2024 in Books

I kept my reading in pretty light. I mostly read crime series, I am following and binged a new one.  

There were some books I have been pretty disappointed with. At least this will reduce my future reading list. 

You can also check out My Year in Books on Goodreads.

Non-fiction

Kanban: Successful Evolutionary Change for Your Technology Business - I was joining a company focused on Kanban, which I never used fully before. I wanted to catch up with the ideas and concepts. This is a great book for that. Overall, it turned out the company actually used a long to-do list for their planning and not the more advanced ideas.

Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts by Oliver Burkeman - I liked his previous book: "Four Thousand Weeks", this is related and extends some concepts. It is also packaged in a nice one-chapter-a-day way.

Fundamentals of Software Architecture: An Engineering Approach - I wish the updated version would be out already, but this is pretty good. I had it on my to-do list for a while, the great podcast Book Overflow finally triggered me to read it.

My Animals, and Other Animals: A memoir of sorts by Bill Bailey - I like the author and his humour and this is a fun read. 

Bill Bailey's Remarkable Guide to Happiness - also great. Some chapters are shared between his two books.

Fiction

Slough House Series by Mick Herron - I binged books 1-8 with some novellas between. The TV series is great, but the books are even better. It is just the right combination of humour, suspense, and action. Highly recommended. 

Levon's Scourge: A Vigilante Justice Thriller by Chuck Dixon - continuing with this series. It was OK. It feels like the series has run its course.

Charlie Cooper Thrillers Series, John Milton Series, Atticus Priest Series by Mark Dawson - I am still following all of these, and they had some new releases this year. 

There now is also an "Atticus Priest Casebook" series. I read the first one, which was pretty bad. They are novellas, and I am going to skip the follow-ups.

The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin. I read books 1-3. They are OK, are far too long, and are stretching out some concepts until you get bored with them. Some characters are also completely unbelievable. I suggest you stick to the TV series.

How It Unfolds by James S.A. Corey - this is a new universe and a pretty fun read. This book is also well contained, even though it kicks off a new series. 

The Mercy of Gods by James S.A. Corey - I think this plays in the same universe as the previous book. I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Livesuit by James S.A. Corey - a novella in the same universe as the previous one. Pretty good, though the ending was also predictable.

Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente - some good jokes in the style of Douglas Adams, but overall pretty boring. 

The Thousand Dollar Man by J.T. Brannan - OK, I guess? I am not going to continue the series. A bit too much random killing for my taste. 

The Seventh Floor by David McCloskey - from the Damascus Station Series. Not as good as the previous ones. I love the style though, a lot of it feels pretty realistic.

DCI Logan Crime Thrillers Series & Robert Hoon Thrillers Series by J.D. Kirk - a friend suggested these, and I am currently binging through all of them. They are easy and quick reads. I love the setting in Scotland and the large consumption of tea and square sausages. All the recurring characters have their background and stories, which are interwoven with the main story of each book. This would make a great TV series. 

The Cracked Mirror by Chris Brookmyre - I found this through a book podcast. The beginning was pretty good. A bit like Miss Marple meets Bosch. At some point, it turns very weird, though, and not in a good way. 

The Waiting by Michael Connelly - another book in the Renée Ballard series and the Bosch universe. This was possibly the worst book I have read by the author. Too many unrelated story lines, unbelievable coincidences, and random unnecessary cameos.

2023 in Books

My year in books (according to Goodreads). 8443 pages read in 26 books.

I mostly binged on thrillers and series I am already following. 
Just one non-fiction!

I am currently reading  / being stuck in these: 

• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values by Robert M. Pirsig - this is a reread. I read it as a teenager, and I am not getting through it at the moment.
  
• Obsessive Compulsive Cycling Disorder by Dave Barter - collection of articles. The title might be the best bit.
  
• Edges by Linda Nagata - I am not very excited.
  

Fiction

Mark Dawson

I just continue reading his multiple series. 

• Sandstorm (Charlie Cooper Thrillers #1) - a new series in the Group Fifteen universe. It is a short book and quite entertaining. 
• The Red Room (Atticus Priest #3) 
• Pistolero (Beatrix Rose #5)
• Uppercut  (John Milton #22)
• The Chameleon (Charlie Cooper Thrillers)

Viveca Stern

A new series by Viveca. I confess, I only read them because of the cosy setting in Sweden. It is more "Nordic cosy", than "Nordic noir".

• Hidden in Snow (Åremorden #1)
  
• Hidden in Shadows (Åremorden #2)

William Gibson 

I read this after watching the TV series. I tried when it first came out, but couldn't get into it. The series definitely helped, and now I love it. 

