📚 2019

December

Annihilation, by Jeff VanDermeer

I read this because I'd seen and loved the movie. It maintains the movie's atmosphere but goes in its own direction.

Hate, Inc. by Matt Taibbi

I've taken some notes here.

Trilobite! by Richard Fortey

My biggest regret is that I read a text-only version. I had already read the excellent chapter on the Trilobite's Eye and knew this book was good. It is.

The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness, by Sy Montgomery

Octopuses are now my new favourite animal! Read this book!

November

The Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri

I didn't like this all that much. It seemed like a slightly foreign view of Indian life, so the characters didn't seem to feel natural.

The Incredible History of India's Geography, by Sanjeev Sanyal

This is targeted at younger audiences but it is a concise information dump of India's Geography and how it shaped its History. I found it a good refresher of things from my school days.

The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way, by Bill Bryson

I wanted to like this book so much, but I didn't. It is too light for my tastes. Mark Forsyth's books are a nice counter-example of how to write interesting English books.

What Kind of Creatures Are We? by Noam Chomsky

I heard this as an audiobook. I love Chomsky's political books and this was the first of his that I've read on Language. I like how he talks about language, not as a mode of communication, but as a mode of cognition itself. His theory involves (external and internal) merge, which is a bottom-up approach for the mind to recursively combine parts of a sentence to build higher meaning.

What the Hell Did I Just Read, by David Wong

I like David Wong's books and this is the third in his 'John' trilogy. Very entertaining read, constantly humorous and horrifying.