The books I read in 2023
Not too much much to say about 2023's list other than that, once again, I'm disappointed with my throughput. In my defense, the last quarter of 2023 was the most difficult three months of my life (and is bleeding well into 2024), and frankly, I just couldn't concentrate on anything.
Outside of the now-"expected" quantum mechanics stuff I seem to can't get enough of (this will never change), I think the book that captured my attention most from front to back was Jarett Kobek's How to Find Zodiac. There are very few books, shows, movies, etc. about the Zodiac that I haven't consumed voraciously, and I really think this guy has finally cracked the case and figured out who the crosshairs actually was (he's now passed).
I'm not sure I've ever come across such tenacity and obsessive attention to detail as Kobek showcases at every turn of the page; it's exactly the kind of audatious doggedness and radical outside-the-box thinking that, after a half a century, a case like this demands.
From an Amazon review: "This is the most original, creative, provocative, and insightful treatment of a case that has baffled many for 50 years. And, I would guess, very likely correct." I couldn't agree more.
As always, you can find the totality of past years' book-reading efforts here.
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- The Upright Thinkers: The Human Journey from Living in Trees to Understanding the Cosmos by Leonard Mlodinow
- How to Find Zodiac by Jarett Kobek
- Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind by V. S. Ramachandran
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- JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters by James W. Douglass
- The Brain: The Story of You by David Eagleman
- Cosmosapiens: Human Evolution from the Origin of the Universe by John Hands
- Trust the Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Unhinged America by Will Sommer
- Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe by Brian Greene
- A Brief History of Earth: Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters by Andrew Knoll
- Reality Is Not What It Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity by Carlo Rovelli
- The Emperor's New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds, and the Laws of Physics by Roger Penrose
- The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography by Simon Singh
- Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny by Robert Wright
- Antimatter by Frank Close
- The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect by Judea Pearl
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