• The Peripheral (Jackpot #1)
• Agency (Jackpot #2)

Becky Chambers 

After reading Legends & Lattes last year, I was looking for more cosy books and these were recommended. It was a bit weird and deep, but nice.

• A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk and Robot #1)
• A Prayer for the Crown-Shy (Monk and Robot #2)

The follow is another cosy book. This time a truck stop in space. 

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within 

 S.A. Cosby

All the Sinners Bleed - a recommendation by a book podcast. Very well written and quite gritty. The focus was very much on the racial conflicts in the US. 

Tom Clancy

• Without Remorse (Jack Ryan Universe #1)
• Patriot Games (Jack Ryan #1) 

I gave up on the second one. The heroes are just unbelievable, the universe doesn't make any sense. The gun and military worshipping is annoying. And don't get me started on the UK and the royal family in the "Patriot Games".  

My suggestion: stick to the film adaptions. (The "Without Remorse" film is pretty bad too, though).

John le Carré

His writing is great and I love the characters. I just can't get into the period it is playing it. And not a lot happens throughout most of the books, and then something happens quickly, short and mostly depressing.  I am not sure, I am going to try more from him.

• Call for the Dead (George Smiley #1)
• A Murder of Quality (George Smiley #2) - this felt a bit Agatha Christie.
• The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (George Smiley #3)
• The Looking Glass War  (George Smiley #4)

David McCloskey 

I really like this series. It feels very realistic and gritty. I can't wait for the next instalment. I also follow the author on Instagram, which leads to more book discoveries. 

• Damascus Station (Damascus Station #1)
• Moscow X: A Novel (Damascus Station #2)

Michael Connelly

You can't go wrong with the Bosch universe. 

Resurrection Walk (The Lincoln Lawyer #7) - so much better than the TV series. 

Travis Baldree

Bookshops & Bonedust (Legends & Lattes #0) - prequel for Legends & Latte, possibly even better. More cosy reading.

I.S. Berry

The Peacock and the Sparrow: A Novel - this might have been the best book I have read this year. It is another spy thriller, that starts so slow that I nearly gave up on it. Over the book, the speed increases exponential to bring everything together into a crash landing.

Comics

Just one comic sneaked into this list. It is a bit of an on/off romance story. 

Batman/Catwoman by Tom King and others.

Non-fiction

I can't believe that I read only one non-fiction book this year.

Simplifying Coaching: How to Have More Transformational Conversations by Doing Less 

This is probably more focused on professional coaches. I still took away many useful titbits that will help me approach coaching in my job in the future. 

References

Only one, too. This is more useful for future planning. I am still waiting for the app for the book, which should make it easier to keep the checklist of climbs.

100 Greatest Cycling Climbs of Spain: A guide to the famous cycling mountains of mainland Spain plus Mallorca and the Canary Islands

Some other book lists I enjoyed

• Tim Bray: Recent Sci-Fi 
• Noahpinion: My sci-fi novel recommendations
• jwz: Recent books

2022 in Books

2022 Goodreads Challenge

Like many things of 2022 my reading didn't go to plan. It went different in a completely unexpected way. 

My initial plan was to read about 18 books, which is a bit more than I manage in a normal year. I wanted to read a mix of fiction and non-fiction, and planned to alternate between one of each. I had a queue already on Goodreads and was all set.

It went well the first two months, but then I came across some non-fiction books that were so exhausting or boring that I gave up on them (I list them below in a separate section).

I also was not happy with other parts of my life, which led me to binge read two easy to read guilty pleasure thriller series. That's the reason I ended up with 54 books read in the year.   

One thing I kept from last year is the use of Readwise to retain knowledge from the books. This led me to take highlighting and taking notes much more serious.

This year I'll start with a goal of 24 books, which seems reasonable. But if I learned something over the last few years, then nothing goes according to plan. 

Non-Fiction

 

Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day 

A quick read about how to structure your work and life for more focus. I didn't agree with a lot of this book. I think it is suited for a certain person who isn't me. The stuff I agree with is the usual: focus on fewer things, remove distractions, and have a life. 

The Effective Hiring Manager

I was seeking a book about hiring and behavioural interviews and this
mostly fit the bill.
It goes into the different stages of hiring: preparation, screening, interviews,
deciding & offering and on-boarding.
I liked the focus on looking for reasons to say "no" through the whole
process.
I would have liked to have more about behavioural interviews, but the section
was at least a good introduction.
The suggested entire interview process with every interviewer repeating the same
questions seems a bit tedious. I am sure the results are great. I wonder what
effect this has on the interviewees.
In general, the book assumes a buyer's market with the attitude towards the
applicants only switching in the offer phase.
The on-boarding section is short and punchy. This appears to be a bit of an
afterthought.

