My Top 6 Favourite Books of 2023
This year will mark a decade of my reading challenges on Good Reads. I track what I read mainly for fun and so whenever I don’t complete a challenge, all it means to me is that I read less. No surprises. I’ve just realised that GoodReads is possibly the only app I’d like to see more of my friends use. Ah well, maybe one day they will.
Anyway, I didn’t read many books in 2023 - the goal was to read 24, I read 20. So, as usually, I lowered the bar and now aim to read the same number - twenty books - in 2024. And today, let me share with you my six favourite books of last year.
I spent my Christmas 2023 at a meditation retreat in the South of England. I went with a book - a selection of Christmas stories - but kind of suspected that I’d find something I’d love in the place’s where I was staying small library. And I was right. Some of you probably heard of Echart Tolle’s book The Power of Now. I tried reading it in the past, possibly picked it up from some bookshelf, maybe in a bookstore, maybe in a local library, but I wasn’t convinced. I really believe that with books, just like with people, it’s often a question of timing. So at that time, it was a bad timing for Eckhart and me. This time, on the other hand, I picked up Stillness Speaks and absolutely loved it. The book is written in an interesting way. You open it and find yourself on the last page. So you need to flick to the very end and start there. Tolle wrote it like Lao Tzu wrote his aphorisms - so you can pick up this book and read one, two sentences and close it, go away and ponder them. I liked this book so much that now I have a copy on my bedside table to read, exactly in this one section at a time way, before going to sleep. I learnt quite a lot of from Tolle already but I don’t think the learning will ever stop. That’s why I want to keep getting back to this book. If you’re into philosophy, Buddhism, self-awareness, mindfullness - you will most probably like it too.
Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race
This book has been on my to-read list for a long while and finally, the time has come. First things first, I’m a big fan of the clever design of its cover. Isn’t it great? I knew this book was a good and important read - that’s it. But I had no clue that it was written about the UK, by a British person. That made it much more relevant and I ended up reading parts of it to my boyfriend quite a few times, with a “did you know that…?” as a prefix. For the record, my boyfriend is Black British and was as surprised as I was to find out about Black British past and present. The book is so well-written too. It’s well-researched but it reads like a personal account, a story told by Reni to a friend. It’s a must-read, no matter your skin colour or place of birth.
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant
Naval is like a semi-god for all financial and productivity YouTubers, podcasters, gurus and so on. Which made me feel sceptical about him to begin with. But since I’m shamelessly curious about people, I had to find out about this guy for myself. The almanack is not written by Naval. It’s a decently organised collection of his talks, tweets, interviews and so on, courtesy of a friend of his. The subtitle of this book is: a guide to wealth and happiness but it’s a very simplified explanation of what to expect inside. You will read about love, health, financial freedom, meditation, learning and much much more. There’s a lot of wisdom between these covers. And, again, it’s one of those books I enjoy having nearby, and to keep re-reading. You don’t need to be into angel investing or only finance to get something out of it. It’s a bit like meeting a multidisciplinary thinker who shares his worldview, and his story, with you. If you’re not exactly inspired by conversations you’re having with the people you meet in real life, give this book a go. I can pretty much guarantee you will feel energised afterwards.
Karl Ove… the first time I read one of his books - the excellent A Death In The Family - was after a co-worker of mine answered my “what are you reading” question. She told me she’s reading this book about a guy who describes his life and starts with brushing his teeth and then moves to something entirely different and fifty pages go by and he’s still brushing his teeth but you kind of never notice. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a better review of Knausgaard’s books. He is regularly compared to Proust who, in case you don’t know, wrote seven volumes about his life called In Search of Lost Time. Knausgaard wrote six and the series is called My Struggle. A Death In The Family is its first part. Anyway, The Morning Star has nothing to do with that. The Morning Star is a novel published 3 years ago. It’s a copious read. I don’t own it so can’t show you but the English edition is almost 700 pages long. The thing with Karl Ove is this: he’s a brilliant writer. And even when you find yourself exasperated by some parts of his novels, you persevere and he rewards you with so much literary beauty that you forgive him hahaha. The Morning Star is a novel full of dread. Somewhere in Norway, a large, bright star appears in the sky and we meet it through the eyes and events of ordinary people. That’s it. Different people, different perceptions of the same event. I was unable to put this book down and once it was finished, I felt like I needed a holiday. In a good way. Some ending?
