I Will Read More

I don't complete books often, and I want to change that.

While I am working on a more substantial article, I am releasing this mini-post.

Why I Need to Track My Reading

Tracking my reading might encourage me to read more, so I am beginning to document my reading goals and progress here.

I’m excluding technical reading on this list because I consider it a different category of reading.1I will probably make a different list for technical reading.

What’s on My Bookshelf?

A lot is physically on my bookshelf, but only a few books are mentally on my bookshelf. That is, there are only a few books I am really (err… somewhat2My goal is to obliterate this caveat and learn how to make steady progress on books I choose to read. ) trying to read.

Books I Have Read Recently

I am writing this article in late November 2025. The dates below should give a sense of how infrequently I complete books nowadays.

  • Food Fix by Mark Hyman
    • I read this as part of a science policy book club in winter 2025. It was mediocre, but I appreciated its consistent message.
  • Maniac by Benjamin Labatut
    • I read this fall 2024. I thought it was great.
    • Previously, I also enjoyed Labatut’s When We Ceased to Understand the World.

The most recent graphic novel I really enjoyed was the Bone series, which I read in the summer of 2024.

Some exclusions

I’m excluding a couple self-help books I read this year. They were really easy and quick to read. This makes me wonder whether the majority of people who read upwards of 100 books a year are in fact just reading a lot of really easy books3And I wonder how you quantify how easy a book is. Does it correspond to low perplexity? Are there better measures? .

Books I Am Reading

I started reading the following books in 2025. I want to finish them in early 2026, if not by the end of 2025.

  • The Origins of Political Order by Francis Fukuyama
    • I’m almost 100 pages in out of 483 pages.
  • From Watt to Clausius: The rise of thermodynamics in the early industrial age by D.S.L. Cardwell
    • I am about 100 pages in as well. I did skip over a certain stretch I considered too boring, though.

Books I Am About to Start

These are on my bookshelf and I plan to start reading soon.

  • Trust by Francis Fukuyama
    • I like that Fukuyama has a strong sense of thesis in his works. That’s what convinced me to get this book, too.
  • A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines by Janna Levin
    • I am hoping this book is similar to those of Benjamin Labatut.

These below picks are selected more for the viewpoint of the author rather than the book itself. Hence, the author is listed first.

  • William Calvin – Cerebral Code
  • Barbara McClintock – A Feeling for the Organism