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals 

I heard about this through a podcast interview with the author.

It was still not what I expected, but in a good way.

It is about how we deal with the limited amount of time we have on earth, and about good or bad ways to deal with it.

A lot of it will sound familiar, and he quotes many authors who have written about related topics.

My quick summary would be:

• enjoy everything you do at that moment for what it is
• choose a few things to focus on 
•  don't worry about missing out on opportunities, you can't avoid it anyway
• just don't worry so much
• everybody is winging it

I think this book could have been a lot shorter, but probably because I am still optimizing for time and sometimes things just take as long as they take. 

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us 

 I really enjoyed this book, as with many of this kind of books, it is about a simple idea that most likely could have explained in a few blog posts.
That being said, the change from carrot/stick management to something more meaningful is something important, especially in the knowledge industry.
The book could do with an updated version. A lot of the examples are out of day and feel a bit dusty.  

I am now using the framework of autonomy, purpose, and mastery when working with a team, but also when I evaluate my job and motivation. 

Escaping the Build Trap: How Effective Product Management Creates Real Value 

This is a great book about product management. I have seen many companies falling into the build trap by focusing on delivering more and more features to the users, while not thinking about the outcomes. It also goes into the details of the structure of product organizations, POs vs. PMs and how the product organization relates to the rest of the company.  

More product people and leaders should read this.

My Hygge Home: How to Make Home Your Happy Place

I love the idea of Hygge. Creating a home for cosiness and togetherness should be the goal. Balancing this with the real world, with its messiness and pack of dogs that is keen on destroying everything, is another matter. 

But occasionally, I have my Hygge moments and I aim to create the environment to have these more often. 

A Philosophy of Software Design 

We read this in our book club at work. There are many things I like about this book, but also a lot I disagree with. One thing that stuck in mind was his preference for big functions and classes.  

Thinking in Systems: A Primer 

I didn't like it as much as I should have. I can't put my finger on it, it might just be the writing style.
Even all the references to the environment or general leftism didn't help!
The chapters I enjoyed most were the zoo and the last two chapters. I guess they were the most practical ones.  

Radical Focus: Achieving Your Most Important Goals with Objectives and Key Results 

This is basically a brief intro to OKRs. It consists of an explanation, a fable, and some real life examples.
It didn't tell me anything new, but it is well written, and you get through it in a day.

Given up or paused non-fiction

Who: The A Method for Hiring

I disagreed with most of the premises of this book and gave up about halfway through.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Revised and Updated: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change 

I think this is probably a great book. Something about the language makes it super hard for me to read. Ideally, I would like an executive summary.  

For now, I pause this and come I will come back to it when I feel up to it. 

Dynamic Reteaming: The Art and Wisdom of Changing Teams

This is a good book, and it helped me to move away a bit from my thinking of the ideal team being stable.

It also has good strategies for managing changing teams, which will happen, regardless of what you want because of organizational growth or people leaving.  

Planning for swapping people around is also a good idea if you have the organization size to be able to support it.  

And to actively include the teams if you are doing some kind of restructuring (splitting teams, for example). 

What I don't buy is the idea that reteaming is the solution to everything and everybody can be just learning all the required languages and technologies to be able to constantly swap teams. 

The whole book could also been a few blog posts.

Fiction 

Millennium Series

I have seen the Swedish film a couple of times, which was great.
I also saw the US remake, which wasn't.
And unsurprisingly, the book is also great, even if you know the story already.
I loved the writing, the people, and the setting.
While the films only touch the surface, the book can easily dive into the characters, relationships and small details.
I am a bit of a Nordic Noir fan and this is probably one of the best. 

I enjoyed the second book even more than the first one. It is also a much better story than the film, which focused mostly on the action.
I liked how we go into details of the characters and back-story of the protagonist.
Because the story involves the characters I like a lot more instead of solving some random crime, I was also a lot more engaged.  

The House in the Woods (Atticus Priest #1)
A Place To Bury Strangers (Atticus Priest #2)

I basically buy everything from Mark Dawson. These are two independent detective books. Atticus Priest is another one of the broken lone detectives that I enjoy. Both books are set in the UK, with a very different approach to policing than the usual US setting.

Some chapters are playing in court, which are a bit slow.

