Customary for the end of a year, here’s the list of books I finished reading in 2025.
Junk DNA (Nessa Carey) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ⭐
I started this late last year but finished this January so it’s on this list. I loved this and learned a lot from it, most of which I’m sure I won’t remember after some time, but I took copious notes and it spawned countless new questions for me to research.
Great for any bioinformatics or genomics folks - lots of deep details.
The Catalyst (Thomas Cech) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Also a carryover from the end of last year, continuing the same theme as the above book. Lots of great detail about how RNA works and where it came from in evolutionary terms.
Higher Sobriety (Jill Stark) ⭐⭐⭐
I’ve been drinking a lot less alcohol lately so I figured I’d see how this one resonated - it certainly does, but it’s an odd mix of research and journaling from an upper-middle class writer who has a very specific lifestyle. I’m not a 30-something party girl in a big city, so some of the complaints were lost on me. Has a whiff of ‘I did a thing and got a book deal out of it, now I’m a celebrity’ but good on them.
Uptime (Laura Mae Martin) ⭐⭐⭐
This was recommended as a productivity helper. There’s some good tips in there, but feels very listicle.
Four Thousand Weeks (Oliver Burkeman) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
A very different take on the productivity advice of the previous book on this list; not about fitting more in, but about making the best use of the little time we have. On the classic ‘rocks in a jar, fill the gaps with sand’ analogy I liked the quote
The real problem of time management today, though, isn’t that we’re bad at prioritising the big rocks. It’s that there are too many rocks - and most of them are never making it anywhere near that jar.
The Twelve Monotasks (Thatcher Wine) ⭐⭐⭐
I am on board with the idea that multitasking is just doing several things at once, most likely poorly. The idea of this book is to identify things that should be done individually. Not terrible, but probably just an extended blog post.
After World (Debbie Urbanski) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Finally some fiction. I thoroughly enjoyed this one. The basic plot is that AI has taken over the world and (as tends to be the case in AI sci-fi) decided that humans are the problem. This explores a scenario where humanity is on the way out and can’t do anything about it. Lots of human nature mixed in with some AI techy stuff. Highly recommend.
Scythe (Neal Shusterman) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This was recommended to me and I was hooked on the first book of the trilogy, finishing this one in just a few evenings. Also an all-in AI world, but one in which all of humanities problems (including death) are solved - so how does the world deal with an ever-increasing population? Thought-provoking in terms of human nature and our relationship to death. Highly recommend.
All Systems Red (Martha Wells) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I’d read this one a while ago but with the Murderbot TV series being released I figured I’d give it another read. Of course, all the physical copies were out with a long wait from the library (the TV series was popular, I guess) I opted for the audiobook. I was delighted that this was a ‘GraphicAudio’ which has a whole cast and sound effects - essentially a radio play - and it was wonderful to listen through. It seems that the TV series mostly kept in line with this book, with some subtle changes. Highly recommend.
The Atrocity Archives (Charles Stross) ⭐⭐⭐
Recommended to me by the same person who recommended Scythe and this one wasn’t so much up my alley. The techno-babble was a little forced but at least well-informed. The idea that “magic is just maths” is cool and integrates nicely into the story, but the whole thing wrapped up like the author was running out of pages to write on. I probably won’t rush to the rest of the Laundry Files series.
The Ministry of Time (Kaliane Bradley) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I’m not usually one for historical novels but this has just the right amount of timey-wimey to it so that it kept my attention. The twists and turns took an awfully long time to be introduced, but they were rewarding once they did. I later heard an interview with the author and they were inspired by a book I later read, the connection of which didn’t occur to me at the time.
Artificial Condition (Martha Wells) ⭐⭐⭐
Following on from All Systems Red, I didn’t enjoy this one as much as the first, possibly due to the plot. It was also an audiobook, but had much less of a ‘radio play’ feel to it.
