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The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World

Sun, 18 Jan 2026 20:00:00 +0000

Author: David Deutsch Rating: 5/5 Finished: January 18, 2026

David Deutsch is making the case that knowledge is infinite and that our civilization can manage to get on a path where we continuously grow our knowledge via conjecture and criticism. To do this we need a error-correcting political system, and an open and dynamic society that values scientific exploration and problem solving.

Maurice and Maralyn

Tue, 13 Jan 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Author: Sophie Elmhirst Rating: 4/5 Finished: January 13, 2026

This book is about Maurice and Marilyn Bailey who in the 1970s sold their house in England and bought the sailing boat Auralyn. Their goal was to sail across the world to New Zealand. On their way to the Galapagos Islands their yacht was damaged by a whale and sunk. The couple survived for 118 days in a dinghy and a life raft before being rescued by another ship. The first two-thirds of the book details how they organised their days to stay sane and find food and water. A big part of their survival was the fight against boredom on the raft. Their own account of this was published in the book 117 Days Adrift .

As a sailor who has done a sea survival course in the past, this was really interesting to read about. It’s incredible to think how they managed to sustain themselves on raw turtle and shark meat, fish, and rainwater. It also highlighted how important it is to have a way to signal your location to other boats closeby since they were missed by three passing boats who didn’t see them. The last third of the book is about their life after the rescue. Interestingly, they immediately tried to buy another boat to sail to Patagonia which they accomplished. The book ends on quite a sad note when Elmhirst describes Maurice’s loneliness after the passing of his wife in 2002.

Montechristo

Tue, 06 Jan 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Author: Martin Suter Rating: 3/5 Finished: January 6, 2026

Martin Suter’s books are one of my favorite things to read during holiday time. I really like his Allmen detective series. Montechristo was okay in comparison. It’s about a video journalist in Zurich who happens to stumble over a financial conspiracy. It was a decent read, but the ending of the book missed the typical twist that normally happen in Suter’s books. So the book left me quite unsatisfied, which to be fair, could be the author’s intention based on how the story plays out.

A Christmas Carol

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Author: Charles Dickens Rating: 4/5 Finished: December 25, 2025

This is a classic in the UK. Since I didn’t grow up here I never read it as a child. So for this Christmas I decided to change that. I enjoyed the glimpse into 19th century London that Dickens tends to give the reader in his books. I think the takeaways from the book are still as applicable as in 1843. Be generous to your friends and family. Don’t hoard money for the sake of it. Approach your environment in a positive, friendly, and open-minded manner and it will be reflected back to you.

Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Author: Oliver Burkeman Rating: 4/5 Finished: December 31, 2025

This book is similar to Burkeman’s earlier book 4000 weeks, that I summarized here . However, the approach he takes in this book is different. The book is split into 28 chapters that the reader is meant to read in 28 days. I found this book in a local charity shop and read it in book-club-style together with my wife.

His writing is easily digestible and he reuses several ideas from stoic philosophy. The main takeaway is to not approach daily life as the quest to finish a to-do list that hopefully leads to a better future. But instead embrace the finitude of self and life, and therefore focus on the present. The daily working on the to-do list ends up the life that one lives. Therefore, one should focus on the items on the list that are important, enjoy and be present in the process, and don’t expect to ever finish the list or strike every item off it.

Hard Land

Sat, 13 Dec 2025 17:00:00 +0000

Author: Benedict Wells Rating: 4/5 Finished: December 10, 2025

My German friend recently recommended the author Benedict Wells to me and suggested this particular book. Benedict Wells has become well known in Germany after his debut book Becks letzter Sommer in 2008.

Hard Land is set in the fictional town Grady in Missouri. The main story plays in the summer of 1985. It’s a classical coming-of-age story. The main character, Sam, is a shy teenager without friends. His life and thoughts are consumed by the illness of his mother and how it affects their family. During the summer holidays he starts a job at the local cinema and meets Cameron, Hightower, and Kirstie. Together they spend a memorable summer, in which Sam is confronted with his fears, shyness, love, and grief. The book makes many references to the films and cinema of the 1980s. At first it felt a bit strange to read a story about an American teenager in an American town,written in German, but that feeling went away as the story unfolded.

The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation

Fri, 05 Dec 2025 16:28:00 +0000

Author: Jon Gertner Rating: 4/5 Finished: December 3, 2025

In his book Jon Gertner details the history of the Bell Labs , an industrial research lab created by AT&T in 1925. Well-funded by AT&T’s monopoly on telecommunication in the US, the researchers at Bell Labs worked under the unique combination of available capital, freedom to explore ideas, and a long time horizon for projects. This attracted many PhD graduates (at one point more than 1000) to join the Labs and subsequently make several breakthrough discoveries: vacuum tubes, transistors, solar cells, fibre optic communication, radar, communication satellites, deepsea cables, the laser, UNIX, C, and the development of information theory.

