This year was undoubtedly a troubled one. A worldwide pandemic forced us to live completely isolated from our friends and loved ones for 10 out of the 12 months. Moreover we had to request permission to move around and live with a curfew for almost half of the year.
So what do you do in a quarantine? Apart from trying to figure things out, obviously! Well, for one, you read. Reading was a habit I had seriously neglected for nearly a decade. Lock-downs were a golden opportunity to get back to it.
During 2020 I read 10 books in total. Following you can find the list and a brief comment:
- The Last Bluff: How Greece came face-to-face with financial catastrophe & the secret plan for its euro exit. An interesting book about Greece’s nearly Grexit, the referendum and the negotiations of SYRIZA with the IMF.
- The road to character. Nicely written, this book discusses the concepts of ego, personal ethics in the age of information (and social media) and how / if we can navigate through this flood of information to a better character.
- Enchiridion. Stoic philosophers became a trend during the pandemic. I thought I dive a little into them. (NOTE: Follow the link to find the full version of the book available for free).
- Shakespear’s Sonnets. Amazing work by Shakespear. Made the difficult days of the quarantine, well… not so difficult.
- The subtle art of not giving a f*ck. Interesting and with some pretty practical tips, but overatted in my honest opinion.
- OFF – Life starts when you turn your mobile OFF. A bit harsh since technology was a great part in our quarantined life but reading it while in quarantine might make us appreciate face to face contact when we get it back.
- I will teach you to be rich. A guide to automate our personal finance, organize our savings and get to investing. Written with the US bank system in mind, but many of the recipes can be applied to the EU financial reality as well.
- Bushido. The soul of Japan. Great philosophical work from the Japanese philosophy. (NOTE: Follow the link to find the full version of the book available for free).
- Egcheiridio Vlakeias (in Greek). A rational book about stupidity being a part of the world and how to use that in our everyday life.
- Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. The second Stoic philosophy work I read during 2020. (NOTE: Follow the link to find the full version of the book available for free).
Looking forward to more reading during 2021 (pandemic aside :P)!
PS: For more information about the books you can visit my Goodreads Reading Challenge page (2020 edition).
