Winter Reading Notes: From Microchips to Microbiology
This quarter's reading list spans an unusually wide arc, from the history of computing's foundational hardware to microbial symbiosis, with a fair share of twentieth-century history and fiction in between. A few highlights stand out, along with a handful of titles that didn't quite land.
Engineering, Biography, and the Birth of the Microchip
Two books on innovation and its creators offered contrasting experiences. "The Chip" by T.R. Reid covers the simultaneous invention of the integrated circuit by Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce. While the volume's first half is fascinating — tracing the parallel paths and competitive tension — the second half loses momentum, reading largely as filler.
Much more satisfying is "Sid Meier's Memoir!: A Life in Computer Games". The autobiography of the Civilization creator is an insightful look at the industry's early days, revealing that Meier's title as "designer" undersells his role as a prolific solo coder who shipped multiple games a year throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s. The prose is charming, optimistic, and full of genuinely hard-won design wisdom — a treat for anyone who grew up on his work.
On War, Politics, and Conflict
Two substantial historical works provided different lenses on leadership and conflict. "Churchill: Walking with Destiny" by Andrew Roberts is a modern biography that incorporates documents declassified in recent decades. Despite being a behemoth — over 1,000 pages in print, 50 hours on audio — it remains consistently readable. Roberts gives due attention to Churchill's failures and critics, yet the character that emerges is nonetheless remarkable, notable for being a prolific and Nobel-winning author in his own right.
"The Guns of August" by Barbara W. Tuchman, a detailed account of the outbreak of World War I and its first month, proved strongest in its first half, which covers the political decisions that led to war. That section pairs powerfully with a work like "All Quiet on the Western Front," offering a stark contrast between high-level strategy and the ground-level reality soldiers faced. The second half, heavy with classical military history, did not maintain the same engagement.
The Fascinating and the Frustrating in Science Writing
Ed Yong's "I Contain Multitudes" investigates the symbiosis between bacteria and multicellular organisms across the animal and human kingdoms. The topic is compelling, but as an area of research moving quickly, much of the material already feels dated. More than anything, the book left an impression of how nascent this field truly is.
From the computational side, "The Computational Beauty of Nature" by Gary William Flake explores fractals, chaos, and complex systems. Its code samples were impressively still compile-able and runnable a quarter-century after publication, but conceptually much of the content feels outdated.
Fiction and Memoir
The fiction selections were a mixed bag. "Pnin" by Vladimir Nabokov, a masterfully written tale of a Russian émigré professor at a New England college, was technically impressive yet adrift — its central point likely resonates with a specific audience that excludes this reader.
"Tom Swan and the Head of St George" by Christian Cameron offered a late-crusades-era adventure full of over-the-top fighting, womanizing, and drinking. Occasionally fun but mostly silly, it was not enough to draw this reader into the rest of the series. Gregory Khait's Russian-language story collection also disappointed, as at least a third of the stories were repeats from earlier books.
The standout was probably "Poverty Safari" by Darren McGarvey, a Scottish rapper's memoir of growing up in a poor, dysfunctional Glasgow family in the 1990s. His insights on class-based social divides are sharp, particularly regarding the class tensions within the liberal left, and his personal struggles with alcoholism and mental health anchor the narrative.
Of the light reads, "Dr. Euler's Fabulous Formula" by Paul Nahin is a dense, integral-heavy follow-up to the author's earlier work, more textbook than bedside reading yet still worthwhile for the mathematical enthusiasm on display. Ben Orlin's "Math for English Majors", meanwhile, underwhelmed, with its intended purpose unclear between humorous definitions and analogies to grammar.
Finally, the quarterly re-reads list was dominated by classics: To Kill a Mockingbird, Anne of Green Gables, The Luzhin Defense, and Man's Search for Meaning.
