> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://balaustine.mymagic.page/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Books – 2022
- URL: https://balaustine.mymagic.page/books-2022/
- Published: 2023-01-26T13:55:53.000Z
- Updated: 2023-01-26T13:55:53.000Z
- Author: VM
- Tags: Life notes, books, Christophe Jaffrelot, David Quammen, Jacques Ellul, monographs, Nambi Narayanan, nonfiction, reading habit, Viriconium, #Migrated-1787484114599, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-23 11:22

Even as I whined about losing my reading habit, I managed to read a surprising (to me) number of books [through 2022](https://farfromeq.wordpress.com/2022/12/28/2022-in-retrospect/?ref=balaustine.mymagic.page). One reason I think I didn't notice is because very few of them started out being books I actually wanted to read. Looking back, there's a clear fiction-nonfiction divide and a marked preference for monographs. The full list follows; each recommender's name is in square brackets and a thumbs-up denotes how much I personally enjoyed it.

1. *The Dark Side of the Hive* (NF), Robin Moritz and Robin Crewe \[Raghavendra Gadagkar\] 👍🏾
2. *Ignition!: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants* (NF), John Drury Clark 👍🏾
3. *The Technological Society* (NF), Jacques Ellul
4. *The Complete Cosmicomics* (F), Italo Calvino \[Jahnavi Sen\] 👍🏾
5. Reread: *Coup de Grace* (F), Marguerite Yourcenar 👍🏾
6. *Straw Man Arguments: A Study in Fallacy Theory* (NF), Scott Aikin and John Casey 👍🏾👍🏾
7. *Ascendancies: The Best of Bruce Sterling* (F), Bruce Sterling \[Shruti Muralidhar\]
8. *The Vortex: A True Story of History’s Deadliest Storm, an Unspeakable War, and Liberation* (NF), Scott Carney and Jason Miclian
9. *From Space to Sea: My ISRO Journey and Beyond* (NF), Albert Muthunayagam 👍🏾 (largely because the [Nambi Narayanan](https://farfromeq.wordpress.com/2022/08/02/nambi-narayanan-scientists-immunity/?ref=balaustine.mymagic.page) biopic had just come out and the book contradicted many claims in the film)
10. *Real-World Cryptography* (NF), David Wong
11. *Spillover* (NF), David Quammen 👍🏾👍🏾
12. *Modi's India* (NF), Christophe Jaffrelot
13. *Letters to a Young Poet* (NF), Rainer Maria Rilke 👍🏾
14. *Ninefox Gambit* (F), Yoon Ha Lee
15. *The Dawn of Analysis* (NF), Scott Soames
16. *At the Feet of Living Things* (NF), Aparajita Datta, Rohan Arthur and T.R. Shankar Raman 👍🏾
17. *The Collected Stories* (F), Arthur C. Clarke
18. *Parallel Lives* (NF), Phyllis Rose \[Jahnavi Sen\] 👍🏾

Now reading: *Viriconium* (F), M. John Harrison \[Thomas Manuel\] so far 👍🏾👍🏾

Up next: *The God Is Not Willing* (F), Steven Erikson