Eli Bendersky's website - "River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile" by Candice Millard - while the book is readable, I found it disappointing because it focuses much more on the personalities involved and their numerous feuds than on the actual exploration, geography and history of the region. The scientific parts of the book would comfortably fit into a couple of pages - the rest is fluff.
- "We have no idea" by J. Cham and D. Whiteson - a whimsical and introductory look at the state of modern physics - what we know, and more importantly - what we don't know. The book is pretty good, but is full of potty humor and endless childish puns which I found distracting. It also adds comics drawings on almost every page for the entertainment factor, without adding information. I suppose these are good to try to lure kids to read it.
- "Quantum computing explained - for beginners" by Pantheon Space Academy - this is certainly the worst book I've read in the last year or more. I honestly don't undestand how it managed to get this many positive reviews on Amazon, unless it's some sort of mistake - or scam. The book is a tedious, repetitive jumble of ever-changing, shallow analogies trying to explain concepts from quantum computing. Except that it doesn't really explain anything; it mostly tries to teach the jargon - the kind of understanding that makes you seem knowledgeable at cocktail parties. There's not a single equation in this book, not a single algorithm or circuit, not a single snippet of code. I still think it's some sort of scam. It can't even be AI generated, because any modern LLM will give you much more useful information in your first 10 minutes of interaction than this book contains in its entirety.
- "The Lions of Al-Rassan" by Guy Gavriel Kay - not my usual fare! A dip into the world of historic fantasy. The plot is loosely based on the period of the Spanish reconquista, but everything is changed - the names, the religions, even the celestial bodies (two moons); some magic is also mixed in, though in very mild amounts. Good, high-paced story in most places, though I found the protagonists to be too idealized and some of the dialogues long and tedious.
- "Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War" by Robert Coram - the biography of John Boyd, an air-force fighter pilot (roughly between the Korean war and Vietnam war) that later made significant contribution to aircraft design (particularly F-15 and F-16) and the theory of conducting military operations. Very interesting book overall, with insights about how large organizations work.
- "Slow Productivity" By Cal Newport - a reshuffle of the author's ideas from "Deep work", served as "how to work less and achieve more" advice. Way too general, IMHO, and thus of limited usefulness. The book is short, at least, but the author apparently struggled to fill it up because it contains so many barely-relevant detours. I really find cherry-picked stories about notable people unconvincing because of the huge selection bias inherent in them. The author even admits this in one scenario towards the end of the book ("I knew so many professors who took a sabbatical to focus on something new but never accomplished anything"). Unfortunately, among Newport's books I've read so far, this is certainly my least favorite.
- "Interplanetary Robots" by Rod Pyle - a good overview of the robotic space missions sent by humanity up until the Perseverance rover (the book was written before it launched). Good writing and a decent amount of technical detail.
- "Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate about the nature of reality" by Manjit Kumar - a historical account of the development of quantum mechanics, focusing on its philosiphical meaning and the opposing views held by Einstein and Bohr. I liked this book - it describes the history and scientists involved in it well and doesn't shy away from some actual physics.
- "Quantum Computing for Everyone" by Chris Bernhardt - a short and effective introduction to QC. This is a very good book! Starting with only some basic familiarity with linear algebra concepts, the book develops the fundamentals of QC methodically and at just the right pace. I wish it was longer, and also wish the author did fewer simplifications - for example, hadn't omitted the use of complex numbers. The author clearly has a talent for explaining technical, math-heavy material; in fact, this is one of the things that impressed me most about this book and is something I intend to learn from. The book's language is very terse, logically organized and yet simple! It's like reading the Simple English version of Wikipedia; no nonsense or useless detours, no embellishments; few and well-placed analogies. A fantastic example for anyone writing such material.
- "Mr. Popper's Penguins" by Richard and Florence Atwater - a somewhat silly but good-natured children's book about a small-town house painter raising a family of penguins. This is a rare case where I think I liked the movie version more, even though the plot is very different from the book.
- "The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness" by Jonathan Haidt - the author reports on the sharp decline in mental health of teens and pre-teens (especially girls) since 2010, and provides compelling evidence that a combination of smartphones and social media is the most likely cause. The book is fairly troubling, and certainly thought-provoking. The tangential observations on the challenges faced by Gen Z folks are also insightful.
- "Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime" by Sean Carroll - the book's main goal is to explain the many-worlds theory of quantum mechanics. It does so reasonably well, but otherwise contains a lot of other information that seems to be poorly organized and only loosely related to this main goal. I'd say that the first third of the book was insightful, and the rest so so.
- "Die With Zero" by Bill Perkins - it's hard to read FI/RE-related discussions these days without running into mentions of "Die With Zero", so I decided to give this book a try. In a sign of just how affluent modern society has become, the author preaches not over-saving, and instead using one's savings earlier in life when one still has the physical and mental capacity to enjoy the experiences money can buy. It's an interesting premise, but IMHO the book is mainly of inspirational value - as opposed to practical value. The author tries to develop the idea of "peak savings" but it could certainly use more work, with more details.
Re-reads:
- "The Working Poor: Invisible in America" by David K. Shipler
- "The Magic of Reality" by Richard Dawkins
- "A Philosophy of Software Design" by John Ousterhout
- "All Quiet on the Western Front" by Erich Maria Remarque