I Read Many Things

Tag: books

  • June 2026

    Here’s a quick recap of what I’ve had the opportunity to read in June. Non-Fiction The Genius Bat, by Yossi Yovel I’ve read quite a few books lately about our ever-evolving perception of animals. Some are interested in the entire animal kingdom and others are quite specific – from an entire order like birds to…

  • May 2026

    Here’s a quick rundown of every book I’ve finished during the month of May. A total of six non-fiction and two fiction books. Non-Fiction The Unthinkable, by Amanda Ripley Who Survives When Disaster Strikes – and Why. It’s a fascinating insight into how humans are wired – or can be trained – to react to…

  • Invisible Women : Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, par Caroline Criado Pérez (fr)

    Avant de lire ce livre, je croyais être un homme particulièrement attentif et préoccupé par les nombreux défis que rencontrent les femmes au quotidien. Tant dans ma vie personnelle que dans le monde professionnel, la vaste majorité des gens qui partagent mon quotidien sont des femmes. Je suis donc assez conscient des normes sociales qui…

  • Faites-les Lire! par Michel Desmurget

    Nul ne sera surpris d’apprendre que je défends avec grande ardeur la lecture comme activité intellectuelle de premier plan. Non seulement j’enseigne à des enfants (de 6 à 9 ans) qui sont en plein dans le processus d’apprentissage de la lecture, du décodage à la compréhension, mais ce présent article est publié sur un blog…

  • COVID-19 and Reading

    Five years ago today, I was officiating a basketball game when the girls at the scorer’s table told us – at half-time – that an NBA game had been cancelled due to concerns over the Coronavirus (as it was known at first). The next day at work, we were told that the school would be…

  • The Once and Future World, by J.B. Mackinnon

    Like many, I’ve been dealing with some form of eco-anxiety for the past few years. Not surprising, since we’re constantly bombarded with apocalyptic news about the state of the environment, whether it’s global warming, deforestation, mass extinction of species or any other similar subject. Usually, any book that dabbles in these issues can be hard…

  • Three Ring Circus, by Jeff Pearlman

    I don’t usually write about sports books on this blog, even if they’re a staple of my reading habits. It’s a very niche genre and your average reader is not going to be interested in them, even sports fans. However, this one hit a bit different for a few reasons. First, while the book’s title…

  • 2024 Year in Review

    Here’s a quick recap of the 72 books I’ve read in 2024. Some stats were picked on Goodreads, and from a quick peek they seem a bit incomplete, but it’s still a good summary of the year. As far as rankings go, I’ve decided to exclude re-reads. Non-Fiction books : 45 Fiction books : 27…

  • The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot

    While browsing on various reading forums to get new ideas for future reads, I often came across mentions of this book. Finding the title intriguing by itself, I looked it up online and learned that it was about some extremely resilient cancer cells – called HeLa, for Henrietta Lacks – able to reproduce at a…

  • All Hell Let Loose : The World at War 1939-1945, by Max Hastings

    There’s an expression in French where we describe a relatively small but thick and dense book as a “pavé”, a word that could be translated to “paving stone” or “slab”. That was exactly the word my wife used when she saw me reading this. It’s quite a massive book, but it’s absolutely worth it if…