Blood Work (Terry McCaleb #1; Harry Bosch Universe, #8)

Michael Connelly is another author I read everything from, this time focusing on the FBI. 

The Vault  

Another one from Mark Dawson. I prefer thrillers set in the present, but this trip back to Berlin with the wall is still fun. 

Wormwood 

Mark Dawson again, looking at the past of Group 15, involving travel to Ukraine and Russia and reimagining some events from the 80s.  

Legends & Lattes 

A lovely book. I don't read much fantasy, but this would have worked in any setting.
It reads like a cup of tea (or latte) and a biscuit next to a fireplace feels. The Hygge of fantasy books. Nice and cosy.
The characters and setting are fun. It is a bit like when all the characters of Lord of the Rings would have proper jobs. 

The Avenger 

Mark Dawson, continuing the story of Isabella Rose. She is the younger replacement of one of his previous heroines. 

Foundation (Foundation, #1)

With the TV series being released, I thought I better give the book a go.  This is better than the TV adaptation. Explaining the large spans of times is just much easier in writing. 

I am uncertain if I will continue the book series. Maybe this is enough?

Buried in Secret (Sandhamn Murders #10)

Another one of my guilty pleasures. I read the series mostly because of the places in Sweden. It just feels relaxing … except of the occasional murder.

Zeb Carter Series (#1 - #3) 

I found that I had to work hard to suspend my disbelief. It was a bit too much magic technology and abilities bordering superheroes for my taste.

Void Series (#1 - #3)

As I mentioned above, I don't read much fantasy. In this book series, there are two parallel worlds, one is sci-fi, the other one fantasy.  

Initially, I really hated the fantasy chapters. There was just too much magic and the hero too unbelievable. But as the two world interwove it made more sense and I ended up enjoying the whole series. 

The end was hard work to make sure that all the different stories came together. 

There is also a lot of sex … a lot … more than necessary for the story.

Levon Cade Series (#1 - #11) 

One of the binged series I mentioned in the introduction. Again, I enjoy the slightly broken hero. There is a lot of unnecessary killing, which calms down a bit in the later books.

Desert Star (Renée Ballard, #5; Harry Bosch Universe, #36)

As Harry is getting a bit old and will probably not last much longer, Renee seems to be his replacement for the future. Another reliable book by Connally. 

The Sandman (John Milton #21)

Mark Dawson's main protagonist coming back for another book.  Annoyingly, this ends with a cliffhanger. 

DJ Slaughter Series (#1 - #6)

The second binged series. This really isn't that good.  The hero is a bit of a present time gun slinger, who has a group of typecast sidekicks. There is a lot of killing and countless guns. How many versions of the M16 are there? And who even cares?

I hope this series doesn't continue. I might be compelled to read the next episode too.

Comics

Lazarus: Risen #7 

I guess this concludes the series? I liked the art and backstory. It never went really deep. I think this deserves a normal novel. 

Mark Dawson's Beatrix Rose: Vigilante (#1 - #5) 

This is OK, I guess.  I prefer the books.

Saga, Volume 10

Another volume! I was quite lucky to even notice that this came out. Amazon/Comixology has to do some work on discoverability or subscriptions.  

I don't enjoy it as much any more since some main characters left or changed. It would be great to have this conclude soon.

 

 

 

 

2021 - Year of the Dogs

I am pretty sure I said something along the lines of "2021 has to be better than 2020" a year ago. 

It certainly was different than 2020. And for 2022 I am going to predict it will be different again. I am not going to try even harder.

Zoo

Yuki & puppies

The main thing that changed this year is what I now lovingly refer to as The Zoo.

Beginning of the year we had a guest cat which sadly passed away. Which affected me more than I expected.

In February we adopted Yuki who was an undernourished female Portuguese Podengo. It seemed she had a rough life and was afraid of men, including myself. She got along well with my girlfriend and our other dog Hoover though. 

After feeding her she slowly was gaining weight, though I noticed that she was increasingly looking pregnant. This was then confirmed by the vet and a week later we had the birth of eight puppies. Yuki was not able to feed them, so we spent the next weeks feeding them by hand. This is a 24h job that I shared with my girlfriend. Sadly only five of the puppies made it. 

The whole process was quite an experience in emotional stress and sleep deprivation. There were times where I couldn't think straight.

In the end we kept three of the puppies, one went to Germany, one to a village close to us and Yuki to a neighbour. 

They are still quite time consuming and have also destroyed our living room and various bits in the house and the garden. I really can't recommend to have more than one puppy. 

