2025 was a good year. I got to visit my family in Canada this summer which is always such a treat. They are all doing great. My family here in North Florida are also doing great. My wife and I have been accepted by the feral cat in the barn. She still doesn’t trust us, but she is willing to allow us to feed her. In January we survived “The Blizzard of 2025” where we had 5 inches of snow for a week. Quite exciting, but we are glad it only happens once every 25 year.

My work life was busier than usual this year. This greatly reduced my time for writing blog posts and reading books. But the client I work for now is great and I enjoy the work very much.

Here are some of the books I read this year.

Maverick Scientist, Mims III, Forrest M., 2024
When I was growing up in Canada, I was fascinated with electronics. I basically lived through Radio Shack. Forrest Mims wrote a whole host of books on electronics and I loved them all. Maverick Scientist is his auto-biography and tells about his youth and introduction to electronics, his life in the military, his family and his career. It was a great read. For me it highlights how much of science and scientists are influenced by social interactions. Being logical and unbiased is never popular and never easy.

Writing for Developers, Sarna, Piotr and Dunlop, Cynthia, 2025
I have tried over the years to write blog posts that describe ideas, patterns, and solutions relating to my career in software development. This book helped me see that my ‘blog’ could be used for so much more. When time permits, I have used this book to help me formulate new ideas for posts.

Co-Intelligence, Mollick, Ethan, 2024
This book was a great exploration of how to think about, live with and work with artificial intelligence. All the hype aside, we need to understand these tools and how to responsibly use them. They aren’t magic, and this book walk through several great ideas on using them to enhance your productivity, rather than replacing your abilities.

Learning Systems Thinking, Montalion, Diana, 2024
I was fortunate to have a brilliant co-worker introduce me to systems thinking early in my career. This book was a great refresher for me. There were a lot of ideas for me to take away and introduce into my daily routine. One was the idea of using writing ans thinking. I have always found that writing about anything is a great way to learn, and to solidify your thoughts, arguments, and reasons. I suspect I will return to this book again and again.

The Hammer of God, Clarke, Arthur C, 1993
I read this book back in the 1990s when it was first published. It has all the hallmarks of a Clarke novel, comprised of small chapters, each describing a slice of the overall narrative. It builds a universe, once step at a time. This style of writing is not for everyone, I suspect. But I always feel I mind has expanded and is ready to be filled with more ideas after I have read a Clarke novel.

Communication Patterns, Read, Jacqui, 2024
I listened to a podcast where the author described this book. It made me want to read more of it so I bought a copy. It has some great ideas. I particularly like the ideas on architecture decision records. The books provides many different ways to communicate ideas. I look forward to incorporating them into my work.

How Ike Led: This Principles Behind Eisenhower’s Biggest Decisions, Eisenhower, Susan, 2020
President Eisenhower is my wife’s favorite president and she has several books describing various parts of his life. This book by his daughter focused on the things I was interested in, namely his principles. I can see why my wife likes this man as much as she does. His approach to politics and dealing with problems is very much aligned with my thinking. His “Middle Way” approach is something I wish more people embraced today. I enjoyed this book a lot.

Rendezvous With Rama, Clarke, Arthur C, 1973
This is a classic Clarke novel and I enjoyed re-reading it. His descriptions of the space ship are so vivid I feel like I was actually there. I hear there might be a possible film in the works. After all this time, I hope they do it justice.

Star Trek - Star Fleet Technical Manual, Joseph, Franz, 1986 20th Anniversary Edition (1st published in 1975)
I found this on eBay and couldn’t resist getting a copy again. In 1986 I was at the hight of my love with Star Trek and I poured over the Star Fleet Technical Manual. This book, in addition to the novels created a huge universe for the Star Trek fans to explore. I traced the outlines of the star ships onto posters I hung in my room. I used by computer to replicate the fonts of the text. I even had sprites programmed into my Commodore 64 to have the Enterprise flying through the stars. It was a lot of fun revisiting these memories.

The Federalist Papers, Beeman, Richard (Editor), 2012
I had never read these essays before. Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison used these papers to persuade citizens to be in favor of the US Constitution. This book contains a curated set of the papers showcasing the arguments and ideas used in such debates. They were a good introduction to civics (for a non-US educated person).

The Declaration of Independence / The United States Constitution, Beeman, Richard (Editor), 2012
This year I became a US citizen. I had to learn about the history of the US, including these 2 important documents. Reading them in 2025 is a great reminder of how this country was founded. Next year will be the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding. I’m sure a lot of discussions will try to make sense of what the country is like now. But I think these documents are a great place to start.

The Books I Read in 2024