From the disheveled desk of Nathan Bak

2024 was a good year for reading. There were various things in 2024 that weren’t so good, but it was a good year for reading. I read all or part of various series including The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Mistborn, Jeeves and Wooster, and The Saga of Recluce. One series my daughter threw my way was “The Naturals”.

I’m probably not the target audience for The Naturals, but my daughter is and I don’t dislike her and am curious as to what she reads and enjoys. I consider the week of reading time spent to consume the four books in the series to have been enjoyable. Despite the somewhat predictable and formulaic narrative, it was a nice detour from the more intense and attention-requiring Malazan books.

So in 2023 I read read 48 books. I completed 72 books in 2024 (see table below for the titles the dates I finished reading each book). So far 2025 has been a better year overall, but not in terms of books read. But of course, 2024 was a good year for reading . . .

01/01/24	The Bonehunters: Book Six of The Malazan Book of the Fallen
01/06/24	Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II’s Greatest Rescue Mission
01/07/24	A Stroke of the Pen: The Lost Stories
01/17/24	Reaper’s Gale: Book Seven of The Malazan Book of the Fallen
01/20/24	The Lost Metal: A Mistborn Novel (The Mistborn Saga Book 7)
01/22/24	Jeeves in the Offing
02/04/24	Toll the Hounds: Book Eight of The Malazan Book of the Fallen
02/07/24	The Sunlit Man: A Cosmere Novel (Secret Projects Book 4)
02/19/24	Dust of Dreams: Book Nine of The Malazan Book of the Fallen
02/20/24	The Naturals (The Naturals, 1)
02/22/24	Killer Instinct (The Naturals, 2)
02/23/24	All In (The Naturals, 3)
02/24/24	Bad Blood (The Naturals, 4)
02/26/24	When I Whistle
02/28/24	Sputnik Sweetheart
03/18/24	The Crippled God: Book Ten of The Malazan Book of the Fallen
03/19/24	The Kamogawa Food Detectives
03/31/24	Chinese Fairy Tales and Legends
04/03/24	Japanese Folktales: Classic Stories from Japan’s Enchanted Past
04/05/24	Data Pipelines Pocket Reference: Moving and Processing Data for Analytics
04/12/24	Deciphering Data Architectures: Choosing Between a Modern Data Warehouse, Data Fabric, Data Lakehouse, and Data Mesh
04/14/24	The Color of Magic: A Discworld Novel
04/18/24	The Light Fantastic: A Novel of Discworld
04/23/24	Equal Rites: A Discworld Novel
04/24/24	Cost-Effective Data Pipelines: Balancing Trade-Offs When Developing Pipelines in the Cloud
04/27/24	Mort: A Discworld Novel
04/30/24	Sourcery: A Discworld Novel
05/04/24	The Magic of Recluce (Saga of Recluce Book 1)
05/07/24	The Towers of the Sunset (Saga of Recluce Book 2)
05/11/24	The Magic Engineer (Saga of Recluce Book 3)
05/15/24	The Order War (Saga of Recluce Book 4)
05/26/24	The Death of Chaos (Saga of Recluce Book 5)
06/01/24	Fall of Angels (Saga of Recluce Book 6)
06/06/24	The Chaos Balance (Saga of Recluce Book 7)
06/11/24	The White Order (Saga of Recluce Book 8)
06/18/24	Colors of Chaos (Saga of Recluce Book 9)
06/23/24	Magi’i of Cyador (Saga of Recluce Book 10)
06/24/24	Go for DevOps
06/30/24	Scion of Cyador (Saga of Recluce Book 11)
07/07/24	The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
07/10/24	Wellspring of Chaos (Saga of Recluce Book 12)
07/13/24	Ordermaster (Saga of Recluce Book 13)
07/14/24	Natural Ordermage (Saga of Recluce Book 14)
07/17/24	Mage-Guard of Hamor (Saga of Recluce Book 15)
07/21/24	Arms-Commander (Saga of Recluce Book 16)
07/24/24	Cyador’s Heirs (Saga of Recluce Book 17)
07/28/24	Heritage of Cyador (Saga of Recluce Book 18)
08/05/24	The Mongrel Mage (Saga of Recluce Book 19)
08/07/24	The Power of Truth: Individual Problems and Possibilities
08/11/24	Outcasts of Order (Saga of Recluce Book 20)
08/14/24	The Mage-Fire War (Saga of Recluce Book 21)
08/17/24	Fairhaven Rising (Saga of Recluce Book 22)
08/19/24	Annihilation: A Novel (Southern Reach Book 1)
08/23/24	Authority: A Novel (Southern Reach Book 2)
08/31/24	Acceptance: A Novel (Southern Reach Book 3)
09/06/24	Borne: A Novel
09/08/24	The Strange Bird: A Borne Story
09/17/24	Dead Astronauts: A Novel (Borne Book 2)
09/22/24	The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Volume 1: Charmed Life / The Lives of Christopher Chant
09/29/24	The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Vol. II: The Magicians of Caprona and Witch Week The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Vol. II: The Magicians of Caprona and Witch Week
10/09/24	The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Vol. III: Conrad’s Fate and The Pinhoe Egg
10/14/24	The Librarians and The Lost Lamp (The Librarians, 1)
10/21/24	The Blade Itself (The First Law Trilogy Book 1)
10/31/24	Before They Are Hanged (The First Law Trilogy, 2)
11/11/24	Last Argument of Kings (First Law Trilogy Book 3)
11/21/24	Best Served Cold
12/12/24	The Heroes
12/14/24	Kaiju Preservation Society
12/16/24	Old Man’s War (Old Man’s War, 1)
12/20/24	The Ghost Brigades (Old Man’s War, 2)
12/22/24	The Last Colony (Old Man’s War, 3)
12/24/24	Zoe’s Tale: An Old Man’s War Novel (Old Man’s War, 4)

P. G. Wodehouse has long been an appreciated author in my home and in particular his Jeeves and Wooster books (and also the television series based on those characters and their adventures). The various Wooster-ish hi-jinks are always amusing and the superhero Jeeves savings the day is always satisfying.

