Ten Books Read in 2024 (with reviews)

My 2024 “resolution” was to read ten books. It did not matter what genre or anything, but I had to read ten. I started the year on track (mostly while traveling), went through a few months without reading anything (was not traveling), and somehow managed to finish my tenth book on the afternoon of New Years Eve! Goal achieved.

I figured it would be good to wrap up this little experiment with a quick blurb on each book.

Books Read in 2024

1. How to Know a Person — David Brooks

2. The Comfort Crisis — Michael Easter

3. The Overcomers — Matt Chandler

4. The Future is Analog — David Sax

5. You Never Know — Tom Selleck

6. The Reason for God — Timothy Keller

7. Scarcity Brain — Michael Easter

8. The Thin Green Line — Paul Sullivan

9. The Anxious Generation — Jonathan Haidt

10. This Is So Awkward — Cara Natterson and Vanessa Kroll Bennett

How to Know a Person — David Brooks

This book was recommended by Bill Gates (whom I have found has consistently solid reading recommendations). My main takeaway from this book is that everyone wants to be heard and we as a society are terrible at listening, for a variety of reasons. This book encouraged me to see each person as an individual with a story complete with a unique set of triumphs and struggles that make them the human they are. It is easy to see people as just another driver on the road or the facilitator of purchasing goods or that our friends have everything put together and forget that we are all going through this messy thing called life.

The Comfort Crisis — Michael Easter

This book is at its best when it is focused on Michael’s adventure in the Arctic. He sprinkles in a bunch of facts and interviews (which were seemingly standalone articles at one point?) throughout. None of those are bad by any means but I got the most out of hearing about how humans learn to adapt and survive in adversity. He introduced me to the term misogi (doing something extremely hard just because it is hard) as a way of proving to yourself you can do something difficult and allowing your mindset to broaden as to what is possible. I liked this one enough, I picked up his other book later in the year…

The Overcomers — Matt Chandler

I will be honest, since I am doing these reviews from memory, I do not remember much from this book. As I went through this year, I found that through each book, I was lucky to get one or two tidbits that I retained long-term. The one tidbit from this book was around hospitality. I do not often think of hospitality as a “Christian” trait, but Matt makes the case that it is and that we should be intentional about consistently hanging out with others. I liked his example of having New Years parties with his friends where they always brought the best wine, meat, etc. over and celebrated together, without hurry.

The Future is Analog — David Sax

This book had the most influence on me this year. It convinced me that we all need less screen time, and that return-to-office is not such a bad thing. David Sax looked at every aspect of our lives (relationships, work, school, etc.) and did a deep dive into the effect technology has had. It was not always so black and white since there are many areas of life that are made better by digital technology, but he was keen to point out trade-offs. He did a lot of this through the lens of having just gone through Covid. This book challenged me to put down my phone and be present with my kids and wife. I am not always great at it, but I am now constantly cognizant of how easy it is to mindlessly look at my phone. David wrote a particularly impactful chapter on soul and his experience doing “digital sabbaths” with his family. The week after I read this chapter, I made my family take a hike with no phones. We all loved it and yet never did it again… and that is really the point of this book. Life needs balance and we must be intentional about balancing our analog life with our digital one.

You Never Know — Tom Selleck

I am known as a big Tom Selleck fan by my friends. I have seen every episode of Magnum P.I., most Blue Bloods episodes, and a host of his movies so I was excited when I heard this book was coming out. This memoir primarily focused on Tom’s beginning as an actor and his time in Hawaii during Magnum. I had heard some of the stories in it already (like when Frank Sinatra did Magnum or him being the first choice for Indiana Jones), but it was fun to read his take on things. Many of the actors and shows mentioned from his start in Hollywood were not recognizable to me (since they were 10+ years before I was born…) but I am convinced I need to sit down and watch “The Sackett’s” at some point.

The Reason for God — Timothy Keller

Timothy Keller did an excellent job making the case for God and why He exists in this book… if you can get through it. I do not say that to bash it by any means, but it is an extremely logical and thorough book clearly written for the highly educated New York congregation that he served. This one had been on my shelf for years and I am glad I finally read it. It did not set out to convince anyone about God as much as it did to ask questions and get the wheels spinning in one’s brain as it comes to one’s understanding of what/who God is.

Scarcity Brain — Michael Easter

I wanted to like this book more than I did after reading it. Unfortunately, I find myself still thinking the term “Scarcity Brain” was not the best banner to explore a few disjointed topics. I particularly enjoyed the chapter on slot machines and the psychology involved in that. That was fun to think through at a recent trip to a casino and I think the book would have been better if it had just been a book about the psychology of gambling.

The Thin Green Line — Paul Sullivan

Paul Sullivan looks at a variety of people and money topics in this book, consistently drawing a line between rich and wealthy (with the obvious goal of being wealthy). He makes a convincing case that being rich will not make anyone happy and success is not determined by money either. This is one of the books I read this year that I did not get a ton out of except for a tidbit or two. Basically, make wise decisions, recognize what is important in life, and focus on what matters (truly wealthy) rather than dollar amounts.

The Anxious Generation — Jonathan Haidt

This was a solidly researched book (another Bill Gates recommendation) that could have been about a quarter the length given its repetition throughout (but maybe that was needed to get the point across?). The bottom line upfront here though: keep kids (under 16) off social media. Haidt takes some clear tangents about raising “free range” kids but that main thing he kept repeating is that there are numerous examples and studies proving how harmful social media can be to a kid going through puberty. Kids’ brains have not developed enough yet and social media can cause so much damage, particularly for girls. He also makes a very valid point about how we overprotect our kids in “real life” and underprotect them online (for example: the minimum age for opening an account anywhere being 13).

This is So Awkward — Cara Natterson and Vanessa Kroll Bennett

The premise of this book is that puberty occurs earlier than ever in our kids and parents should understand what is going on. The authors delve into a host of related topics and try to make them approachable to parents. I liked the way they laid out the book — they presented a scientific overview of the topic at hand, address what has changed over the past couple decades, and then cover “how to talk about it” (along with an opinion article from a ~19–21-year-old). This book was at its best when covering science and what has changed. I was not a big fan of the “how to talk about it” sections but I think their hearts were in the right place and it offered a new perspective to me.

And there you have it — a quick writeup (from memory!) on all ten books I read this year. Thanks for reading!