I read the exact same number of books in 2023 that I read in the previous year: seventeen. And while the subject matter changed slightly, it was much of the type of literature: mostly non-fiction, with a handful of novels which are mostly classics like Lord of the Flies (last year I read Animal Farm). Here’s the full list, in no particular order:
- Five Years After by William R. Fortschen
- Return of the Strong Gods by R.R. Reno
- The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
- Reactionary Volume 1 by Anonymous
- In the Camps: China’s High-Tech Penal Colony by Darren Byler
- Fry the Brain by John West
- How the West Brought War to Ukraine by Benjamin Abelow
- Extreme Privacy by Michael Bazzell
- War is a Racket by Smedley D. Butler
- The Book of Five Rings by Musashi Miyamoto
- The Art of Prompt Engineering with ChatGPT by Nathan Hunter
- Don’t Make the Black Kids Angry by Colin Flaherty
- Dryfire Reloaded by Ben Stoeger
- Amateur Radio Technician Class by Craig “Buck” K4IA
- Sun & Steel: Art, Action and Ritual Death by Yukio Mishima
- Transgender Industrial Complex by Scott Howard
- Hunter by Andrew Macdonald
The biggest themes of my reading material recently are history, philosophy, and government and social psychology. I suppose it speaks to the nature of the times we live in: a highly politicized era of global change. It’s difficult to pick a favorite from this list but if I were to recommend a single book from the above list it would probably be War is a Racket by Smedley D. Butler because it’s a short read and incredibly relevant to the affairs of the world in 2023. In case you’re unaware, Smedley Butler was a USMC Major General and two-time medal of honor winner who authored this book in 1935 just as the world was gearing up for WW2.
Really looking forward to an upcoming year of more great books. This, and all lists, are also listed here: Lists