I love this feature from Goodreads. 2022 looks to be the year I finished the fewest books in a long time, but I’m pleased with the quality of what I read, and think that the dense nearly 3k page monster from Dr. Iain McGilchrist can be at least partially held responsible for the lower than normal count. That one took several months of late-night reading sessions.
3 surprises on the up-side in 2022 are:
- “Something To Do with Paying Attention,” by David Foster Wallace – If you told me I’d be reading a portion of a larger unfinished work (this is a portion of “The Pale King”), that the subject matter was. young man going into the IRS, and that this would somehow turn out to be a tale of everyday heroism, I think I would have stronly doubted you. This novella is a perfect little jewel though. I loved it.
- “The Matter With Things,” by Dr. Iain McGilchrist. This is a masterwork on a level that is hard to explain. IIRC, the first several hundred pages are literally just catalogs of scientific findings that build the basis for what comes later. When this moves on to the large philosophical work, it is jaw-droppingly insightful. It’s intimidating to think about re-reading this one, but I need to go back through and do a better job of extracting and organizing the insights. It will happen. Probably not in 2023.
- “The Ministry for the Future,” by Kim Stanley Robinson. Why is this one on my surprise list? Everyone said it was good, right? It’s a surprise for me because I have read Kim Stanley Robinson several times before and never fully enjoyed the experience. While I appreciate the scope and detail of his thinking, I have found the plots too calculated and lacking humanity. While this book doesn’t necessarily solve for those issues, I loved the passion with which Robinson goes after climate change and think the scale of his thinking is exactly what we need to spark conversation about actual solutions to our presence here.
On the downside, these are books I will not be recommending:
- ” A Place of my Own,” by Michael Pollan. “How to Change Your Mind” is one of my favorite books of the last several years so I was hoping to find something as enlightening and engrossing here. I did not. Architecture enamors me, but this book felt like I was reading a tedious journal of carpentry.
- ” A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius,” by David Eggers. It’s clear that Eggers understands the faults of this book work as he calls them out explicitly in the foreword. I think you should follow his advice and only read the entry novella. Once he moves to the Bay Area, it’s over-the-top treatment of self as protagonist is really hard to enjoy.
Eric Frankl.in 