Books Read 2026

The Epic of Gilgamesh, he who has seen all things. I suppose the most surprising thing here is that it's actually good. It'a story thousand of years old and it's genuinely touching to read. The deep friendship between two men, Gilgamesh and Enkidu. Lust and women as the civilizing power. The (vain) quest for immortality and the typical flood myth. There's a wealth of narrative in here that goes beyond the gravity of this being simply the oldest work we have. I cannot recommend it enough and, more than that, recommend watching a few lectures on it afterwards. Andrew George has a few, as does Irving Finkle.

This one's a short story about two people aboard a sentient ship, on their way to explore some cosmical anomaly known as "julia". Replete with imagery and references there's a good ROI in looking things up here; Croesus, Aristagoras, Thetis. The computer which narrates it speaks like someone whose ingested all books. Reminded me of Solaris in the best of ways.

I suppose in some sense I'm afraid of agreeing with this book. It leaves me with a similar feeling as having read some Graeber during highschool, where I agree with most of the observations but just don't really find the offered solutions, or the cause of the observations to be particularly compelling. Fisher argues the typical point, that we cannot imagine a world that is non capitalistic, that we are so stuck in the current system it is the only lens through which we can view things. We are suspended in it, and thus cannot find a target to strike at. I'd say that it has never been any different in advanced societies, while the killing of Atahualpa was enough to end the Incas, even the restless guillotining in revolutionary france didn't end absolutism for very long.

The only powerful agents influencing politicians and managers in education are business interests. It's become far too easy to ignore workers and, partly because of this, workers feel increasingly helpless and impotent. The concerted attack on unions by neoliberal interest groups, together with the shift from a Fordist to a post-Fordist organisation of the economy – the move towards casualisation, just-in-time production, globalization – has eroded the power base of unions.

Similarly I'd disagree with this point. The merchant class is in essence powerless. Think of the billionaries in silicon valley unable to even prevent taxation in their district. He's right however that no one is going to help the workers, but I find it difficult to compare a google engineer making 300k/y with a coal worker durig Marx' time.

This is the first book I read in the new year, and my what a choice. I picked this up not out of some great desire for reading more christian apologetics, but mostly because of chesterton himself. Thus far I'd read a tidbit here and a quote there, but no proper book of his. It must be remarked here, that the prose is truly unlike anything I've seen in a long time. It flows and echoes in your mind as if someone was reading it alloud. I will not comment much on the christian apologetics, but that is not the best way to read this book. It's best parts are the start, before Chesterton looses himself in mysticism. I shall learn by heart that passage on troy and rome, plutarch's great triumph to

It's not a long book, and sorta self help slop a majority of the time, but it boils down to a few central theses. It is the pride and the excellence you put into your work that ultimately matters. There are few who still aspire to that excellence, and even fewer environments where that excellence can be applied. Attempt to find those. Or, barring that , create them. No tools ere too simple.