5 Favorite Books of 2024

At the end of the year, I have a habit of covering what books I really liked during the year. In 2021 and 2022, I managed to read over 60 books. In 2023, it was only 19 books. This year, I’ve finished 31 books so far, with a few still in progress as I write this. So, what led me to choose the five standout books I'm covering in this piece?

I use Goodreads quite actively to track my reading. I gave star ratings on Goodreads right after reading each book. I might give one book four stars and another five. However, what I regard as my favorite books of the year are those I still think about months after finishing or ones I find myself recommending to friends. Taking time to reflect on a book is essential to truly determine if it was a great read.

I read 31 books in 2024. Many could have made it into the top five, so I decided to choose ones that stood out from the others. My reading spanned business, self-help, biographies, fiction, and productivity. I’m happy to report that this year’s list includes a standout from each category. This matters because I want the list to offer something for everyone: if you’re into business, here’s a great pick; if you prefer biographies, try this one. There’s something for everyone.

Finally, I wanted to share which books worked best as audiobooks. For me, biographies are ideal for a more relaxed listening experience, where you don’t need sharp focus to follow the story. In contrast, I’ve found books like Thinking, Fast and Slow to be the worst for audiobooks, as they overwhelm you with dense, heavy information. From this year’s top five list, I read four on Kindle and listened to one as an audiobook.

Here's the list.

Poor Charlie's Almanack — Peter D. Kaufman

Poor Charlie's Almanack is a compilation of speeches that Charlie Munger held in 1980s to early 200s. Munger, as many of you know, was the legendary investor and Warren Buffett’s business partner at Berkshire Hathaway. The book truly serves as a comprehensive guide to Munger’s thinking, offering insights into his unique multidisciplinary approach to decision-making, investing, and living a meaningful life.

The book distills Munger's ideas on mental models, rational thinking, and the importance of learning from a wide array of disciplines, ranging from psychology and economics to biology and history. I feel like the lessons are all very applicable to our life and work, and it's a must-read for all of my subscribers.

My favorite quote from the book:

I became so avid a collector of instances of bad judgment that I paid no attention to boundaries between professional territories. After all, why should I search for some tiny, unimportant, hard-to-find new stupidity in my own field when some large, important, easy-to-find stupidity was just over the fence in the other fellow’s professional territory?

Remember to get the third expanded edition, which came out in 2024.

Good Work — Paul Millard

A few years, the author Paul Millard published his first book, the Pathless Path, where he covered how he want from working in investment banking, to become a content creator and author.

In Good Work, Paul Millard talks about his steps inside his Pathless Path, where he becomes a creator of online courses, then becomes an author. Along the journey, he supports his family and recounts his struggles with the finances of the uncertain living that his work can produce. At the same time, he examines the ways he is living a better life, because he is pursuing good work.

What is interesting is that good and bad work aren’t binary; there is actually a spectrum of work, and it’s all very personal, with lots of murky middle ground between a person’s good and bad work. The work might be perceived as good work, but as you get into it, you will eventually realize that it wasn’t good work for you.

My favorite quote:

Our culture will attempt to steal your inner ambition and convince you to use it to do what organizations, your parents, or your manager might want. But this is not your ambition. Your ambition desires more than a job title, a salary, or a brand-name company. It is a fire that burns inside of you—not for a bigger paycheck, but for a bigger life.

Nuclear War — Annie Jacobsen

Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario is a fascinating book, with it's minute-by-minute account of a hypothetical nuclear attack on the United States and transpires.

Drawing from extensive interviews with military and civilian experts, Jacobsen offers a gruesome exploration of the protocols and decisions that would unfold in the immediate aftermath of such an event.

The book delves into the catastrophic consequences of nuclear warfare, putting a lot of focus on the rapid escalation and widespread devastation that would ensue.

To me, the chilling notion from the book was how there are so many insane relics left from the Cold War in the way that the United States and Russia operate.

My favorite quote:

No matter how the nomenclature is spun, these two arsenals of mass destruction are poised and ready to destroy the world. The madness of MAD is that the two sides are like a mirror. Like the myth of Narcissus but with a biblical twist: a madman stares in a pond, sees his image on the surface of the water, and mistakes himself for his enemy. Falling for the illusion, he attacks, slips into the water, and drowns. But not before he unleashes Armageddon first.

The Wager — David Grann

David Grann’s The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder is a nonfiction account of the 18th-century British warship HMS Wager, which wrecked off the coast of Patagonia in 1741.

The true story explores the harrowing experiences of the surviving crew members as they faced extreme conditions, leading to mutiny and murder. Grann delves into the subsequent court-martial trials, revealing the complexities of truth and justice in the context of the British empire.

My favorite quote:

No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned.

Working — Robert Caro

Robert Caro’s Working: Researching, Interviewing, Writing offers a very personal glimpse into the meticulous methods behind Caro’s patiently developed biographies on Robert Moses and Lyndon Johnson. Through a series of essays and interviews, Caro shares insights into his utterly thorough research techniques, how he conducts interviewing of eyewitnesses, and his finally, in great detail, he explains his disciplined writing process.

Throughout the book, he recounts experiences from interviewing the formidable Robert Moses and navigating the extensive archives of the Lyndon B. Johnson Library, where he staked out for years with his wife, going through thousands of archived items on the former president.

This memoir not only covers Caro’s dedication to realizing the nuances of political power but also serves as a very inspiring guide for aspiring writers and researchers. Because of the former, I felt this book really made the cut as a favorite read for 2024.

My favorite quote from the book:

While I am aware that there is no Truth, no objective truth, no single truth, no truth simple or unsimple, either; no verity, eternal or otherwise; no Truth about anything, there are Facts, objective facts, discernible and verifiable. And the more facts you accumulate, the closer you come to whatever truth there is.

Final words

If you didn’t read my review of the Crypto Confidential book, take a look at it by going here. It’s definitely a favorite book for me in 2024, but since I already covered it, I wanted to find five other ones to talk about in this piece.

Hope you can pick one or two of these for the holiday break. Happy reading!

Flock AI seeks hires

To end this week’s piece, I want to share a few openings at one of my portfolio companies.

Flock AI is seeking a Team Lead and a PM for their India offices. You can apply though LinkedIn, or reach out directly to the CEO, or ping me on LinkedIn and I can connect you. Don’t forget to mention that you read about the jobs on my Substack.