As I mentioned last year, I went years without reading a book. I’d still read — Twitter, Reddit, blogs, newspapers, etc — but didn’t finish a book. That was a mistake. There’s something special about sitting down with genuinely long-form content, especially content that is much less reactionary than what we consume online.
In 2023, I read 47 books. I mostly chose these based off of recommendations (primarily from in-person conversations), and keep a running list of books that I may want to read next. The recommendations I get are (normally) good, and it’s fun to be able tie a book to how you first heard of it. Given I rely so much on other people’s picks, I thought it’d be helpful for me to share my own.
I mostly read non-fiction. These are books that were new to me in 2023, so plenty of them are years (or even decades) old. I’ve highlighted five books were lesser known to me (e.g no cultural phenomenons or TV/Movie adaptations) that I particularly liked. Beyond that, I’m going to avoid including authors, blurbs, or my own personal thoughts. That’s partially laziness, but partially because it’s fun to pick books just off titles. It can also lead to happy accidents (like when I read two great books called “Last Call” since that is all I wrote down, and I wasn’t sure which one it was)
My Five Picks
Hotel Splendide
Brutalities: A Love Story
American Roulette: How I Turned the Odds Upside Down---My Wild Twenty-Five-Year Ride Ripping Off the World's Casinos
Among the Thugs
Up in the Old Hotel: Reportage from "the New Yorker"
The Rest
Bullshit Jobs: A Theory
To the One I Love the Best
How to Murder Your Life: A Memoir
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them
Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon
The Cap: How Larry Fleisher and David Stern Built the Modern NBA
Gambler: Secrets from a Life at Risk
What Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures of a Curious Character
Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President
Manhattan Cult Story: My Unbelievable True Story of Sex, Crimes, Chaos, and Survival
Casino-ology: The Art of Managing Casino Games
Heat: An Amateur Cook in a Professional Kitchen
The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood's Kings of Carnage
Billionaires' Row: Tycoons, High Rollers, and the Epic Race to Build the World's Most Exclusive Skyscrapers
The Boys on the Bus
Stoned: Jewelry, Obsession, and How Desire Shapes the World
The White House Plumbers: The Seven Weeks That Led to Watergate and Doomed Nixon's Presidency
Whitey's Payback: And Other True Stories: Gangsterism, Murder, Corruption, and Revenge
Dealt: Stories from My Life on the Felt
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
Eli and the Octopus: The CEO Who Tried to Reform One of the World's Most Notorious Corporations
Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream
Happy at Any Cost: The Revolutionary Vision and Fatal Quest of Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh
Unscripted: The Epic Battle for a Media Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy
The Dispossessed
Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition
Last Call: A True Story of Love, Lust, and Murder in Queer New York
How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
Boundless: The Rise, Fall, and Escape of Carlos Ghosn
St. Marks Is Dead: The Many Lives of America's Hippest Street
Money Men: A Hot Startup, A Billion Dollar Fraud, A Fight for the Truth
Then One Year...: History's Craziest Year as Seen by a Las Vegas Bookmaker
Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York
The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art
Barnum
Freedom
Read any of these? Have any more recommendations? Please send thoughts and new book recs my way!