Some years ago, I started purchasing early editions of Jeeves and Wooster books as presents for my Wife. I originally tried first editions, but found those, for the most part, to be prohibitively expansive and difficult to obtain (although I have found a couple including a first edition of the Italian translation of The Inimitable Jeeves). So we now have a mismatched but memorable collection.

Most recently, for our Silver Anniversary, I purchased a silver cow creamer (although it’s Modern Dutch which was hundreds of dollars cheaper than some silver cow creamers). I also purchased a first edition (but probably not first printing) of Jeeves in the Offing. And since I knew my Wife and I would both want to read it while lounging in bed or eating snacks, I also purchased a cheap, used paperback of Jeeves in the Offing.

As I find myself reading more ebooks, I sometimes am annoyed when reading a “real” book and realize that I can’t just tap a word I don’t know to get a definition or when I accidentally crease a page. Also, in a house already full of full bookshelves, digital storage of hundreds of books is certainly space-efficient. But still, I enjoy the tangible aspects of flipping through the pages of a book and somehow find the pace more relaxing. In addition, I quite enjoy the smell of new books and also the smell of old books.

And when the tangible book is associated with a memory of a person or experience or event, that makes the book extra special. Each of the “old” books in our Jeeves and Wooster collection was carefully researched online and thoughtfully purchased. Each book also contains quotes that are now verbalized in public while being shared as a private joke. While the words in each book may be available in a variety of formats, the books themselves now represent something more.

Do books matter? Yes! At least some do. Our Jeeves and Wooster books matter. I may thoroughly enjoy zipping through a dozen ebooks purchased as a bundle and appreciate the stories and literary value and other aspects, but don’t think I’ll become as connected as I do to actual books. And if I ever do feel *that* strongly about an ebook, I’d almost certainly purchase a physical copy–a first edition if I could afford it.

I think Upton Sinclair’s novel is one of the most misunderstood novels. Published in novel form in 1906, it was intended to be a sort of communist manifesto to inspire the working man to band together. Instead, it inspired significant changes in the US meat processing/packing industry. This post is not about The Jungle.

Half a century later, in 1957, Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged was published. From a literary perspective, beyond the obvious moral commentary, the writing contains elements of adventure, mystery, romance, and science fiction which makes it tricky to be placed in a bucket with similar. But the underlying message is generally understood.

To say that Atlas Shrugged is a thinly veiled promotion of capitalism, liberalism, and similar “isms” is being generous in suggesting any sort of subtlety, but that’s not to say that is not an enjoyable read. Like many pieces of literature, Atlas Shrugged can be read in multiple ways, but I think most people read it in one of two ways. First, it can be read as a tract proselytizing the various philosophies, ideals, etc. being exemplified in the text. Alternatively, the reader can skim over the lengthy monologues by the various characters and instead just focus on the engaging narrative. The choice is up to the reader and there isn’t necessarily a “right” way.

As a note of personal history, the specific two-volume set published by Easton Press shown above was acquired as an anniversary present. Similar volumes spotted in a locked cabinet at https://www.powells.com for an exorbitant amount in mid September, it took a few months of online searching (and a failed attempt when received in a less-appealing burgundy binding) to obtain the tomes at a reasonable price.

In my mind, I always compare The Jungle and Atlas Shrugged because there are so many ways they are similar and different. For example, both were trying to promote certain ideologies (albeit very different ones). Both are reasonably well-written and engaging stories. Also, for a long time, paperback copies of both were on the same shelf in my office. But this post is not about The Jungle . . .

Like many children, I was exposed to Alice and Wonderland and many other fantastical creations of Louis Carroll via book and screen. I found the stories palatable but not among my favorites. It was not until I was a bit older that I began to better appreciate the cleverness behind much of the writing

During my junior year of high school I encountered Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter. The book interweaves math, art, and music in a study of cognition and, to my delight, alternating chapters were written in a Louis Carroll-ish style using curious creatures engaging in odd activities and conversation to depict various theory. Gödel, Escher, Bach influenced me in a variety of ways, but germane to this post was it made me reevaluate actual Louis Carroll texts.

The next year I wrote my Senior Paper about the logic in the writings of Lewis Carroll. I learned that “Lewis Carroll” was actually a pen name for logician and mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Within his various “children’s” stories are representations of and allusions to many different logical concepts and I excitedly delved into different occurrences. The story didn’t matter as much as the concepts behind the story.

Years after that, while studying literature as both an undergrad and graduate student, I revisited some Lewis Carroll texts. This time I was focused on his word usage and structures. Sometimes in invented new words. Sometimes he deliberately misused words. Sometimes he embedded different poetic structures into texts. I generally refrain from diving too deeply into this sort of realm, but nevertheless found that just beneath the layer of silliness was a significant depth.

Originally I thought Lewis Carroll to be a writer for children. Later I thought Charles Dodgson to be representing math and logic. After that I found him to be careful crafter of clever and cryptic composition. Sometimes I wonder if I infer more that was intended by by the author, but perhaps that doesn’t really matter. In the words of Lewis/Charles: “Words mean more than we mean to express when we use them: so a whole book ought to mean a great deal more than the writer meant.”