This is a list of the best books I read this year, not a list of books published and read this year. As you can see, you won’t find many new releases on this list. I find getting outside of the current year often brings context and dimension to current events otherwise impossible to gain. As C.S. Lewis wrote, “Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths, and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct our characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books.”
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My top ten books read this year, in no particular order:
The Black Count by Tom Reiss
The Revolt of the Masses by Jose Ortega y Gasset
I Came as a Shadow: An Autobiography by John Thompson
The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi
The Language Hoax by John McWhorter
Stolen Focus by Johan Hari
Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
The Last Love Song by Tracy Daugherty
Proust and the Squid by Maryanne Wolf
The Social Life of Books by Abigail Williams
