War and Peace

In January I read 31 chapters of War and Peace, one per day. I am doing ‘A year of War and Peace’ with some people from work.

This is the first time that I read on a fixed schedule. It is difficult to stop after one chapter. It forces me to slow down.

Everyday I would like to read more. Instead of going further in the book, I go deeper in the chapter. I take notes, write in the book, and find related things online.

Some examples:

• The reddit thread from other people who are also reading the book, one chapter per day.

• The prologue from the Broadway musical Natasha, Pierre and The Great Comet of 1812: “It is a complicated Russian novel, everyone has 9 different names.”

• The first episode of the BBC War and Peace mini series.

• The Daniel Cooper dance:

• The tag #war and peace on Tumblr.

And many more. There is no shortage of War and Peace rabbit holes.

I. Asimov: A Memoir

This book is one of his autobiographies, and a little window into his mind. I really liked it, and I was sad when it ended.

It is inspiring how much he loved to write and how much he wrote. It amazed me how easy it was for him to speak in public, I wouldn’t mind having a bit of that.

He was definitely unique.

I read some of his books when I was a teenager, in Spanish. Asimov was very popular in Spain. I want to read them again in English.

Winter In Shokcho

A debut novel. I liked the atmosphere and the characters. Some descriptions are really intimate, as if we were watching but shouldn’t be there.

Effective TypeScript

This was a really good book that I recommend if you know a bit of TypesScript, want to get better at it, and like learning with books. I liked the approach: practical advice with examples. It explains very well the ‘why’. There is a GH repo with the examples.

And that was it for the month of January.

Currently I am reading:

• War and Peace
• Les déracinés
• Driven to Distraction
• The Muse