My Top 5 Reads of 2023
Note: This article originally appeared in my monthly newsletter, creatively titled David’s Newsletter. You can subscribe here.
Harry Potter: You talk about wands, as if they have feelings, can think.
Garrick Ollivander: The wand chooses the wizard, Mr. Potter. That much has always been clear to those of us who have studied wandlore.
– Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Just as the wand chooses the wizard, I believe the books choose the reader.
This means my reading list often follows a strange trail of curiosities, punctured by (apparent) randomness.
Random, of course, to my conscious mind. My subconscious mind seems to have a nose for the trail.
Once I read a book, it no longer lives enclosed in the pages. The book’s story and messages fill a much longer personal story, tied to every book I read before it. No matter how different the books seem, they always form one longer story in my head.
I agree with what the founder of Wired Kevin Kelly once said, “The synapse associations that you get from reading a book after book after book, you begin to think that the authors are all talking to each other.”
Why These 5 Made the Shortlist
These 5 books aren’t my favorites from this year, and they’re not in order based on what I liked more.
They’re the 5 that told the most cohesive story about what I learned and what’s been on my mind in 2023.
A Moral Reckoning by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen
The title and subtitle say a lot about this book: “A Moral Reckoning: The Role of The Catholic Church in the Holocaust and Its Unfulfilled Duty of Repair.” I read this book in March, well before the war in Gaza began this fall.
What I’m most interested in highlighting about this book transcends its content. This book helped give me the courage to begin to take moral stances. Goldhagen writes in the introduction…
…the problem of people not wanting to seem to be imposing their values on others… have made many people skittish about applying serious moral discussion to the public sphere (7).
Reading it gave me both confidence and permission to look at our world’s past and present and say, “That is wrong.” It helped me listen to my own voice and moral intuition.
Here’s another quote from the introduction that brings this point home.
We ought to turn moral inquiry into a valued activity, devote ourselves to it, even if we are not professional philosophers, undertake it as best we can in an open, concerted way. It is our right to judge.
As you will see later, I began to apply these ideas to spheres like climate change and urbanism, where I am now much more apt to point out what I believe is right and wrong. It is my right to judge.
Known and Strange Things by Teju Cole
This is a book I got from my favorite used bookstore in New York, Mercer St Books last year.
All of Cole’s writing cuts me with wit and moral conviction. One of my favorite essays in this collection is “In Place of Thought,” where he makes a satirical dictionary with better critiques on implicit racism and politics than entire books do. Here’s an excerpt:
CARAMEL. Term used to describe black women’s skin. No other meaning known. CHILDREN. The only justification for policy. Always say “our children.” The childless have no interest in improving society. CHOCOLATE. Term used to describe black women’s skin. No other meaning known. COAL. Clean. DIVERSITY. Obviously desirable within limits.
Ouch. I could read these for 12 hours.
Another essay, “The White Savior Industrial Complex” hit even harder. If you’re not familiar with the idea of the white savior complex, I believe this quote from Cole sums it up.
“The white savior supports brutal policies in the morning, founds charities in the afternoon, and receives awards in the evening.”
Here’s another quote I love from the essay:
“If Americans want to care about Africa, maybe they should consider evaluating American foreign policy.”
Although I wasn’t expecting it, the idea of taking moral stances in this book shone through too.
Manifesto for a Moral Revolution by Jacqueline Novogratz
After Cole, these ideas of moral stances became too strong to ignore. This book, another Mercer St find, had sat unread on my bookshelf for two years. Now it was time to read it.
I don’t hold guilt for buying books and not reading them, because they will be there for me when I’m called to read them.
The book is about Novogratz’s personal journey. Early in the book, she discusses her decision to leave a comfortable, high-paying finance job to head to Rwanda to work in “microfinance.” Novogratz explains the idea:
“[Microfinance] institutions made small loans (from thirty to one hundred dollars, on average) to millions of low-income people, mostly women, so that they could build tiny businesses to support their lives.”
This book inspired me not because of this specific idea, but because of her courage to leave the comfortable in favor of what lights our soul up. She writes later in the book…
“Many of us will repeatedly face the choice of whether to make money or make a difference. And though you can have both, there nonetheless will be times when you must decide which value is of greater priority.”
I felt this sentence was written directly to me.
After reading this book, I knew it was time for me to think more deeply about the issues I care about, and take not just a moral stance, but action.
This will mean sacrificing money. Which, if you’ve read my newsletters over the last year, you’ve seen me slowly realize I don’t need. This brings me to my final two books.
All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis
I’ve also had this book on my shelf for a few years. With ideas about morality in my mind, the biggest one that came to the forefront is the one which I feel is one of if not the defining struggle for the 21st century.
I have little patience at this point for those committed to not believing it’s a big problem.
I’m more interested in helping those who agree it’s a problem to get off the sidelines with me.
That’s where the excitement of this book comes in.
It’s an anthology of essays by dozens of thinkers, touching on a breadth of ways to combat climate change. It’s not about electric vehicles and solar panels. Those are just two of literally hundreds of changes we can make.
From regenerative farming, to building efficiency, to green finance, to the power of indigenous languages and culture, to simply talking about climate change, we can all play a role. We all need to play a role.
For my part, I’m more committed to writing about and talking about climate change. I want to use my platform, this small but intimate group we have here, to encourage others to join me.
I will also be getting my hands dirty again in 2024. After 6 months of traveling to start the year, I plan on moving back to New York City, and volunteer once again with The Billion Oyster Project, where I’ll be helping build oyster cages.
If you’re looking to get inspired to save the world with me, then I highly recommend this book.
The Death and Life of Great American Cities – Jane Jacobs
As I’ve also written about more this year, another way I aim to help combat climate change while improving the quality of life in urban areas is by talking a lot about urbanism.
I want to be part of culture shifts to create more walkable lives. As is self-evident to millions who live in walkable areas, it often means a healthier, more socially connected, more fulfilled life.
I’m sure I’ll be diving deep into Jacobs’ various ideas with you more in 2024.
Although this book is from 1960, its statements on how backward our thinking towards cities is still just as true. The book’s opening sentence says it all:
This book is an attack on current city planning and rebuilding.
Once again, her moral conviction in right and wrong couldn’t be clearer. You can expect more attacks from me this year.
Where Do These Books Leave Me?
More than ever before, I’m ready to speak up and share more about what I believe them. I’m also ready to take action. I’m ready to volunteer more, to donate, to sacrifice more to help create a better world.
I hope you do the same.
Abrazos,
~David
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