My Journey to 100 Books in a Year (25/100)

I have always been a big reader but this year I really wanted to set a big goal. Over the years I felt like I was reading a lot but last year when I made a list of all the books I read it was maybe about 60 in total. I had been reading maybe 5-10 books a year. So last year I really stepped up my reading, trying to balance it with school work, side projects, and free time. By the end of the year I had read an additional 50-60 books!

One of the most impactful was Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead by General Mattis; a mix of autobiography and life lessons. But what struck me the most was its "do better" attitude. My favorite quote:

"If you haven't read hundreds of books, you are functionally illiterate, and you will be incompetent, because your personal experiences alone aren't broad enough to sustain you. Any commander who claims he is 'too busy to read' is going to fill body bags with his troops as he learns the hard way."

Why haven't I read more books?! I always learn so much after I finish a book. But when I looked at my original list, I actually did not read that many books and many of them were very similar topics I liked. So I set a goal for 2021: read 100 books, at least, from an eclectic group of authors and topics, from Clausewitz to Dostoevsky to Cicero to Robert Louis Stevenson and Anne Frank.

Three months in, I can say that General Mattis is right. How can I claim to be 'too busy to read'? When will I have free time? When I graduate from the Naval Academy and go to the fleet? When I get married and have kids? Conclusion: I will always be busy but I have to find time.

So far I have made it work. I am 25/100 books in and I have been able to balance it with 18 credits at the Naval Academy, running a club, dealing with the pandemic, developing an app for the Navy, and studying for my Nuclear Interview.

I want to share my journey with everyone else who is super busy to hopefully inspire them to read more. I will give a brief review of the first 25 books I have read so far. Please let me know your thoughts in the comments and I plan on posting again after I hit 50, 75 and 100 books.

The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman

I am currently building an app for the Navy and wanted to get a better understanding of design. This is one of the most recommended books on the subject. The biggest takeaway is that design should be simple and understandable. I got this same insight reading about Steve Jobs and is a great lesson for everyone, especially in the military. All too often we blame the user for not understanding our product or we blame someone else for not understanding us. The author argues that the designer is to blame! We need to make things simple.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

This was hilarious and reminded me of my own childhood catching bugs and running through the woods! I actually laughed out loud at several passages. I won't spoil it but this is a simple, good-natured book about funny childhood adventures a lot of us have experienced. I don't want to spoil anything so I won't mention the funny passages but read this if you want to reconnect with your inner child.

Alexander Hamiliton by Ron Chernow

Probably one of the best books I have read so far and was the inspiration for the Hamiliton play. I never saw the play so the book was very exciting; from him leaving the island he grew up on, to becoming Treasure Secretary, championing Federalism, and his downward spiral into a year long affair and his obsession with dueling. But the biggest takeaway is I can do more than what I am doing! He wrote the Federalist Papers, became a lawyer, raised a family with several kids, and developed our modern Capitalist economy. Somehow he made it all work!

The Gallic War by Gaius Julius Caesar

Brutal. That's how I would describe this. Its Caesar's account of fighting the Gauls for 10 years, taking slaves, pillaging the land, etc. At one point he talked about a Gallic village that would not give up after they ran out of food so they resorted to cannibalism. Caesar used this war to march into Rome and declare himself dictator. Biggest takeaway is that during hard times, terrible people can use those circumstances to take power. That was the end of the Roman Republic.

Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis

I am actually Jewish but had read his other book: The Abolition of Man and liked it. Many of my Christian friends have recommended C. S. Lewis to me. There was a lot I found odd in this book but what I liked about it was his acceptance of objective morality. There are things that are good and bad no matter what you believe. I have become increasingly concerned of the rise of Postmodern thought and the turning of everything into an "opinion." What happens then, as Raskolnikov famously said in Crime in Punishment, "everything is permitted."