Hidden Potential is the first book on my list that is written in that American pop-science style that, to me, quickly becomes far too predictable. Let me give you a taste of it.
The beginning of chapter 1: “When she first developed her superpower, Sara Maria Hasbun didn’t know anyone else who shared it. then she stumbled across a whole community of strangers who made her feel less alone.”
The beginning of chapter 3: “When he got word of the earthquake rocking his home in Japan, Tadao Ando was halfway across the world. With a heavy heart he dashed to the airport and boarded the first flight back from Europe.”
The beginning of chapter 9: “On a historic evening in 1972, ten-year-old Jose Hernandez kneeled in front of an old black-and-white-television. He gripped the rabbit ears of the antenna, using his body to boost the signal.”
And so on. I read Grant’s previous book and sadly concluded that he’s better at writing tweets than books. Honestly, check out his instagram for that. Still, when my boyfriend surprised me with Grant’s latest book, which I apparently asked him to pre-order months back - something I didn’t even remember - I was glad, and read it in a few sittings. I knew that the format will make me roll my eyes - and it did. But I also knew that the content would make up for it - which it also did.
Grant is an organizational psychologist who teaches a number of courses at The Wharton School. Hidden Potential is, to me, his best book so far. It’s about learning. About recognizing your advantages or their lack of and knowing what to do about it. In essence, it’s about getting better at whatever you set out to do, whoever you set out to become. I know there are plenty of books on this subject but Grant always brings some freshness to the so-called self-help book section. You can say it’s about studies he quotes or stories he decides to pick to illustrate his points. Maybe. But I suspect that it has more to do with his personal charm and his mission to improve how we learn and work. I don’t know, I simply can’t imagine anybody disliking Adam Grant. And that is that.
The Creative Act - A Way of Being
I was just trying to remember how I stumbled on this book. I think it was on some bookstore’s website. Anyway, Rick Rubin, the friendly bear of the music industry has spoken so I opened my ears and listened. As a designer, let me indulge in the looks of this book first. If, like me, you choose books over kindle, because of the tactile experience a book offers, this book will feel like a treat. The right size, the right typeface, the right size of the typeface, good paper, cloth bound, strong cover, a bookmark and some space for notes right at the back. It’s a very pretty object. Designed by Rick Rubin with special thanks to Pentagram. Once, I was reading it on the London overground train and some guy asked me about it as he kept seeing that cover and was curious what the book was about. So yeah, it’s a very eye-catching thing.
Now, despite all its beauty, I had no problems in earmarking all pages I found interesting enough to get back to. It’s my system that I use when I forget a pencil and so can’t simply circle a page number. As you can see, there’s been quite a few interesting sections for me in this one.
You don’t need to be a musician to get something out of this book. In fact, my boyfriend who is a musician found it too philosophical and skipped many parts to get to some more pragmatic stuff. I work as a so-called creative but agree with Rubin who pretty much starts off with these words: “Creativity doesn’t exclusively relate to making art. We all engage in this act on a daily basis. To create is to bring something into existence that wasn’t there before. It could be a conversation, the solution to a problem, a note to a friend, the rearrangement of furniture in a room, a new route home to avoid a traffic jam.”
This is foundational, maybe even obvious stuff but I meet so many people who say “I’m not creative” as if being creative were reserved to some superior beings. Rubin is great at reminding everybody: hey, you can and do create. And then shares what he learnt about creating while working with musicians and artists. Very often those who felt stuck, encountered some creative block or felt unoriginal. When you start with the idea that creating is a way of being, it’s hard not to see how you could apply those lessons to your whole life.
As a side note, there’s an excellent episode of Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4 with Rick Rubin. It might be a good audio intro to his book for you. Go and check it out.
And that’s it. These were the six books that found most worth recommending. All twenty books I read last year had something about them but these made it to the finals. I hope you found this post useful and will feel inspired to reach for at least one of them.