Another year where my technical content consumption outpaced the non-technical, and as a result, as usually happens, I’ve been feeling a lack of inspiration in my technical work. I strongly believe that if you do anything with code, you should be reading more fiction than non-fiction. Hoping to break that chain next year!In writing these up, Ialso realized that most of these books are also not happy or easy books to read. I generally struggle through serious books, but all of these were enormously important for me this year.I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman - We are placed in a surreal, alien world, where there are no men. An unnamed narrator lives in a prison cell, surrounded only by women and their memories of the outside, the life before they were abducted and taken to the prison.
The book chronicles their escape and life on the alien planet, but it’s less about the plot and more about the philosophy of what it means to live in a society. I was deeply moved after I finished the book and had many more questions than answers.Chess Story by Stefan Zweig - This short story can be read in one sitting. I strongly recommend this edition of the book, it is beautiful and makes you feel like you’re reading real literature. It is about a chess master on a ship who encounters a passenger who plays chess as well as him. The reason why this rando is so good at chess turns out to be extremely sad and important. The writing is clear and the plot moves with enormous speed. Like with “I Who Have Never Known Men”, this book made me think less about the events of the book and more about what our role is in society as free, thinking human beings.I Love Russia: Reporting from a Lost Country by Elena Kostyuchenko - I read this book when it was released by Meduza, and I’m so happy there’s now a translation. Since then, the book has been featured on a bunch of best-of lists in English.
