Some observations:

Formats: ~20% e-books ; ~30% audiobooks; 50% physical books

Repetition: 13% were read previously, 8% of new books I’d read again

Conversion: ~25% of nonphysical books, I would order hardcopy to have as reference or reread

Retention: subjectively I remember physical content >> e-book >> audio.

Follow up: 30% of books have nuggets worth taking time to extract. This is so much easier with physical books!

Escapism: 13% of books were about fly-fishing…

Conclusions:

I had a vague sense that I wasn’t learning much from audiobooks, but this quick review confirms just how low-value they are for me. The subpar content retention, difficulty of extracting highlights, and unsuitability for later reference mean I’d be better off just buying a real book. E-books too, have the same defects to a lesser extent.

In light of this, for 2024, I will aim for:

• >52 books, at least 90% in paper form (max 5 digital)
• ~ 10-20% rereads (5-10)
• increase the “follow-up” metric to >75%, through combination of switch to physical and more intentional selection/reading (~40)
• ~10% escapist/fly fishing books (max 5). Instead of digital impulse buys, order in advance!

number	Title	year	format	notes	reps
1	This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life	2023	audible		many
2	Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires	2023	kindle	junk
3	The Last Days of the Incas	2023	audible	–
4	The Black Cloud	2023	physical	get quotes
5	How the World Really Works: A Scientist’s Guide to Our Past, Present and Future	2023	audible	get physical
6	For Blood and Money: Billionaires, Biotech, and the Quest for a Blockbuster Drug	2023	audible	–
7	Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story	2023	kindle	–
8	Leibniz: An Intellectual Biography	2023	physical	get quotes
9	Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon	2023	audible	get physical
10	Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think	2023	audible	get physical
11	The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change	2023	audible	–
12	The Making of the Atomic Bomb	2023	physical	write up
13	Meditations	2023	physical	pull quotes	many
14	The Three-Body Problem	2023	audible
15	The Pursuit of Power: Technology, Armed Force, and Society since A.D. 1000	2023	physical	pull case study
16	Farm: A Year in the Life of an American Farmer	2023	physical?
17	Two Hundred Years of Muddling Through: The Surprising Story of Britain’s Economy from Boom to Bust and Back Again	2023	physical	browse for quotes
18	On the Shortness of Life: Life Is Long if You Know How to Use It	2023	physical		many
19	The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity	2023	physical		many
20	The Myth of American Inequality: How Government Biases Policy Debate	2023	physical	extract primary point
21	The Practical Angler: Or, the Art of Trout-Fishing, More Particularly Applied to Clear Water. Third Edition	2023	physical	give to Ben W.
22	The Mind Illuminated: A Complete Meditation Guide Integrating Buddhist Wisdom and Brain Science	2023	physical		again
23	Maxims and Reflections	2023	physical		again
24	Isaac Newton	2023	audible	so much alchemy!
25	A Guide’s Guide to Fly-Fishing Mistakes: Common Problems and How to Correct Them	2023	kindle
26	Ecclesiastes, or The Preacher	2023	physical		many
27	Maximes – Anthologie	2023	physical		again
28	Virginia Creeper Trail Companion The: Nature and History Along Southwest Virginia’s National Recreation Trail	2023	physical	–
29	Undaunted Courage: The Pioneering First Mission to Explore America’s Wild Frontier	2023	audible	TJ’s ignorance, Lewis’s hardships and end
30	Germs: Biological Weapons and America’s Secret War	2023	physical	extract much
31	We Are Bellingcat: Global Crime, Online Sleuths, and the Bold Future of News	2023	physical	browse for quotes
32	Maxims and Reflections	2023	physical	meh
33	Hemingway on Fishing	2023	kindle	meh
34	Hannibal	2023	audible	audacity, futility
35	Musashi	2023	physical	waterfall montage, ganryu duel
36	The Socratic Method: A Practitioner’s Handbook	2023	audible
37	Guide to Maryland Trout Fishing: The Catch-and-Release Streams	2023	kindle
38	The History of Fly-Fishing in Fifty Flies	2023	kindle	meh
39	A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy	2023	kindle		many
40	Reading Trout Water	2023	kindle	get physical
41	Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon	2023	physical	browse for quotes
42	Bureaucracy	2023	physical	browse for quotes
43	Siddhartha	2023	physical		many
44	The Practicing Stoic	2023	audible	get physical	again
45	Why America Is Not a New Rome	2023	kindle
46	Nuclear Folly: A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis	2023	kindle	pull case study
47	The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century’s Greatest Dilemma	2023	physical	browse for quotes
48	Tactical Fly Fishing: Lessons Learned from Competition for All Anglers	2023	kindle
49	Elon Musk	2023	audible	pull rules of innovation?
50	The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger	2023	physical	pull case study
51	Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire’s Slaves	2023	physical	extract much
52	Blitzscaling: The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies	2023	audible	get physical, series
53	The Last Warrior: Andrew Marshall and the Shaping of Modern American Defense Strategy	2023	physical	extract much