Thunderhead (Neal Shusterman) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Following on from Scythe, this continues to be a great series. Focussing more on the ‘system’ in place it’s easy to read parts as criticisms of how the world is now
To facilitate that, I had to to create a system worthy of loathing. In reality, there is no actual need for people to take a number, or to wait for long periods of time. There isn’t even a need for an intake agent. It’s all designed to make unsavories feel as if the system is wasting their time. The illusion of inefficiency serves the specific purpose of creating annoyance around which unsavories can bond.
If this was Australian, that service would absolutely be named as a pun on Centrelink.
Coders (Clive Thompson) ⭐⭐⭐
I’ve followed the author’s work on podcasts and heard good things about this book. The first half is fantastic - stories about how some big companies (e.g. Instagram) started from actual hard work and really small apps designed to do something completely different. The second half was about biases in hiring which - while horrible and absolutely an issue - didn’t make for great reading.
Die with Zero (Bill Perkins) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
An eye-opening exposition of how we’re taught to do savings wrong. “Spend the money at the time it maximises what it can do for you” is my takeaway. If you plan to give money to your children, do so when they’re about 30 - the point in their lives where it is the most helpful and they can be trusted with it, not as an inheritance when they’re 60 and have their own money. The crossing curve of increasing wealth and decreasing health makes me want to do more to make the most of what I do have while I can still use it. I read a bunch of counterargument articles to this and half of them didn’t seem to read the book. Definitely worth a read; take what you like from it.
The Three Body Problem (Cixin Liu) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I watched the TV series and enjoyed it, and some friends recommended the books. I say watch the TV series. This book was very dry, with a lot more detail about the cultural revolution aspects which don’t take up too much time in the show. The book does go into a lot more detail about the antagonists, though, which was great.
Slaughterhouse Five (Kurt Vonnegut Jr.) ⭐⭐⭐
Time for a classic, I guess. I read Player Piano in 2023 and while it was okay, I wasn’t crazy about it. This one is a lot better, but is a strange mix of a war story book and time travel. Apparently an inspiration for The Ministry of Time which I can see in retrospect. Not my favourite, but interesting enough.
The Anthropocene Reviewed (John Green) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I got the audiobook for this one, and it’s read by the author himself. I remember enjoying John’s videos and later his brother Hank’s, so the voice was nice and familiar. LOTS of interesting historical tidbits. One of the most interesting to me - the daughter of the first human penicillin subject is (was, in the 2020s) still alive; penicillin is very new.
“I give ‘The Anthropocene Reviewed’ 4 stars”
The Rationalist’s Guide to the Galaxy (Tom Chivers) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Picked up randomly at the library, I wasn’t aware of the massive background of ‘The Rationalists’ as a movement. I knew of the site LessWrong but not of the connection to this movement. Lots of interesting discussions on utilitarianism and altruism that I hadn’t encountered before. The longer view is about AI and how bad “real” AI could be for us. This lead me down a rabbit hole of ‘The Sequences’ which will take years to get through, but then also the newer ‘If Anyone Builds it, Everyone Dies’ which I’m only just getting to now. I’m not 100% sold on the fears or the idea that “computer scientists determine that computer science is the solution to all problems” irony. The argument for “maximising the benefits integrated over time” being best served by making AI as early as possible seems in conflict with what seems better for more people - “minimise the number of people suffering right now; some of them will make great things, and some will make more people who will”.
Autonomous (Anna Lee Newitz) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Fiction again - this has a Murderbot vibe to it, but explores more about ‘self’ for a thinking robot. Some interesting tech thrown in around the story.
Everything is Tuberculosis (John Green) ⭐⭐⭐
Following from The Anthropocene Reviewed I got the physical copy of this one. I wasn’t aware of the massive history of TB (a.k.a. consumption) but the list of famous victims is incredible. Lots of interesting tidbits in this one, but as a book it didn’t really come together so well for me.
