A Review of Every Book I Read This Year

It's been a pretty successful year for my book reading habit. I set a goal for myself at the beginning of the year that I would read a book a month. I ended up exceeding that goal by 8 books. I figured I might as well give a short review to every book because there were some great books that I think other people ought to read.

Bayesian Statistics the Fun Way: Understanding Statistics and Probability with Star Wars, LEGO, and Rubber Ducks (Will Kurt)

Provides a great introduction to Bayesian statistics. Great illustrations and writing. Very approachable.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Art of Statistics: How to Learn from Data (David Spiegelhalter)

Pretty basic but well structured around gripping anecdotes. Provides a high school level understanding of statistics with examples that connect with the reader's intuition. Definitely a good plane ride book.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Naked Statistics (Charles Wheelan)

The author made it obvious that he didn't like calculus from the outset. I didn't find this reassuring as this is a book about statistics.

At some point in the book he describes the "Central Limit Theorem" as the LeBron James of statistics. I still think about this.

Not a bad book, but I liked Spiegelhalter's book better.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

TCP/IP Illustrated, Vol. 1: The Protocols (W. Richard Stevens)

Great book. I learned a ton about computer networking from this. It was a grueling read but totally worth it. I woke up at 5 AM every day to read it every morning. It took about a month to get through. The book does a good job of explaining everything in exhaustive detail.

It's called TCP/IP illustrated, but if you are looking for nice pictures and not walls of text then you should look somewhere else.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Designing Web Usability (Jakob Nielsen)

This book is pretty outdated. It was written around the turn of the century. It still has some good information but some of his advice is oriented towards specific technologies and does not age well. The section with his predictions about the future is pretty interesting though. Nielsen had prophetic insight about the future state of email.

I think if I read this the year it was released it would have been a 4 or 5 out of 5.

Rating: ⭐⭐

Designing Data Intensive Applications (Martin Kleppman)

The title of the book is pretty broad but the author does great job of mapping out the distributed systems world. It's a pretty fun read. Definitely a good airplane book.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Best Investment Guide That Money Can Buy (Burton G. Malkiel)

I read this cover to cover and found it filled with much useful information. However, it seems it was not meant to be read cover to cover because there is a lot of shared information and even phrases across the chapters. It seems the author designed this book as reference material in which each chapter can be read out of order.

Despite the repetition, reading this was enjoyable and extremely useful. This book is very approachable. If you are looking to build a retirement plan, reading this book is a great place to start.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure (Grant Cardone)

Grant Cardone is very sales oriented and because of this I had a hard time getting into his headspace. There was a lot of talk about how to accomplish your goals but not any direction on what your goals should be. This book's definition of success is when you get more of something.

This work has a drive and force behind it but not a lot of nuance. There are some good nuggets of advice though. The most useful piece of advice from this book is that you shouldn't blame others for your failures.

Rating: ⭐⭐

The Intelligent Investor: The Timeless Guide to Value Investing and Financial Wisdom for a Volatile Market (Benjamin Graham)

In this book Benjamin Graham teaches you how to be a shrewd value investor. If you have ever seen the movie Moneyball, it's basically that. Or it least this is what he is attempting to do. This book feels like it is more about his own personal trading anecdotes than it is about methodology.

There is some methodology though. The methodology is mostly: "figure out which stocks are underrated and buy those." Graham advocates for buying stocks that have an overly negative perception, perhaps resulting from recent bad publicity, and building a portfolio out of them.

At the end of the book there is an essay from Warren Buffett detailing how easy value investing is and how some people just don't get it because they are expecting a more complex methodology to be the winning strategy. I suppose I am one of those guys.

It reminds of a joke in which two economists are walking on a sidewalk. One of them sees a $5 bill on the ground and says: "hey there's a five dollar bill on the ground!" The other economist says: "no there can't be a five dollar bill on the ground because someone would have already picked it up."

Rating: ⭐⭐

On the Holy Spirit (Saint Basil the Great)

I've been really interested in the history of the Christian church recently. This work helped to contextualize my understanding of the Council of Constantinople. I liked his exegesis and succinct counter arguments. Each of his refutations was 1-5 pages so it was easy to read it in multiple sittings.

The only thing I didn't like is that towards the end he uses the unwritten traditions of the church to argue his point. I think that type of argument has some force but isn't solely sufficient to prove such an important doctrinal point as the Holy Spirit being the one true God.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations (Michael Holmes)

This was a fascinating look at the life of the late 1st to early 2nd century Christian church. The letters of Ignatius were a very insightful look into the head of a man who was bound for martyrdom. The epistle of Clement to the Corinthian congregation provides an interesting look at early church polity and is a very early appeal to the authority of the Pauline epistles. I loved the epistle to Diognetus. It felt punchy and fresh for being over 1,900 years old.

The Shepherd of Hermas was certainly interesting. I'm confused why it was one of the most popular writings of the post-apostolic church but perhaps my 21st century cultural context is clouding my understanding.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

On the Incarnation (Saint Athanasius)

This really puts the treat in treatise. This is a very enjoyable read. I really liked the idea of Christ being victor of death. This also helped me to understand the Arian Controversy better.

I love the way Athanasius writes. He's bold and unapologetic. He defends the faith with strong argumentation.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible (B. B. Warfield)

I'll be honest I did not finish this book. I read the first two parts and the bit about the formation of the Biblical Canon at the end. The third, fourth, and fifth parts of the book have so much Latin and Greek in them that I couldn't keep up with my pea brain.

Of what I did read, it was great.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