Awesome list! I just finished Ian Mortimer's 'Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England...', where he praises Chaucer. Mortimer's book is fun a read if you haven't read it already. I've been meaning to read Barbara Tuchman, which you recommended a while back. For me, Mortimer was good since I lack context of that period of history. And I figured it would provide good context for Tuchman's tome. I should definitely read The Canterbury Tales since you found it worthwhile. The only book of Stephenson's I've read is Snow Crash, which I did not enjoy that much. I'll have to check out The Diamond Age and Seveneves. The best books I read in 2023 were 'With The Old Breed' by EB Sledge (a WWII memoir) and 'Suttree' by McCarthy.
Haven't read Mortimer's book, thanks for that and the other recommendations - on my reading list for 2024 is Le Roy Ladurie's book on Montaillou, which seems to cover similar ideas. I'm in the middle of Castiglione's Book of the Courtier right now, which is also fantastic.
There are parts of Stephenson's writing which are good and parts which are really bad; overall Seveneves was pretty skippable. There's cultural/historical value to reading the old Stephenson novels (e.g. Snow Crash used to be required reading at various tech companies) but other people write the same style of science fiction better these days. I still have a soft spot for The Diamond Age, but perhaps that's just nostalgia....
Awesome list! I just finished Ian Mortimer's 'Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England...', where he praises Chaucer. Mortimer's book is fun a read if you haven't read it already. I've been meaning to read Barbara Tuchman, which you recommended a while back. For me, Mortimer was good since I lack context of that period of history. And I figured it would provide good context for Tuchman's tome. I should definitely read The Canterbury Tales since you found it worthwhile. The only book of Stephenson's I've read is Snow Crash, which I did not enjoy that much. I'll have to check out The Diamond Age and Seveneves. The best books I read in 2023 were 'With The Old Breed' by EB Sledge (a WWII memoir) and 'Suttree' by McCarthy.
Haven't read Mortimer's book, thanks for that and the other recommendations - on my reading list for 2024 is Le Roy Ladurie's book on Montaillou, which seems to cover similar ideas. I'm in the middle of Castiglione's Book of the Courtier right now, which is also fantastic.
There are parts of Stephenson's writing which are good and parts which are really bad; overall Seveneves was pretty skippable. There's cultural/historical value to reading the old Stephenson novels (e.g. Snow Crash used to be required reading at various tech companies) but other people write the same style of science fiction better these days. I still have a soft spot for The Diamond Age, but perhaps that's just nostalgia....