Meng's Book Prize 2024
TL;DR
Best nonfiction — How Big Things Get Done by Bent Flyvbjerg
Best biography — Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Best fiction — 庆余年 by 猫腻
Best Overall — Chip War by Chris Miller
Special mention — 影后成双 by 玄笺
2024 ended a week ago.
As psychologists found out, people tend to evaluate and remember a piece of experience based on the peak and end of the event. It even has a name, Peak-end Rule.
So my memory of 2024 is… Never mind, let’s move on.
The List
This year is a bit special. The overall quality and quantity of books that I have read are not comparable to previous years. There might be multiple reasons. First, I wasn’t concentrated on reading. Thus, selecting and queueing the book was not 100% controlled. Second, because of the obvious reasons in my professional life, I didn’t also put enough time into reading. Third, my mental state wasn’t under control, therefore, I needed quite a lot of doses of “sugar” reads pull myself from falling.
Nevertheless, there are a handful of them worth mentioning.
This is a very biased ranking. If anyone asks me for a recommendation, I might give a different list based on the needs. You know what I mean. The following shortlisted ones are worth my time.
#1 Best nonfiction — How Big Things Get Done by Bent Flyvbjerg
This is the book about the success factors of mega projects. We humans are the only specie that can plan, and yet we are still suck at it. Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner offer a compelling exploration of why some ambitious projects succeed while others fail spectacularly. The book combines case studies, from megaprojects like the Sydney Opera House to smaller, everyday initiatives, to reveal the common pitfalls of poor planning, over-optimism, and ignoring reality. It emphasizes the importance of starting small, thinking slow, and embracing simplicity to achieve big goals effectively. Packed with actionable insights and backed by data, it’s an invaluable read for anyone tackling complex projects or aiming to turn grand ideas into tangible outcomes.
For details, see https://thelearnersweek.substack.com/p/book-club-how-big-things-get-done?r=237nzu
#2 Best biography — Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
I don’t think this one needs more recommendations. It doesn’t solve any concrete problem, and its influence has phases. I listed it here, not that I like it; rather, I remember it quite often. Suffer itself will not bring any meaning, but it is reassuring to believe there is meaning behind it.
https://thelearnersweek.substack.com/p/road-of-meaning?r=237nzu
https://thelearnersweek.substack.com/p/search-for-meaning?r=237nzu
#3 Best fiction — 庆余年 by 猫腻
It is a very long read: roughly 18 times of a regular book. Genre-wise, it is similar to Game of Thrones. But I feel it is closer to House of Cards, even though the plot has a few fantasy touches. If you know 二月河 (Eryue He), one of the most famous modern Chinese historical fiction writers, you know what I mean.
It is a pity that lots of this type of books doesn’t have any other language versions. However, the TV series Joy of Life, based on this novel, has already been two seasons out with fan-supported English subtitles on YouTube. Character personality changes were good, and I hope it will find a way to show the scale comparison (power, land, and time) the original book is mainly based on.
#4 Best Overall — Chip War by Chris Miller
It is an eye-opener. It corrected one of my biggest misconceptions about technological advancement. Discovery and invention processes are not simply stackable. Think from the system perspective. One of the major aspects of a system is emergence. New functionalities, behaviors, and properties don’t come to life simply because of stacking many existing components. They need the right conditions everywhere: time, amount, sequence, etc. When the system gets increasingly complex, this process will only take longer for high-impact features to evolve. How did I miss that? Well, luckily, I have this book to remind me.
https://thelearnersweek.substack.com/p/book-club-chip-war?r=237nzu
#5 Special mention — 影后成双 by 玄笺
When someone is about to lose consciousness due to low blood sugar, we will not discuss healthy, balanced, and variant nutrition. We simply cram anything sweet into the mouth to save a life. Even if it is Haribo, yep, this book is Haribo for me. It saved me from overthinking in lots of nights.
I have read it more than 10 times back to back. It is not a small book, but it is a quick read. It is a type of love story. You can guess the plot pretty much from the first page. I still don’t remember the details due to the nature of “relaxing reading.”
Tell me what is your favorite read of 2024.