{"id":16815,"date":"2023-12-23T16:45:03","date_gmt":"2023-12-23T21:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.justcharlie.com\/?p=16815"},"modified":"2023-12-23T16:47:49","modified_gmt":"2023-12-23T21:47:49","slug":"books-of-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.justcharlie.com\/books-of-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Books of 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-1 fusion-flex-container nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-flex-wrap:wrap;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row fusion-flex-align-items-flex-start fusion-flex-content-wrap\" style=\"max-width:936px;margin-left: calc(-4% \/ 2 );margin-right: calc(-4% \/ 2 );\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-0 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-flex-column\" style=\"--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-width-large:100%;--awb-margin-top-large:0px;--awb-spacing-right-large:1.92%;--awb-margin-bottom-large:0px;--awb-spacing-left-large:1.92%;--awb-width-medium:100%;--awb-spacing-right-medium:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-medium:1.92%;--awb-width-small:100%;--awb-spacing-right-small:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-small:1.92%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\"><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-1\"><p>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&#8217;s the full list, in no particular order:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Five Years After<\/strong> by William R. Fortschen<\/li>\n<li><strong>Return of the Strong Gods<\/strong> by R.R. Reno<\/li>\n<li><strong>The Lord of the Flies<\/strong> by William Golding<\/li>\n<li><strong>Reactionary Volume 1<\/strong> by Anonymous<\/li>\n<li><strong>In the Camps: China&#8217;s High-Tech Penal Colony<\/strong> by Darren Byler<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fry the Brain<\/strong> by John West<\/li>\n<li><strong>How the West Brought War to Ukraine<\/strong> by Benjamin Abelow<\/li>\n<li><strong>Extreme Privacy<\/strong> by Michael Bazzell<\/li>\n<li><strong>War is a Racket<\/strong> by Smedley D. Butler<\/li>\n<li><strong>The Book of Five Rings<\/strong> by Musashi Miyamoto<\/li>\n<li><strong>The Art of Prompt Engineering with ChatGPT<\/strong> by Nathan Hunter<\/li>\n<li><strong>Don&#8217;t Make the Black Kids Angry<\/strong> by Colin Flaherty<\/li>\n<li><strong>Dryfire Reloaded<\/strong> by Ben Stoeger<\/li>\n<li><strong>Amateur Radio Technician Class<\/strong>\u00a0by Craig \u201cBuck\u201d K4IA<\/li>\n<li><strong>Sun &amp; Steel: Art, Action and Ritual Death<\/strong>\u00a0by Yukio Mishima<\/li>\n<li><strong>Transgender Industrial Complex<\/strong> by Scott Howard<\/li>\n<li><strong>Hunter<\/strong> by Andrew Macdonald<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"220\" height=\"318\" class=\"wp-image-16811\" src=\"https:\/\/www.justcharlie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/War_Is_a_Racket_cover.jpg\" alt=\"War is a Racket book\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.justcharlie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/War_Is_a_Racket_cover-200x289.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.justcharlie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/War_Is_a_Racket_cover-208x300.jpg 208w, https:\/\/www.justcharlie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/War_Is_a_Racket_cover.jpg 220w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 220px) 100vw, 220px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>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&#8217;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 <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/War_Is_a_Racket\">War is a Racket<\/a> by Smedley D. Butler because it&#8217;s a short read and incredibly relevant to the affairs of the world in 2023. In case you&#8217;re unaware, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Smedley_Butler\">Smedley Butler<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n<p>Really looking forward to an upcoming year of more great books. This, and all lists, are also listed here: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justcharlie.com\/lists\/\">Lists<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[216],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Books of 2023<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Of the 17 books I read this year on history, philosophy, military strategy and politics, there is one in particular I have to recommend.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justcharlie.com\/books-of-2023\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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