We are now a four dog, two cats household. 

I estimate that we are on average every second week at the vet.

Cycling & Sports

VeloViewer 2021 Overview

With the puppies situation the time on the bike suffered quite a bit. 

I did two trips where I got a bit more riding in. One to Ripoll taking part at the Migracode Gran Fondo and another one renting a camper van and travelling to the Pyrenees. 

Quite a bit of time was also spend on the indoor trainer, which is great for structured trainings and when you only have an hour available.

I also bought a Concept2 indoor rower, which I am still getting used to. I should have gotten this a lot earlier, as I do miss rowing and there is not much opportunity to do it outdoor around here.

And a lot of time and kilometres walking the dogs. 

Work

Work is still fully remote. I made a few visits to the office, which I always enjoy. 

I have taken on another team and learned some new things in the process.

Some people have left like in many companies all over the world. This is too be expected, but was still a blow to me and the team.

Travel

Ebro river

Besides the two cycling trips that I did on my own we also did one trip to Germany with all the dogs to drop of one of them. I really can't recommend this either. Don't travel with four puppies in a van over 2400km. It is no fun!

In November we rented a camper van just for the two of us and travelled a bit in Spain. It was quite relaxing and we choose fancy hotels to enjoy the downtime without the zoo. 

There is really enough fun stuff to see in Spain. 

Books

I have a separate post bout my 2021 Books. I plan to keep the fiction/non-fiction rhythm going this year.

I have a long backlog of books to read on Goodreads, but I am open to suggestions too.

Friday Links 

The links are still going. With 39 posts I kept the frequency up, usually only skipping bank holidays and vacations. 

I am still considering improving these in some way, but I also don't want to increase the time I spend on these a lot.  So writing a lot of context is out of the question.

One idea would be to put a hard limit on the number of links and removing some topics completely. If I do a change this will be gradually over the year.

Health

No major injuries! And the virus probably didn't get me either.

I got vaccinated during the summer and boosted in January 2022. It makes you a bit more relaxed about life.

I am very impressed about how Catalonia and Spain have handled the whole crisis and the vaccination drive. It helps to have a population which is not following some weird pseudo-science.

House & Garden

Not much improvement in the house, mostly home automation.

I installed a connected cat flap in the bathroom, which gives the cats a lot more freedom and we can see how active they are. I also replaced the cat feeding stations with connected versions. This is super helpful to detect changes in their food consumption, which can be an indicator of some illness.

I also replaced some of light-bulbs with IKEA smart home versions to switch off all lights when we go to bed. 

And most recently a smart thermostat with a separate sensor. The previous one was in a room we rarely us, but had to heat all of the time to satisfy the thermostat.

The garden suffered this year. We didn't have time to plant more than tomatoes and cucumbers.

It has also been so dry that there were not many olive or almonds on the trees. I think it was the year with the least rain in recent history. This trend will likely continue, so we have to rethink our plants in the garden as the current ones won't make it.

2021 in books

2021 books

As with many things 2021 didn't quite go to plan with my reading. There were too many distractions in the first half of the year, but I got some reading time in the second half. The lack of holidays, flying and commuting didn't really help overall. 

As always this is a mix of light fiction and books related to work, which this year mostly means management. 

In the last quarter I also got into a fiction / non-fiction rhythm. This gives my brain a bit of rest between the "serious" books. 

I also started to use readwise. It is a services that resurfaces your notes from books you have read to make it easier to remember then. Once I started using it I also started using notes much more concious, because I know they will be useful in the future. Previously I only sometimes exported them to use in my Zettelkasten system. I still do that for some topics. 

But now to the books. First the ones I finished by type and lastly the one I didn't finish.  

Management & Engineering

Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations

Very popular book, but I found it boring. It is basically a long interpretation of a survey. This could have been a short series of blog posts.   

The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business 

 This is great. I really liked The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable. And this is a summary of most of his books without the fables. This makes it a quick read, while still containing all the important information.    

Resilient Management

This is targeted at Engineering Managers, but worth a read for all managers. Pretty short too. 

The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels

Targeted at executive managers, but really applies to everyone joining a new team as a leader.  I am just not sure I could pack all of this into 90 days. 

Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams 

I read this a long time ago, maybe 20 years ago. A lot of the examples seem to be old fashioned, mentioning telephones and public announcement systems in offices. But once you look past this and replace them in your mind with Zoom and Slack you notice that not much has changed and a lot of their findings still apply.

Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code (Addison-Wesley Signature Series 

We read this in our engineering book club at Devex. It consists of two parts, first the introduction to the idea of refactoring and then a catalogue of refactorings. Not the best book for a book club, but still a classic and worth reading. 

Currently we are reading A Philosophy of Software Design.

Science Fiction

Leviathan Falls (The Expanse #9) 

The final book in one of the best space operas out there. Sometimes it goes too much into fantasy with magic and gods. The last book made a lot of use of this to close the story.  

Children of Time (Children of Time #1) 

I really enjoyed this. It got recommended to me from a few directions and it was a fun read. Not ideal if you hate spiders.     

Project Hail Mary 

I went through this in two days. Lovely read with a lot of sciency bits and the usual witty writing. 

Thriller

The Dark Hours (Renée Ballard, #4; Harry Bosch Universe, #35)
Never Let Me Down Again (John Milton #19)
Bulletproof (John Milton Series #20)

 
I get every new release by Michael Connelly and Mark Dawson. This is really light and fun reading. I like heroes that are not perfect and Bosch and Milton fit right in.  

Yours Until Death 

I am a big fan of Nordic noir, but this was not good. It might be the translation, but it was close to unreadable.     

In Bad Company (Sandhamn Murders, #9) 

Another Nordic noir. I keep reading this series, but it is also not really that good. I guess I just enjoy the Swedish scenery.  This is perfect beach reading, if you can get to a beach. 

Others

Rumble Strip: If You Want to Get Away with Murder, Buy a Car

A comic about how bad cars are. Really depressing and painful to read. But beautiful drawn and witty.

Given up on or paused 

I didn't finish these for on reason or another. While in the past I would have waded through the mud until the end, I now rather give up and start something better.

Children of Ruin (Children of Time, #2) 

While I liked the first one, this one was no fun. 

Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work  

Too focused on the US education system. Maybe it gets better toward the end? 

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Revised and Updated: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

Can I have a very short version of this please? I couldn't get into the writing style. I might give it another go in the future.    

2020 review

2020 was a bit unexpected to say the least. Here is a quick review from my perspective.

This is the second year we are living in the countryside and hour from Barcelona and over the year it turned out to have been a pretty good decision. 

January

Pretty uneventful. I mostly cycled indoors and met the BRCG crew once for a longer ride. A storm hit Spain and led to a bit of damage on our house. 

February

I started a project to hit every restaurant on Passeig de Sant Joan near our office. I would get too far. 

Beginning of the month I listened to an episode of the 80,000 hours podcast about the coronavirus. They are pretty reasonable people and I thought it was probably worth preparing a little bit. 

On our next shopping trip I bought a bit more pasta, canned food and hand sterilizer than usual. My girlfriend looked at me with the worry that I turned into a mad prepper.

March

Bill Bailey

3rd of March we saw Bill Bailey doing a show in Barcelona. It was brilliant. We were in a packed theatre and he was making fun about the virus. 

4th our CEO was in town for the week and I coaxed him into a deploy. 

In fact a lot of our team from the US office was in town and they planned to stay for a while. On the Friday we had a town hall meeting and I suggest we do a test run for the following week where everybody works from home. To my surprise this was accepted as a good idea. Little did we know that by that time the Americans scrambled to get back to the states as the US was closing borders for European flights. 

End of the week the supermarkets were emptied of toilet paper (surprisingly I didn't stock up on that, because we really had enough). 

We did a last trip to Barcelona to visit a Chinese supermarket and pick up stuff from the office. I haven't been in the city since then. 

This was also the day were the lock-down was really announced.

Lucas Hamilton

One highlight was a small virtual group ride with Lucas Hamilton from Mitchelton-Scott, which are my favourite team. It was pretty relaxed until everybody killed me in a sprint.  

April-June

This was a bit of a blur. 

I improved my workspace in preparation to working from home for a long time. 

The lock-down meant that I was not able to go for bike rides for a while.

We spent time on working in the garden and house. 

Enjoyed the nice weather.

Shopping habits also changed, before we went every couple of days and now we try to go maybe every three weeks.This also had the effect to go more vegetarian. You just can't keep animal meat fresh for a long time. 

July

I planned to cycle to Barcelona, but I only made it to my old village just outside for some ice-cream. 

picnic

My sister came with her daughther for a visit from Germany. For her it must have been like visiting a different planet. Germany didn't have any proper lock-down in 2020 and in Spain everybody was super careful and wearing masks.

 

We had a good time, with some road trips and picnics. All very social distanced. 

