My Favourite Reads of 2019
Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
This year, I may not have met my reading goal due to a few bad choices; lessons learned. So…
Here are a few books I really enjoyed.
Regenesis by George Church and Ed Regis:
The book covers aspects of synthetic biology, biohacking, genomic engineering and a little bit of nanotechnology, making for an interesting read.
I personally enjoyed the fourth chapter, “The Best Substitute for Petroleum is Petroleum”, which addressed the pros and cons of other alternative energy sources.
In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park:
A detailed story of a young woman’s escape from North Korea.
After reading this book, I felt a renewed appreciation for freedom of thought and speech. Important things I take for granted.
She Has Her Mother’s Laugh by Carl Zimmer:
The author presents interesting topics on genetics, genetic engineering and hereditary in a very engrossing way using true stories which make the concepts he explains easy to understand. From the beauty of genetic studies to the unethical aspects like eugenics.
Shoe Dog by Phil Knight:
I’d tell men and women in their midtwenties not to settle for a job or a profession or even a career. Seek a calling. Even if you don’t know what that means, seek it. If you’re following your calling, the fatigue will be easier to bear, the disappointments will be fuel, the highs will be like nothing you’ve ever felt.
An amazing memoir by the co-founder of Nike. Once you start this book, it’s hard to put it down. That’s all I can tell you.
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl:
Don’t aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself.
A psychiatrist’s memoir about his experiences and life lessons gained while in a Nazi death camp. Another amazing book too good for me to describe.
Life 3.0 by Max Tegmark:
AI is what almost everyone is talking about now. Max Tegmark’s brilliant book explores artificial intelligence from various aspects like philosophy, ethics, job security. There’s more to it but…I won’t tell you.
Deep Medicine by Eric Topol:
This book explores artificial intelligence from the lens of medicine.
How it can be applied in various medical fields like psychiatry, radiology, pathology, the current successes and failures from its application, etc.
Our Final Invention by James Barrat:
The author discusses the possibilities of AI achieving, even surpassing human level intelligence, thus leading to technological singularity and what this could mean for us.
Could AI really be humanity’s final invention?
Hacker by Ted Dekker:
Hacker's about seventeen year Nyah, a kickass hacker, obviously. While trying to gain a client, by infiltrating the building to gain access to their servers and look for weaknesses (whatever hackers do), it backfires and everything kind of goes downhill from there.
The novel covers biohacking with an intriguing sprinkle of astral projection and a really tiny bit of harmless romance.
The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict:
A historical fiction novel about Albert Einstein’s first wife, Mileva Maric.
Not enough is known about Mileva's contributions to Einstein's work and physics in general, but there's a lot to learn from her story. If she'd made better choices, maybe she would've been renowned like Marie Curie. What if they never met? Would she have had a different story?
I’m participating in another reading challenge next year and this time, I’m not going at it alone.
Wish me luck!😁