Ultralearning (Scott H. Young) ⭐⭐⭐
As heard about on a podcast, I got the audiobook for this one. Lots of similar ideas to Rest (Alex Soojong-Kim Pang) which I read last year in terms of letting your brain do the background thinking. Some good tips for learning more, but probably best suited to someone who necessarily needs to learn a lot - I’m happy to learn at a slow pace.
Vaccine Nation (Raina MacIntyre) ⭐⭐
A good review of some vaccine history, with some possible inconsistencies for pop-sci audience (“DNA of the virus” - aren’t most viruses RNA based?). One particularly disturbing factoid was the ‘number needed to vaccinate to prevent 1 hospitalisation’ - it’s apparently 1852 for influenza in children. While it’s fantastic that Australia has the rate it does, it’s nowhere near high enough. For COVID-19 in children, apparently that number needed is too high to recommend boosters for children, i.e. a cost-saving exercise. Overall it had a good start, but got a bit repetitive in places, possibly poor editing.
Prove It (Elizabeth Finkel) ⭐⭐⭐
I recognised the author’s name - Elizabeth was the editor for The Best Australian Science Writing 2012 in which I have a chapter. This goes through a lot of interesting stories about the origins of the scientific method, and connections between some famous figures from history.
The Andromeda Strain (Michael Crichton) ⭐⭐⭐
I’d heard good things and I hadn’t read it before. The story itself tiptoes around the main plot point for most of the book then wraps up as if the author ran out of ink. A bit disappointing, but reasonably well written overall.
How to Do Nothing (Jenny Odell) ⭐⭐⭐
Some interesting points regarding rejecting the attention economy, but overall a bit meh. Contained some good recommendations for other books now on my list, though.
Indistractable (Nir Eyal) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
A similar theme to the previous book, also about attention capital. Some great quotes in there, e.g. on the invention of smartphones “when you invent the ship, you also invent the shipwreck” - Paul Virilio. Worth a read if you think your mental energy/willpower is limited; it doesn’t have to be. I skipped the last couple of chapters which were getting repetitive.
Inventing the Future (Nick Srnick, Alex Williams) ⭐⭐
Recommended by a friend as an alternative to the doom and gloom of post-AI books, I wasn’t aware that I was in for 80 pages of political history before getting to the point, but I learned a LOT that I hadn’t previously encountered about neoliberalism. Discusses what “work” should look like in the future, so strong recommendation to anyone who enjoyed David Graeber’s writings. Plenty of political discussion throughout (“Under negative freedom, the rich and the poor are considered equally free, despite the obvious differences in their capacities to act”) but written in an extremely academic tone (it felt like the co-author was a thesaurus). Worth the read if you have a lot of time and are interested in the politics that might come from a world in which computers can do a lot more for us.
Hidden Potential (Adam Grant) ⭐⭐
Similar to Ultralearning and to some degree the previous book (in terms of understanding where ‘work ethic’ comes from). Also interesting to see the definition of ‘soft skills’ explained in a military context where it supposedly originated; the ‘hard’ referred to things made of metal, i.e. guns and tanks, so in that sense finance is a ‘soft skill’. The key takeaway was that discomfort is essential to learning - if it’s too easy you’re not learning, and practice before mastery is uncomfortable. Some great points throughout, but I skipped the last chapter.
Fluent Forever (Gabriel Wyner) ⭐⭐⭐
As I continue to learn Japanese I’m now meta-learning about how to do that. This book has lots of links to resources (although URLs are capitalised a lot and that feels strange) including the author’s own for-money app. I signed up and have been getting relentless emails about discounts ever since. Nonetheless, some good tips on what makes language learning actually work well. I skipped all the toolbox sections at the end as I have a SRS system I’m happy with (Wanikani).
Heading into the new year I’ve started ‘If Anyone Builds it, Everyone Dies’ (Eliezer Yudkowsky, Nate Soares) and ‘Short Stories in Japanese for Intermediate Learners’ (Olly Richards). Feel free to send me your recommendations (preferably also why you liked it).