Reading

These are most of the books that I have read since March of 2019 when I got my Kindle. This page is supposed to be a backup/replacement of my Goodreads profile.

For some books, I decided not to review & rate them publicly here but I still add them manually without a review so the book count is still correct.

Reading stats

Total books: 62
Average rating: 3.89

2023:
2022:
2021:
2020:
2019:



2022

All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)
Martha Wells (2017)
★★★★☆

This book is written from the perspective of a security bot (in a science fiction setting) which managed to become independent. The book follows its thoughts now that it has to deal with social awkwardness, its pessimistic worldview and the human clients on whose mission it has to protect them.

Murderbot has such a fun personality, constantly complaining about not being able to spend its time watching entertainment shows and trying avoiding any interaction with humans.

Really cute concept & it’s overall a lighthearted & very short book so it was easy to finish. I’ll probably give the other books in the series a shot! Would definitely recommend it!

Finished: May 2022



Lessons in Stoicism: What Ancient Philosophers Teach Us about How to Live
John Sellars (2019)
★★★★☆

After reading “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius I wanted to read another book on Stoicism. I found this one by John Sellars to be super interesting.

It gives an overview and a basic introduction to the history & the main ideas in Stoicism, clears up some misconceptions that people might have about this philosophy and then describes how the most important stoics came up with their ideas and how we can apply them in our daily lives.

I’d definitely recommend this book to anyone trying to learn more about Stoicism, I actually wish that I had read it before starting with “Meditations”.

Finished: April 2022



Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? Big Questions from Tiny Mortals About Death
Caitlin Doughty (2019)
★★★★☆

Another non-fiction book! Fairly short book by a mortician that answers weird questions asked by kids about death in a fun way. Despite the obviously pretty morbid & depressing topic the book is overall very light-hearted and fun.

There were definitely some very interesting bits of information in this book and I’d overall recommend it to anyone interested in this topic.

Finished: April 2022



The Old Man and the Sea
Ernest Hemingway (1952)
★★★☆☆

My first book by Ernest Hemingway. Overall I thought it was okay, definitely a fairly slow read - not necessarily boring but the roughly 80-90 pages felt longer than they actually were.

The story is about an old man and his struggle while trying to catch & bring back home a big Marlin fish. It talks about his endurance, his stoicism and eventually the futility of his effort. I liked the parts that show his relationship with the boy that takes care of him.

Hemingway’s writing style was actually pretty unremarkable for me reading it in 2022, but apparently it was pretty new and different back in the 1950s.

All in all, not blown away but I also don’t regret reading it either.

Finished: March 2022



The Dragon Reborn (The Wheel of Time, #3)
Robert Jordan (1991)
★★★★☆

Finally done with the third book in the Wheel Of Time series! This one actually took me quite a long time - I started reading it on November 7th of last year. Especially in the first second quarter of the book it got kind of slow in my opinion which made me take several breaks and read other short books in the meantime.

This is the first book so far that actually wasn’t focused primarily on Rand. The focus is mostly on Perrin + Thom (who is back again, wohoo) and Egwene + Nynaeve + Elayne. And we are introduced to a new character called Faile/Zarine, really liked her!

All in all I liked the book, my main criticism would be (as with the first book) the ending. We get around 700 pages of build-up and then the ending felt rushed again. I’m looking forward to the next one, apparently that one is one of the best in the series (not “The Dragon Reborn” as I assumed first, I mixed them up). But it’s over 1000 pages so it will take me quite a while :D

Finished: March 2022