Gertner explores how the lab was set up (having many researches of different departments in the same building and encouraging cross-department collaboration and serendipitous discovery) to achieve these inventions and whether innovation can be planned.

Another theme of the book is AT&T’s struggle with the US government to keep its monopoly on telecommunication. For many decades the government agreed to the monopoly because of the natural monopoly of long-distance communication lines, AT&T’s committment to improve communication technology for its customers and its strategic importance during and after WW2 (they also famously guaranteed not to enter the computer market). This constant struggle reminded me of the situation with the US oil companies in Yergin’s The Prize where the US government faced a similar strategic dilema (more competition vs. strategic and military importance).

Jon Gertner gave a talk about his book at a Google event.

Cryptonomicon

Fri, 14 Nov 2025 21:00:00 +0000

Author: Neal Stephenson Rating: 4/5 Finished: November 2, 2025

Following Seveneves and Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon is the third Neil Stephenson book I have read. Weirdly, I stumbled over all three books in different second hand book shops.

The story is built around the theme of cryptography. The author takes you into two major storylines. The first is about the encryption arms race between the Allies and the Axis forces during World War II. In the second storyline, which plays in the late 1990s, the characters use encryption to build a secure data haven. Established in a authocratic South East Asian country this data haven is built to host permissionless files and establish a digital currency pegged to gold.

I read this book during my trip through India whenever we were driving between places. I enjoyed the character and relationship development and the nerdy explanations of the different technologies (one time pad encryption, van eck phreaking, etc.) at play. While India is not The Philippines, reading this book in a hot and busy country brought the main characters’ adventures in the Philippines to life even more.

The Shortest History of India: From the World’s Oldest Civilization to Its Largest Democracy

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 18:47:00 +0000

Author: John Zubrzycki Rating: 4/5 Finished: October 18, 2025

I read this book to prepare for my trip to India next week. I didn’t know very much about India’s history other than a vague notion of Alexander The Great trying to invade it, the Mughals ruling it at some point, and then first the East India Company and last the British Empire colonizing it.

Zubrzycki gives a decent high-level overview of India’s history from the Harappān civilization (c. 3300 - 1300 BCE), via subsequent Muslim invasions via modern-day Iran and Afghanistan, then British rule, and lastly its independence in 1947. He also explains Pakistan’s origin story and its dispute with India over the Kashmir region, and intra-India Hindu-Muslim tension.

The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power

Mon, 06 Oct 2025 20:00:00 +0000

Author: Daniel Yergin Rating: 5/5 Finished: October 6, 2025

In abundant detail Yergin describes the history of oil in the late 19th century, and how it created economic growth worldwide, played a central role in world war strategies, and shaped political outcomes in many countries. A very dense book, but I learned a great amount.

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

Sat, 19 Apr 2025 20:00:00 +0000

Author: Doris Kearns Goodwin Rating: 5/5 Finished: April 19, 2025

As a European I only have surface level knowledge of American history. I learned about for a semester in high school and watched the movie Lincoln . So I did have a sense of Abrahan Lincolns role in the civil war and in the abolishing slavery.

This book gave me a much deeper insight into the political struggle to end slavery and how Abraham Lincoln managed to balance competing factions in his own cabinet, in parliament, and in the country.

Abraham Lincoln won the presidency to the surprise of most observers at the time. He carefully positioned himself as a down-to-earth, quirky character in just the right political niche to get support from the different political groups when they realised that their favorite candidate wouldn’t be able to get a majority. After he won the presidential election in 1960 he did something unusual. He installed some of his opponents from the presidential race into key positions of his cabinet (This is where the book title comes from).

The first part of the book is about him gaining the respect of his contemporaries that underestimated him for a long time. It’s also about his clever interactions with the key characters in the cabinet to keep them aligned and utilise their individual strengths.

The second part of the book goes deeper into his role during the civil war where he has to make difficult military decisions, like firing generals, and keeping the Confederance internationally isolated. While at the same time waiting for just the right moment when public sentiment was ready to support the abolishment of slavery.

I learned a lot about political decision making and balancing power.

How Big Things Get Done

Thu, 30 Jan 2025 11:39:00 +0000

Author: Bent Flyvbjerg, Dan Gardner Rating: 4/5 Finished: January 29, 2025

I wrote about this book in Book notes: How Big Things Get Done by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner .

Allmen und die Dahlien