I saw that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg publicly pledged in 2015 to read two books per month. Well in 2014 I did that and once again in 2015. Mr. Zuckerberg is still winning overall. There are times when trying to keep up with something close to reading two books is a bit burdensome and I’ve also taken to reading a greater number of books simultaneously than ever before.

I finished 24 books in 2014. There are several that I am fairly far along on but just can’t seem to finish and I do abandon books but too often by that point I’ve already invested too much time already. And I again had no particular total number in mind when I started 2015. Reading more than half on my Kindle app it seems to always work out to about two books per month.   For some reasons e-books fool me into tackling longer reads but I don’t know exactly how long that they are until I’ve been reading the book for awhile.

As I noted last year the point is that if you want to read more literature you have to make the time available. It can be done. Below I’ve offered a ten-word mini-review of each if you care to read. Happy New Year!

What If – Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions – Randall Munroe Interesting questions answered with humor. Not just a bathroom book.

Genesis Code: A Thriller of the Near Future– Jamie Metzl – Good storytelling on a provocative subject. Have corresponded with Jamie.

How We Got to Now – Six Innovations That Made The Modern World – Steven Johnson – Cool stories of innovation: glass, cold, sound, clean, time, light.

The Bad Guys Won – Jeff Pearlman – Finally read the story about my beloved ’86 Mets.

Rise of Superman – Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance – StevenKotler – Intense and heartfelt with lots of supportive data. Think Flow.

Into the Wild – Jon Krakauer – So glad I read it. Big fan of the author.

Decoded – Mai Jia – One of China’s most popular authors. Unusual and compelling narrative.

Cracked: The De-Textbook: The Stuff You Didn’t Know About the Stuff You Thought You Thought You Knew  – Cracked.com – If you love counter-intuitive thinking and questioning almost everything…

Men In Green – Michael Bamberger – Golf writer’s candid interviews with players, caddies, wives, and others.

The Assistant – Bernard Malamud – Wrote The Natural. Offers a sad, yet immersive time-capsule.

The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload– Daniel J. Levitan – Organizing The Junk Drawer of Your Mind – an interesting concept.

The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry – Somehow never read it before. Glad it was very short.

Think Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain – Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner – They always deliver an entertaining read. No different this time.

Good Chinese Wife: A Love Affair with China Gone Wrong – Susan Bluberg-Kason – Revealing true story of east and west culture/customs colliding

Blindsight– Peter Welles – 2000 Hugo Award (Science-Fiction), nominee. Out there fun read.

Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist – Brad Feld & Jason Mendelson – They try their best to keep it simple. It isn’t.

Baseball in 100 Objects – Josh Leventhal – Obviously I am baseball nerd. If you are, read it.

The Trident Deception – Rick Campbell – Sort of updated Hunt For Red October. Author has credibility.

Misbehaving – Richard Thaler – I am a big fan of this groundbreaking behavioral economist.

The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway – First read in 1970’s. Great snapshot of 1920’s postwar Paris.

Zero to One – Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future – Peter Thiel – Pragmatic thoughts and advice from a leading investor and thinker.

The Harder They Fall – T.C. Boyle – Another winner from one of my favorite current American writers.

The Big Short – Michael Lewis – Movie was good. Book was better. Read it before seeing.

The History of Food in 100 recipes – William Sitwell – Long but incredibly engaging and interesting. Lots of aha moments!

I enjoyed the Hemingway enough that I plan to re-read more of his books in 2016. Got any good books you’d like to offer?