Top 10 Books I Read in 2023

date

Feb 11, 2024

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top-10-books-2023

author

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Public

Zero to One — Peter Thiel

This is one of the best books I have ever read. I used to dislike people describing themselves as “entrepreneurs”. But going on NOC, an entrepreneurship program, encouraged me to read more about startups. And Zero to One, together with Guy Kawasaki’s books, completely changed my view about entrepreneurship.

As one of the most successful tech founders and investors, Peter Thiel shares his philosophies, insights, and suggestions on startups and how to build the future. There are certain things that I did not agree with the first time reading the book, such as “competition is for losers,…, look to build a monopoly”. However, the more I engaged with startups and venture capitalists, the more I understood his view.

Even if you are not engaged in the startup world, give this book a try.

Les Miserables — Victor Hugo

I was planning to learn more about French literature before coming to Paris for a 6-month internship, and Victor Hugo was at the top of my mind as the first French author to read. Nonetheless, I only finished Les Miserables after coming back to Singapore.

I don’t need to say too much about this book as it was considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. Apart from the main storyline, a detailed description of the Waterloo (though may not be accurate) surprised me a lot. Although there are certain parts of the book that I couldn’t understand fully, the time and effort I put into reading this book is completely worth it.

Becoming — Michelle Obama

With Becoming, Michelle Obama invites readers into her journey from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years in the White House as the First Lady of the United States. Through personal anecdotes, she reflects on her experiences, triumphs, and challenges, bringing valuable insights into identity, family, and public service.

The book helped me understand more about not only Michelle but also her husband, Barack, and how they together have gone through the ups and downs in their political career. I was deeply impressed by the support Michelle gave to her husband, the choices she made, and her efforts to promote education, health, and empowerment for women and girls around the world. Because of this book, A Promised Land by Barack will be on my reading list for 2024.

Wise Guy: Lessons from a Life — Guy Kawasaki

I knew Guy Kawasaki via his talk about The Top 10 Mistakes of Entrepreneurs and went searching for his books right after watching the video. Humble, direct, funny, and full of wisdom, Wise Guy: Lessons from a Life offers the stories and invaluable insights from Kawasaki’s own experience as an evangelist, venture capitalist, and entrepreneur.

With a straightforward and approachable writing style, Kawasaki emphasizes the importance of finding balance in all aspects of life — from work and relationships to health and personal growth. I’m not a big fan of self-help books, but the way the lessons are delivered, although sometimes too simplistic, resonates with me a lot. Kawasaki successfully reminds people, especially the young generation, to live a life with purpose, passion, and integrity.

Guns, Germs, and Steel — Jared Diamond

I read another book by Jared Diamond Collapse, where he presented one simple idea of how societies fall across history and spent a few hundred pages proving it with evidence, some he collected himself, and was totally convinced by it. He did the same thing with Guns, Germs, and Steel, which won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction.

From the emergence of agriculture to the rise of civilizations, Diamond explains to us the deep-rooted causes behind the uneven distribution of wealth, power, and technological advancement across societies, which is the differences in geographic environment. The book brings a holistic and interdisciplinary approach to understanding human history, with evidence from anthropology, archaeology, biology, to ecology. If you are interested in painting a big picture about the history of humankind and how societies were shaped, this book is definitely for you.

Animal Farm — George Orwell

Literally a masterpiece. Written by George Orwell, Animal Farm offers a powerful allegorical narrative that remains as relevant today as it was when first published in 1945. Because of its controversial view about society, the book was banned in many countries (including Vietnam) for a long time.

I had so much fun reading it, and I hope I would have read it slower (the book just takes about 2 hours to finish). What makes Animal Farm truly remarkable is its ability to resonate with different types of readers. On the surface, it’s just a story about a group of animals who rebel against humans and become their own masters. Yet, it serves as a critique of the corrupting influence of power, totalitarianism, and the dangers of sacrificing freedom for the illusion of security. This book will always have a place even when the shape of society changes for generations to come.

1984 — George Orwell

Another outstanding work by George Orwell. Written in a darker theme than Animal Farm, 1984 is a depiction of a society ruled by omnipresent surveillance, thought control, and manipulation.

Set in the fictional superstate of Oceania, the book follows Winston Smith, a disillusioned citizen who challenges the oppressive regime of the Party led by Big Brother. As Winston navigates the bureaucracy of the Party and grapples with his inner rebellion, Orwell paints a vivid portrait of a world where truth is subjective, dissent is swiftly crushed, and history is rewritten.

Designing Machine Learning Systems — Chip Huyen

Last year, I spent more time reading and got more comfortable with technical books, and Designing Machine Learning Systems by Chip Huyen was one of the first technical books that I read from cover to cover.

While machine learning (ML) courses (either at universities or on MOOC platforms) normally focus on teaching ML theories and how to build models, there is a lack of guidance on how to bring the models to production and continuously monitor and update the model in the production stage. Chip’s book fills this gap by offering a holistic approach to designing ML systems that are scalable, reliable, maintainable, and adaptive to changing environments and business requirements. From data engineering and model development to detecting data drift and toolings for MLOps, you will learn a ton of things from this book

Designing Data-Intensive Applications — Martin Kleppmann

Designing Data-Intensive Applications by Martin Kleppmann is an indispensable resource for any software engineer who designs and builds modern software systems. I did not finish this book, not because I did not like it but because some of the chapters were too advanced for me.

The book discusses a wide range of topics, including data modeling, storage engines, distributed systems, stream and batch processing, etc. Kleppmann provides clear explanations of complex concepts, backed by real-world examples and case studies that illustrate how these principles are applied in practice. This will be my bedside book for many years to come.

High Performance Python — Ian Ozsvald and Micha Gorelick

This was the book that I had been looking for for a long time. While it’s easy to find resources that cover basic Python, diving into advanced concepts is challenging since not many people write about it. High Performance Python by Micha Gorelick and Ian Ozsvald is a comprehensive and practical guide for Python developers looking to optimize the performance and resource utilization of their programs.

One of the biggest strengths of this book is its hands-on approach. The authors provide a clear explanation of performance bottlenecks and how to address them with concrete code snippets. Various concepts (built-in data structures, multiprocessing, distributed systems,…), techniques (performance profiling, compiling to C,…), and tools (Cython, Numba, Docker…) are covered in detail. If you work with Python day-to-day, this book would be an indispensable resource in your toolkit.

Honorable mention: Effective Python — Brett Slatkin, The Google Resume — Gayle Laakmann McDowell