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Best and Worst Books, 2024

I read another 50 or so books in 2024, and these are the ones that stood out--the good and the not so good. Each link below will take you to my review and discussion notes.

If you'd like to support my work here, you can feel free to use this Amazon link to do your shopping, I'll be paid a modest affiliate fee at no extra cost to you.

Thank you for reading, and all the best for 2025!

See also!

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Best (5/5 stars or close):
The Odds Against Me by John Scarne
The Art of Contrary Thinking by Humphrey Bancroft Neill
The Shipping Man by Matthew McCleery
Animal Farm by George Orwell
The Story of Silver by William L. Silber


Worst (1/5 stars or close):
How Civil Wars Start by Barbara F. Walter
Les Chants de Maldoror by Comte de Lautreamont (trans. Alexis Lykiard)
End Times by Peter Turchin

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Fail-Safe Investing by Harry Browne

Quite a lot of horse sense in this book! Suitable for beginner- to intermediate-level investors, particularly if you want to invest competently with a minimum of fuss, worry and fees. There are two sections: Part I goes over the author's 17 Basic Rules, and Part II goes over each rule in more depth. The rules are useful and complete, and if you apply them, you'll have a robust investment plan. Let me specifically cite the author's Rule #11, which describes his extremely simple, low-fee "bulletproof" portfolio of 25% each in stocks, bonds, cash and gold, with basic annual rebalancing. I'd also recommend pairing this book with two short and excellent books by William Bernstein:  The Investor's Manifesto  and  The Four Pillars of Investing . [A quick  affiliate link to Amazon  for those readers who would like to support my work here: if you purchase your Amazon products via any affiliate link from this site, or from my sister site  Casual Kitchen , I will...
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The Trees in My Forest by Bernd Heinrich

A biology professor buys 300 acres of Maine woodlands with money he doesn't have and spends the better part of his life exploring it. This book is a collection of essays musing upon his experiences over the years, as he brings the reader along on a tour of all the bugs, birds, trees and fungi in the forest ecosystem. This work will seem very familiar to readers of Edward Abbey, Paul Gruchow, Henry David Thoreau and other important environmental advocates. It has the same flowing and  at times convoluted  style, the same gentle lecturing of what happens and why on the trail and in the forest, and the same subtle misanthropy as he tells us all the things we're doing wrong by having the temerity to live on this planet. [A quick  affiliate link to Amazon  for those readers who would like to support my work here: if you purchase your Amazon products via any affiliate link from this site, or from my sister site  Casual Kitchen , I will receive a small affiliate c...
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How to Fail at Almost Anything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams

Readable and quite useful. Most of the chapters are bite-sized, quick, and usually contain a good insight or two: the writing equivalent of a three-panel comic strip.  How to Fail  also offers certain extremely helpful heuristics that you can add to your toolbox for navigating reality. Two of the best and most noteworthy: * Set up systems rather than goals [see Chapter 6] * Manage your personal energy levels so that they're higher not lower: work on things and think thoughts that make you feel more energetic rather than less [see Chapters 11 and 12] The reader gets the impression that Scott Adams is deep down a very sensitive person: shy, socially awkward, with insecurities and shortcomings he worked hard to conquer. Social awkwardness is one of those things that almost nobody understands unless you have it, and Adams has found--and generously offers to readers--a few genuinely creative workarounds to deal with it. He's humble and self-effacing enough to admit candidly that he...
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