On War by Carl von Clausewitz

I am not sure how much I should have gotten out of this. We all know his famous saying about war being a continuation of politics by other means. But I tried to do a lot of research while reading this and there is a good bit of this that is contemporaneous to his times. An Army War college professor even pointed out that this book was not widely read by the US Military until sometime into the Cold War/Vietnam era. It was mostly read by the Prussians, Germans and even Hitler. So I don't know the impact it had on the US military before this and even now. He talked a lot about defense, attack, strategy, tactics, where to use cavalry, the importance of morale. My biggest takeaway though is that war is chaos and it cannot be explained by an equation. There is a lot more I could say about this but I will probably be studying this for years.

The Iliad by Homer

This was awesome! It's just pure violence and I was just amazed at how people thought 2800 years ago. This is one of the oldest books we have. I cannot count how many times Homer references the Greeks or Trojans as "wolves" or "lions." It's nonstop warfare between the Trojans, Greeks and even the many Gods. It has its lessons about heroism, hubris and all that, but it was just a pleasure to read.

In Defense of the Republic by Marcus Tullius Cicero

Probably one of the other best books I have read so far. Just a collection of some of Cicero's amazing public speeches. My favorite was In Defense of Milo. He is defending a Senator who murdered another Senator in cold blood but what's amazing is how great his arguments are that by the end you have to side with him. Odd thing to say but that's how powerful an orator he is. My biggest takeaway from all his speeches was that if your reasoning and arguments are strong enough, your opponent basically has to agree, just by the power of the logic. I have since ordered 3 more books with his essays.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by F. Douglass

Education is the path to freedom. One of Douglass' many autobiographies; this one talks about his escape from slavery and his becoming a well-respected abolitionist, speaker and writer. Something he points out is that, once he learned how to read, he was able to break away and fight against the injustice around him.

Poetics by Aristotle

Honestly did not get much of this. Not much of this has survived and it really talks about the ideal type of plays, catharsis, and epic poems. My second work by Aristotle, I liked Nicomachean Ethics much better and I plan on reading his Politics next.

The Odyssey by Homer

After I read The Iliad, I read this the week after I loved Homer so much! The Odyssey is nowhere near as violent but it's still a violent book. Its about Odysseus' long journey home from the Trojan war and it's filled with a lot of mythical creatures and monsters.

Neuromancer by William Gibson

I was excited to read this because it was the direct inspiration for the Cyberpunk 2077 video game. It was exactly what I expected but its a very cynical book. The main characters are all basically motivated by money, drugs, and body enhancements. The most human character is an AI who gives the characters a purpose and reason to do anything. Frankly, the book is just nihilistic. I liked the Blade Runner movies much better because the characters are motivated to find a sense of purpose; to find their humanity. One of the replicants in Blade Runner 2049 even says that to die for a cause is the most human thing we can do.

12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Dr. Jordan Peterson

Great book but Dr. Peterson can ramble a lot and many times I had to double check what the chapter was about. It is about how we can take control of our lives from a brilliant psychologist who has studied behavior, philosophy and atrocities for decades. I think he is probably one of the leading intellectuals of our time. My favorite Rule he talked about was the one about skateboarders. He basically unravels what people's motivation for doing things are and I hadn't really thought about it before.

The Autobiography of Malcom X by Malcom X

Very interesting person but tough to read at some points. He grew up in tough times: his father was killed by Klan members, his mother went insane, his brother went insane and he got into crime. But he discovered Homer, Aristotle, Herodotus and many other great writers while in prison. Unfortunately he was taken into the cult of the Nation of Islam which the ACLU now classifies as a hate group. Throughout the book he espouses a lot of lunatic ideas that I will not mention here. But near the end of his journey he goes to Mecca and before his murder he renounces a lot of his former ideas. He decided to keep his former ideas in the book to show his progression as a thinker and person. Amazing person who went through a lot; certainly a controversial figure during the Civil Rights movement but maybe less so now.

Oedipus the King by Sophocles

I was not sure if I read this before but I have. We all know this story; maybe too much. Refreshing to read but what else is there to say about it?

Fathers and Son by Ivan Turgenev

I grabbed this old Russian novel because this is where the modern use of the word "nihilism" comes from. Many Russian writers, especially Dostoevsky, would write about the rising nihilism of their times, right before the Bolshevik revolution. So I was intrigued to grab this book. It is the story of a father who is excited to see his son come back from the University. But his son brings back his "intellectual" friend who claims he is a nihilist. So it's really a clash between the "conservative" father generation and the "progressive" nihilists. But the book is awful. Written around 1860, Ivan Turgenev is just a terrible author. The story has no plot or purpose and the ending is pointless. It has nowhere the depth of Dostoevsky and I was disappointed. The book did make the word "nihilism" famous though.

Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky

This was amazing. It's a first person narrative of an evil creature known as the "underground man." I had read three of Dostoevsky's novels previously and this did not disappoint. The story is about motivation and psychology. The first lines of the story are: "I am a sick man... I am a spiteful man." It really delves down into the psychology of envy. The underground man cannot do anything and he spends months and years thinking about what other people think of him. He hates successful people and wants to tear them down. Biggest takeaway: people are complicated and their motivations can be malicious. Envy and spite are powerful emotions.

Explaining Postmodernism by Dr. Stephen Hicks

This was recommended by Dr. Jordan Peterson and I was curious to learn about Postmodernism. I had first heard about this philosophy in high school when I had to write about Thomas Pynchon. Back then, Postmodernism was described to me as lacking a plot, purpose, meaning, above grand narratives. Dr. Hicks, in this book, outlines the progression of philosophy from Rousseau, Kant, Marx, Kierkegaard, Hegel, Lenin, Fichte, Freud, Russell up to the modern day with Lyotard, Foucault, and Derrida. Very interesting for sure and I recommend this for anyone who wants a general understanding of Critical Theory, Critical Race Theory, Postmodernism and what's going on in our society right now. I plan on reading other books but this was a good intro.

The Epic of Gilgamesh by Unknown Author

This is apparently like 4000+ years old and was found on some stone tablets in Iraq. Pretty crazy. The story is short and is really just about coming to terms with death. Similar to Meditations by Marcus Aurelius but this book is more primitive. Very different society and norms back then and this story was very hard to translate because we know so little about it.

Antigone by Sophocles

Realized I had read this too but I liked it more than Oedipus. It's about Oedipus' daughter, Antigone and her defiance against the state. Apparently this book is popular among people who lived under oppressed governments and I could see why.

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Tough book to read. Joseph Conrad paints a horrible picture of colonialism during the late 19th century. It is about a man named Marlow who takes a job working in the Congo to "civilize" the inhabitants but the book points out the hypocrisy of their mission. The Europeans in his story come across as the most inhuman as compared to the "cannibals" they are there to save. Short read worth checking out; you could finish this in a few hours.

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

Realistic book about how we can abuse power. It's a commentary on how when things go bad, we tend to overreact and try to fight the problem with an excess. The story takes place in a post 9/11 world where the DHS is called in right after a fictional terrorist attack in San Francisco. It reminded me of Caesar's Gallic Wars because both have to do with seizing power during opportune moments. Key takeaway like Caesar's book is that people tend to seize power during tragedies and it makes things worse. Apparently this is required reading in a lot of intel circles I have been told.

Utopia by Sir Thomas More

This was interesting. I had read this years ago but I read the old 15th century translation so I did not understand anything. The version I got this time is a modern translation. This book is where the word "Utopia" comes from but what most don't know is that Sir Thomas More wrote this as satire; it was an attack on the absurdity of the ideas of a perfect Utopian society. Utopia literally means "nowhere" and one of the main character is Raphael Nonsenso (Get it? "Non-senso"). Raphael talks about a Communist island where all the inhabitants wear the same clothes, don't care for money and are under full control of the government. Based on Plato's Republic this satire would, ironically, become an inspiration for Communism.

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Probably one of the other great books I have read so far. It can be awkward at times because you are reading the private thoughts of a 14 year old girl but it is amazing how wise she is. She is a stoic and I found myself being able to relate to many of the passages. She tries to hold onto her values and find meaning in the madness around her. She writes: "It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can't build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death."

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

This was the last book I read and it's just disturbing. Its about a traveling salesman who wakes up one day as a cockroach-like insect. That's really it. The story after is just mere details. It's not scary or frightening; just disturbing. Kafka is known for this and he lived a tragic life so I can only assume that this was just the reflections of a very troubled man.