turing complete with a stack of 0xdeadbeef
I mostly write about Swift, Objective-C, iOS, open source, and other software development topics. Sometimes I write about the ethics of tech, labor, and politics. I also write satire pieces, personal essays, and notes on what I'm currently reading.
Continuing another tradition, here are the books I read in 2023. Similar to my previous post highlighting my top posts of 2023, I also skipped publishing my reading list last year, for 2022. Again, I was simply too burnt out by the end of that year. I also did not read that much compared to previous years — thanks again to burnout. You can find previous years here under the #reading-list tag.
You may have heard that Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh passed way on January 22. A true loss. I started reading Thich Nhat Hanh a few years ago. I have especially enjoyed the Mindfulness Essentials Series, which I continue to re-read. It’s nice to read one or two passages a day as I drink tea or coffee in the mornings. His writing has had a profound impact on me, and has been incredibly helpful over the years.
Here are the books I read this year, in 2021, the worst year of the century so far. You can find previous years here under the #reading-list tag. Similar to last year, I’m a bit disappointed in myself for continuing my trend of reading even less than the previous year. But I’m trying to not be so hard on myself. After two years of a fucking pandemic, I’ll consider literally anything an accomplishment — so managing to find the focus to finish each of these books is something for which to be grateful.
Bob Black published his essay The Abolition of Work in 1985, though it is as prescient as ever. You can find it freely available at The Anarchist Library. As you might anticipate, it is a critique and criticism of work. The first sentence of the essay is “No one should ever work.” — a sentiment I fully endorse and which I suspect the careerist workaholics in Silicon Valley will shun as sacrilege.
Peter Kropotkin wrote and first published The Wage System in La Revolte in 1888. It was translated for Freedom newspaper in 1889. Surprisingly, the essay is not available at The Anarchist Library. However, you can find it in Why Work? Arguments for the Leisure Society, a collection of essays (re)published by PM Press. The essays focus on dissecting “work”, its form under capitalism, and the possibilities for an alternative society.
Continuing my (still somewhat recent) tradition, here are the books I read in 2020. You can find previous years under the #reading-list tag. I really thought I was going to be able to read a lot more this year, but fuck this pandemic and fuck 2020 all around. There were many weeks where I simply could not focus on much of anything.
I’m currently reading Marquis Bey’s Anarcho-Blackness: Notes Toward a Black Anarchism. These are some reflections on and excerpts from the fourth chapter, titled Unpropertied. This post comes against the backdrop of continued protests and uprisings here in Oakland and the rest of the Bay Area in solidarity with Minneapolis, Kenosha, and the broader fight against police violence.
Here’s the list of books I read in 2019. (You can find my 2018 list here.) They are roughly ordered by how much I liked them, and grouped by non-fiction and fiction.
The Bay Area Council Economic Institute recently released a report titled Bay Area Homelessness: A Regional View of a Regional Crisis. Unfortunately, I did not have time to read the entire report, but the executive summary contains some interesting bits. If you have time to read at least that, I’d recommend it.
Notes and excerpts from The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin.
A friend recently sent me The short instructional manifesto for relationship anarchy by Andie Nordgren. It is short and a good primer on relationship anarchy if you are not familiar. Take a look.
I intend to start a new series of posts called Reading Notes where I publish notes, excerpts, and thoughts on what I’m currently reading. My goals are to better document my notes and thoughts on what I’m reading for my future self, and give myself a reason to write more blog posts (in general, but also more non-technical ones). I also hope to inspire you, dear reader, to read some of these books and essays.
Here’s the list of the books I read in 2018. There are 36 in total. At first it seemed like a small number to me. However, that averages to three books per month, which actually feels like a lot. In fact, I’m not sure I could read more than three books each month. There was never a time last year when I wasn’t reading something, and I often read multiple books at once.
I finished reading Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s new book, Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions. You should read it. As well as We Should All Be Feminists while you’re at it.
Data & Society recently released a stunning report, Media Manipulation and Disinformation Online. I highly suggest you read it if you care about understanding the rise of neo-fascism, the ‘fake news’ phenomenon, and manipulation of the media that plagued the 2016 US Presidential Election — and how Silicon Valley, particularly social media platforms, facilitated the rise of the alt-right movement and the spread of fascist propaganda. Don’t let the more than 100 pages deter you. The core report is only 50 pages, followed by a few pages of case studies, and finally a whopping 45 pages of citations and bibliography. (Direct download)