Four Books For Your 2024 Reading List

Books about Travel, Technology, and the Power of Mindset

Photo by Syd Wachs on Unsplash

Last year I shared a short list of books that I read in 2022 that warranted a mention in one of those fancy year-end lists that are so popular on the internet. Most of the time you see these “best books” lists right before the holidays because, you know, gift-giving season.

Per the usual, I am behind the curve.

Nevertheless, this year for your consideration, four books that I read in 2023 that made an impact on my year in one way or another.

Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time
Mark Adams

In 2023 I continued the practice of reading books about places I visited before, during, and after traveling to those places. For Peru, I started by reading Death in the Andes by Nobel-prize winning author Mario Vargas Llosa before pivoting to something a little less dark before the trip (If you know, you know. I picked it back up again and finished it after we were safely home).

A lighter fare, Adams’ book about Machu Picchu, about Hiram Bingham, and about Adams’ own travels on the Inca trails was a delightful primer for Peru. It is a wonderful read that weaves together separate narratives and timelines — never an easy feat — and leaves the reader with a useful sense of place. Our Peruvian tour guide Valentin even mentioned this book as best in class during our visit to Machu Picchu.

Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I'd Known Earlier
Kevin Kelly

As a technology optimist, Kelly is appealing in this time when so many of the voices you hear are pessimistic about the future. There is more reason to hope than to fear, according to the inspirational Kelly, because our ability to solve problems improves more than the problems themselves. This book is full of short, thought-provoking quotes, making it easily digestible as a daily devotional. Reading Kelly’s advice first thing in the morning helps to start your day on a sunnier side, hopeful and ready to tackle any challenges that come your way.

White Sands: Experiences from the Outside World
Geoff Dyer

Dyer is a tremendous story-teller with a unique voice. His writing style is one-of-a-kind, full of starts-and-stops, parentheticals, and em dashes. His prose in an inspiration to aspiring writers, an encouragement to write however you want to write — the rest be damned.

Man's Search for Meaning
Viktor Frankl

Frankl penned one of the most powerful reminders that can be applied to everyday life when he wrote:

… everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.

Man’s Search for Meaning is a masterclass on mindset, acceptance, and endurance. It is a philosophical textbook for living that warrants a second or third read, or perhaps even more than that.

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What did you read in 2023 that left a mark on your year?