Bruno Lauwers

Readinglist 2022

As we kicked off the new year and we look forward to what it’s going to bring, I thought I’d share one of my plans for this year. In this post I’d like to share my reading list for 2022. Consider it as me sharing my New Year’s Resolution with you.

The list contains a mix of fiction and non-fiction, of old books and more recent ones, and of classic texts as well as sci-fi novels. Although there’s a couple big projects on there, I feel confident in being able to finish this list (and maybe some extra ones) this year. In December I’ll look back on it and write a review on the selection.

And now without further ado, the list:

The Black Swan - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

This book has been on my list for more than a year already but I still haven’t gotten to it. This will finally be the year I’ll pick it up. The book covers the idea of very unlikely events happening (these so called Black Swans) and how systems and organisations are vulnerable for these events. As this book has been recommended to me multiple times and I’ve heard about it in multiple podcasts, expectations are high.

Algorithms to live by - Brian Christian & Tom Griffiths

In all honesty, I don’t know a lot about this book. It was recommended to me by a colleague and it sounds intriguing. The idea of applying a bit of computer science to every day problems sounds very clever and insightful. I’m curious to give it a go!

The Intelligent Investor - Benjamin Graham

As putting all your money in your savings account doesn’t really cut it anymore and I started working on my own business last year, I’ve started to learn more about investing. Although the best way to learn is to do, this book got recommended to me to improve my basic knowledge of the stock market. Although it’s been a while since this book came out (1949), this is a timeless classic that I’d like to tackle this year.

Ready Player Two - Ernest Cline

I was in so much doubt if I would put this title on my list. I really enjoyed reading Ready Player One (unlike watching the movie to be honest) a couple years back and I’m kind of excited to read the next part. But I’m a bit hesitant. Somewhere in the back of my mind I just know that I’m going to be disappointed by this book. I do want to give it a fair chance though, so we’ll see how this goes.

The Divine Comedy - Dante Alighieri

By far the oldest book on the list. I’ve been meaning to read this classic for a long time. And in all honesty; I think I’ve started reading it at least five times before. But every time I started, I forgot about it for a while and I had to start all over again. This year is going to be the year I’m finishing my project.

Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir

The latest book by Andy Weir, who also wrote The Martian and Artemis. This book is another one on the list that would fall in the sci-fi category. Interesting, as I wouldn’t consider myself a sci-fi connoiseur at all. I guess there’s just a lot of promising books out there at the moment.

The Elements of Computing Systems - Noam Nisan and Shimon Shocken

I got interested in this book after watching the TED talk by Shimon Shocken about their course “From NAND to Tetris”. Working through this book, the reader gets an idea of how computers work from first principles. Although I think getting through this book might take a while, I’m really looking forward to all the learnings this book contains.

Supermarket - Bobby Hall

A thriller by one of my favorite musical artists: Logic. Although I’m not completely sure what to expect from this one, I just really hope it’s any good.

The Every - Dave Eggers

A follow up on The Circle, a book that I really enjoyed reading. Although maybe enjoying isn’t the right word. It felt painfully close to our current reality of how social media can harm our society. I hope the Every will live up to the hype and be as intriguing as its predecessor.