January Round Up
Some quick notes on what I've been reading, listening to, and watching in January 2024
When I started this here Substack I did a round up post every week of what I’ve been into. In 2024 I’m switching that to a monthly round up. Here’s the first.
Books and Graphic Novels
I only finished two books this month, one of which was an incredible After the Ice, an idiosyncratic, at times down right odd, overview of humans expansion across the globe in the years after the last Ice Age and before the development of large scale agriculture and complex societies. Perhaps a bit more detail than a layman like I need, but fascinating throughout. Recommended.
I also read Damascus Station in the span of a couple of days. Absolutely first rate espionage novel set during the worst days of the Syrian civil war. This isn’t high literature, but it’s absolutely engaging. The love story can feel a bit trite, but the secondary characters are wonderfully done. I’d read a whole book about Proctor, the unhinged head of Damascus Station. Maybe I’ll get that chance as this is the first in a series apparently. Recommended for the enthusiast.
Right now, I’m deep into Before the Dawn about the earliest humans. Noticing a patter here? We’re dipping our toes into what might end up being my most unhinged multi-year reading project yet. A decade or so of reading my way through the history o the world. Maybe more on this later, unless I come to my senses.
Against my better judgement I’ve also jumped back into the world of comic books and graphic novels, something that absolutely obsessed me as a young teenager and I’ve sort of kept an eye on ever since. I started with the first three volumes of Greg Rucka’s Lazarus series, which is just great fun. There will be many more of these in my future.
Podcasts and such.
Probably the best single episode of a podcast I heard this month was Tyler Cowen on a podcast called “How Do You Use ChatGPT” a really thoughtful discussion on how smart people can use LLMs to get smarter and how they are already changing rhe world. This helped me up my own value from using ChatGPT and gave me a lot to think about in how AI is going to shape my career and those of my children. Good stuff.
I’m late to the party, but as a middle age dad, I’ve finally fallen in love with the Rest is History, the ultimate dad history podcast and am working my way through all the back episodes. I find myself less and less interested in news podcasts and more and more interested in podcasts about history and ideas. This si probably a good thing in a election year.