No. 79 - Summer books : Antique book patterns : Centripetal / Centrifugal

My name is Linda. I write a bi-weekly newsletter about computer science, childhood, and culture.

I love summer book lists season (2023! 2022!). All of a sudden, it is okay and even encouraged to discuss and compare lists of things to read, much like a rundown for Christmas. My favorite lists are recommendations from the Financial Times and Guardian. Lithub runs a list of all the lists.

Publishers always talk about new books in the fall, culminating in the Christmas season, but for me, the greatest joy is summer reading. It’s also a chance to plan fall reading ( - reading diet has too much fiction, too few new authors).

Instead of a list, I decided to do a matrix. Inspired by McNally Jackson’s Summer Reading Matrix and influenced by Rufi Thorpe’s judging rubric (delightful!) I hesitated between a few different axes. What if I mapped my reading year 2024 so far according to:

• Quiet / Loud

• Communal / Solo

• Centripetal / Centrifugal

• Feeling / Thinking

• Strange vibes / Canonical vibes

What kind of groups of recommendations would emerge? This year’s summer recommendations look at books that have sparked my interest in other books (centrifugal) and books often recommended by other books (centripetal). On the X-axis, I chose books that offer insights and books that evoke strange vibes. Still wishing book discovery looked more like this and hoping one day there will be software to whisk out manyfold matrices to find the perfect books.

Summer recs 2024

• In a Flight of Starlings: The Wonder of Complex Systems by Giorgio Parisi

• How Infrastructure Works: Inside the Systems That Shape Our World by Deb Chachra

• In Praise of Shadows by Jun’ichirō Tanizaki

• Literary Theory for Robots: How Computers Learned to Write by Dennis Yi Tenen

• Journeys by Stefan Zweig

• Moonbound by Robin Sloan

• Swimming in Paris by Colombe Schneck

• Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe

• The Garden Against Time by Olivia Laing

• The Membranes by Chi Ta-wei

• Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe

• Reproduction by Louisa Hall

• Through the Children’s Gate: A Home in New York by Adam Gopnik

All books read in 2024

(Some linked books lead to Bookshop.org, and I earn a small commission each time someone uses the link to purchase a book.)

January

• You Are Not Expected to Understand This: How 26 Lines of Code Changed the World by Torie Bosch et co. Lovely essays on computer science.

• The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrel

• Journeys by Stefan Zweig. Zweig is forever my favorite.

• A Dying Breed by Peter Hanington

• Rakennenautintoja by Selja Ahava & Emma Puikkonen. This was wonderful.

• In a Flight of Starlings: The Wonder of Complex Systems by Giorgio Parisi

• How Infrastructure Works: Inside the Systems That Shape Our World by Deb Chachra. I liked this a lot!

• Edith Södergran : Elämä by Agneta Rahikainen

• In Praise of Shadows by Jun’ichirō Tanizaki. Still think about this book almost weekly.

• The Moonday Letters by Emmi Itäranta

• In the Distance by Hernan Diaz

February

• Hajonneen maailman käyttöohje by Ville-Juhani Sutinen

• Oranges by John McPhee. Wrote about this!

• The Secret Lives of Numbers: A Hidden History of Math’s Unsung Trailblazers by Kate Kitagawa and Timothy Revell

• Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum

• Babel, or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution by R.F. Kuang

• Sydänhämärä by Harry Salmenniemi

March

• Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

• Wool by Hugh Howey

• Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik. I ended up reading three books from Gopnik. Love his style. (Alison Gopnik, his sister, also kept recurring in my reading)

• Literary Theory for Robots: How Computers Learned to Write by Dennis Yi Tenen. Wrote about this.

• Shift by Hugh Howey

• Dust by Hugh Howey

• Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton

April

• Wellness by Nathan Hill

• Liv! by Helmi Kekkonen

• Hyeenan päivät by Saara Turunen

• Äidin oma by Pihla Hintikka

• Impossible City: Paris in the Twenty-First Century by Simon Kuper

• Rakas Eeva Kilpi. Nämä juhlat jatkuvat vielä by Anna-Riikka Carlson

• Rouva C. by Minna Rytisalo

• Through the Children’s Gate: A Home in New York by Adam Gopnik

• Tappio tai kuolema by Tuukka Sandström

• Reproduction by Louisa Hall. One of my favorites of the year.

• Marijan rakkaus by Joel Haahtela

• You Are Here by David Nicholls

May

• The Garden Against Time by Olivia Laing

• The Membranes by Chi Ta-wei

• Sellainen mies by Erkka Mykkänen

• Clock Dance by Anne Tyler

• A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis

June

• Brave New Words: How AI Will Revolutionize Education by Salman Khan

• Long Island by Colm Tóibín

• Our Share of Night by Mariana Enríquez

• Moonbound by Robin Sloan. Loved this! (And especially the mini site.)

• Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton

• Swimming in Paris by Colombe Schneck. This was wonderful - I’ll try reading more Schneck, maybe in French next time..

• All Fours by Miranda July

• Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe

Linked List

In computer science, a linked list is a linear collection of data elements whose order is not given by their physical placement in memory. But here it is a selection of things I’ve been reading lately.

• Antique book patterns. A collection of antique book patterns from front or endpapers. Spanning from 1890-1930. Ordered by theme.

• Teaching my three-year-old to read. I've been skimming through a few of these guides and find them fascinating. Early reading is unimportant to me, but the guides are a great reminder of children's capabilities.

• All websites should have a bookshelf. Here are a few favorites: Kasey Klimes, Edmundo Santos, Jenny Offill, and Max Bittker.