August

Devex has a company wide week off at the end of August. By some lucky chance some friends planned a cycling trip from Geneva to Nice . We would fly to Switzerland and then ride down to Nice and fly back. It would have been a brilliant trip with good friends and just cycling every days.

 

In the end I decided against it because of the virus thing. It just didn't felt safe to me personally to fly two times and then stay in a different hotel every day. The cycling itself is obviously pretty much perfect for social distancing. 

I decided something closer to home with meeting fewer people would be better. I rented a car and spent a few of days in Berga and a weekend in a fancy hotel in Peramola. I still was able to cycle every day, but met nearly nobody. People in Berga and in the Hotel were also very good at social distancing and wearing masks.

Weather was pretty good all the time. Sometimes so good that I had trouble to find enough water stops on the way. This area is just great for cycling.

September

We left the animals in the care of a friend and went on a camping trip to our favourite camping ground not far from Valencia. On the way to that one and back we stayed in some fancy hotels to get the chance to relax a bit.

The weather was "varied", but it was a a great trip. I do miss camping and holidays, but the animals do make this tricky. Our car and tent is also to small to take our dog.

October

I enjoyed the remaining long days and nice weather with some good bike rides. The lock-down limits for cycling were a bit larger at that time, which gave me the chance for some longer rides. Overall pretty uneventful though.

November

My birthday that I nearly forgot about just now. 

I finally gave up on Instagram, because it got to annoying with a new interface and non stop sponsored posts. This also meant that I don't post photos to Facebook any more, because I just used Instagram to do this. 

December

Usually we have some friends around for Christmas and New Years, but this time it was just us. We still had our traditional duck for Christmas, crispy duck for boxing day and hot pot for New Year Eve. I don't know if I ate more or less than when we have guests. Probably more.

Some Statistics

Books 

I already posted a summary of the books I read this year. I guess I expected to have more time, but I have no idea what happened to the time I saved commuting. 26 books including graphic novels is not bad though. 

Cycling

Not quite as much cycling as I wanted. Since we moved I am missing my daily all year commute. It was short, but pretty effective. And this year I didn't even have my long rides back from work that I did once or twice a week last year.

This winter I definitely increased my indoor cycling. With the current limited range I can cycle outdoors due to lock-down it isn't that bad.

I also managed quite a distance in dog walks, which is also reducing time for cycling. 

Hopefully a bit more for 2021

Blog

I did post 46 of my regular Friday Links, which is pretty good. In June I also changed the format to add a bit of a comment to each link and an image to each post, which was well received by the few people who are reading these.

My most popular posts in decreasing popularity:

• My thoughts on meetings
• My Workspace
• Letting your CEO deploy to production
• Saying goodbye to some legacy code

Overall the visits to my blog are nothing worth mentioning ... so I won't.

 

Looking forward to 2021! How bad can it possibly be? 

 

2020 in Books

goodreads books 2020

You would think a global pandemic would be good for your reading habit. This doesn't seem to be the case for me. I am not sure where the time I spent on commute went, but definitely not towards some good use.

This list is kind of in order, but also grouped by author and series. 

Most of the books are easy airport reads, with thrillers and some sci-fi. 

I also tried some of the management books I had on my reading list for a long time.
 

Books

The Unicorn Project: A Novel about Digital Disruption, Redshirts, and Overthrowing the Ancient Powerful Order by Gene Kim

See also my post about this book. Both are engineering management books in the form of a novel. I was not 100% convinced, but at least the first part (Phoenix Project) was a fun read. This part was a drag. 

The Business of Changing the World: How Billionaires, Tech Disrupters, and Social Entrepreneurs Are Transforming the Global Aid Industry by Raj Kumar

Written by my boss about the industry Devex is navigating in. I figured that it is probably a good idea to find out what he thinks about the industry while finding out more about the industry myself. I found a lot of interesting titbits and it might help me to make decisions about our products in the future.

In the Shadow of Power  (Sandhamn Murders #7) by Viveca Sten
In the Name of Truth (Sandhamn Murders #8) by Viveca Sten

I really like Nordic Noir TV series ... this is not that. It is a easy beach crime lecture in a cosy Swedish setting. Maybe Enid Blyton for grown ups. 

Infinity Born by Douglas E. Richards

It did get off to a good start, but then it looked like someone searched for AI on Wikipedia and got lost for a couple of days. During this travel into the rabbit hole he seemed to have got fascinated by various billionaires and decided to write a book about it.
All the other characters were just decoration and I didn't care for any of them.
The plot, if you can even call it that, was so predictable that I was able to see the ending miles away. 

