What I Read in 2024
Although I didn’t have much time to read in 2024, I still came across a few books that were definitely worth it. In non-fiction, two stand out clearly above the rest: Stolen Focus by Johann Hari and Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O’Neil, both quite influential in shaping how I think about new technologies.
I was also particularly struck by The Trading Game by Gary Stevenson, which sits somewhere between fiction and non-fiction. Despite being autobiographical, it offers a very insightful look into how financial markets work. It also introduced me to Stevenson as a character, which I found fascinating.
For work, books like La cocina electoral en España and Democracia de trincheras were especially useful in helping me better understand surveys and political behaviour.
Finally, in terms of fiction, the standout novel of the year was Fortuna, both for its content and the way it is written.
📚 Books
- ⭐ El valor de la atención — Johann Hari
- La llengua del Tercer Reich — Victor Klemperer
- ⭐ Armas de destrucción matemática — Cathy O’Neil
- L’última colònia — Philippe Sands
- Cómo funciona el mundo — Vaclav Smil
- ⭐ Fortuna — Hernán Díaz
- Artificial — Mariano Sigman y Santiago Bilinkis
- ¿Deberíamos comer carne? — Vaclav Smil
- Quan el món es va trencar — John Boyne
- Una vida a les muntanyes — Abraham Orriols
- Qui no vulgui pols… — Toni Rodon
- La ciutat i les seves muralles incertes — Haruki Murakami
- Europa. Una història personal — Timothy Garton Ash
- Después del trabajo — Helen Hester y Nick Srnicek
- Atlas novelado de los volcanes de Islandia — Leonardo Piccione
- Size — Vaclav Smil
- ⭐ El juego del dinero — Gary Stevenson
- Cómo Islandia cambió el mundo — Egill Bjarnason
- España, el pacto y la furia — Enric Juliana
- El descontento democrático — Michael J. Sandel
- La cocina electoral en España — José Pablo Ferrándiz y Francisco Camas García
- Novela de ajedrez — Stefan Zweig
- La conciencia contada por un sápiens a un neandertal — Juan José Millás y Juan Luis Arsuaga
- Del silenci — Sergi Bellver
- Veinticuatro horas en la vida de una mujer — Stefan Zweig
- Nexus — Yuval Noah Harari
- Democracia de trincheras — Lluis Orriols
- Los ricos no pagan IRPF — Carlos Cruzado y José M. Molinedo
- Bournville — Jonathan Coe