. [Twitter thread]
- “L’autre fille” by Annie Ernaux (++): this is the first book I have read by the French author who was awarded with the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2022. The book is a letter the author writes to her older sister, who she never met as she passed away when she was six years old, before Annie was born. The existence of that sister was never discussed in the family, first out of avoidance of touching a family tragedy up to the end of her mother’s life, remaining always as a big elephant in the room. The author shares some feelings with her deceased sister, among them the realization that had the sister not passed away she would not have been born, therefore she cannot lamment her passing.
- “Chevreuse” by Patrick Modiano (+): this is the first book I have read by the French author who was awarded with the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2014. This novel follows the character of Jean Bosmans, a writer that goes back to a house he lived in decades before, rememering addresses, names, telephone numbers, a hidden treasure… the novel had a very good reception but I didn’t connect to it.
This is the year I have read the least by far since I started to keep track of it in 2010. I started 2023 reading at a good pace until I got stuck with the “Notre Dame de Paris” (Victor Hugo) with which I have been dragging for months (still reading it!). Due to that I lost momentum and only read a couple of other books at the end of the year while travelling.
A resolution for 2024 will be to recover the good habits, for which there is no other secret than coming back to the rigorous approach I used before, 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.
I wish you all very interesting reads in 2024!
(1) You can find here: my 2012 reading list, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 ones.
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