The Poet (Jack McEvoy #1) by Michael Connelly
The Scarecrow (Jack McEvoy #2) by Michael Connelly
Fair Warning (Jack McEvoy #3) by Michael Connelly
The Lincoln Lawyer (Mickey Haller #1) by Michael Connelly
The Fifth Witness (Mickey Haller #4) by Michael Connelly
The Gods of Guilt (Mickey Haller #5) by Michael Connelly
The Law of Innocence (Mickey Haller #6) by Michael Connelly

These books all play in the Bosch universe. I really like the Harry Bosch series in books and on TV. Because I was yearning for more of the same I devoured the rest of the universe too. They are easy to read crime fiction with different angles depending on the main person. 

Harry Bosch is an ex-detective, Jack McEvoy a reporter and Mickey Haller a lawyer.  

They are all kind of broken, which is the way I like my heroes.

The Man Who Never Was (John Milton #16) by Mark Dawson
Killa City (John Milton #17) by Mark Dawson
Ronin (John Milton #18) by Mark Dawson

Another crime series I am addicted too. John Milton is a British ex-spy on a Jason Bourne / Robin Hood mission. Another broken hero. Good fun to read.

The Art of Leadership: Small Things, Done Well by Michael Lopp

If you read his blog you probably can skip the book. It is structured in sections for managers, directors and executives. I only enjoyed the first two. 

Definitely worth reading though as he gives good actionable tips with believable examples.

Red Rising (Red Rising Saga #1) by Pierce Brown
Golden Son (Red Rising Saga #2) by Pierce Brown
Morning Star (Red Rising Saga #3) by Pierce Brown

Hunger Games meets Hogwart's Houses. This doesn't have enough science for me. But then I still read through three of these very large books. The world and cast building is pretty good. 

Change Journal by Tim Jaudszims

I started a workday journal this year and was looking for inspirations for structure and format. So far I haven't picked up anything from this book. Maybe 2021 :-)

Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow by Matthew Skelton

Very good read for every engineering manager. The focus is on product/stream teams with additional supporting teams. Most of it only makes sense for large companies and teams dealing with software. It is also relying on the use of micro-services a lot to split up projects for teams.

The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More Change the Way You Lead Forever by Michael Bungay Stanier

I somehow feel that this could have been a blog post or a series of posts. I think the author felt the same, because the book is full of empty decorative pages and a large font type. 

Nonetheless the tips are good and maybe the repetition in the book helps with remembering them. 

Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek  

I gave up on this very early. I am just not buying into the whole concept. I think there are also some talks by him on TED and YouTube that tell you everything you need to know about the concept. 

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni 

 

Similar to the Unicorn Project, this begins with a fictional story about a new CEO coaching her team to success. Apparently there is a 19 page version of this around or "busy" people, but these 250 pages are also a very quick read. 

Probably nothing new to people dealing with teams, but the the example story and explanations make it worth it. 

 

Comics

Doomsday Clock Series

I love The Watchmen graphic novel. It is one of my top five graphic novels. This is a cross-over with the DC universe (Batman & co). I really don't like cross-overs, but it was great to revisit the characters.

Criminal Series by Ed Brubaker 

Great crime comic from one of my favourite comic artists. 

The Boys Series by Garth Ennis

Apparently there are people who are not aware that the Amazon TV series is based on this. Read it, it is great. I even enjoyed the ending and even more that it has an ending that wraps everything up.

Lazarus: Risen Series by Greg Rucka

Greg Rucka is another one of my favourite comic artists. I love what he did with the Batman universe back in the days. This story is about some engineered super humans that are used by super rich families to fight each other, because they are to spoiled. 

Currently (or soon or never) reading

Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams by Tom DeMarco 

I have read this a long time ago, but someone recommended it as a book that is still valid. So far it seems pretty good.

Iron Gold (Red Rising Saga #4) by Pierce Brown

The next part in the Saga. But #3 kind of closed it of nicely. I am not sure if I can be bothered.

Psychedelic Prayers: And Other Meditations by Timothy Leary

OK, this is as weird one. It is often used as lyrics in techno tracks. I sometimes cite it in strange places. 

Rise: 3 Practical Steps for Advancing Your Career, Standing Out as a Leader, and Liking Your Life by Patty Azzarello

I can't remember why I put it on my list. Maybe a recommendation by someone.

Rumble Strip by Woodrow Phoenix

Definitely a recommendation. It is a comic about how we treat the dangers of cars as normal. I read it very slowly, because it is super depressing.  

My to-read list on Goodreads is also way too long.