Books I read in 2024

I think I was a lil' bit intentional about reading in 2024 and I'm somewhat proud of it. Maybe I'm doing this to inspire you to read more in 2025. Don't spend all your time on social media.

👋 Hey, this is Chibs! Welcome to Regular Dev.

I’m trying to strip software engineering of all the wrong things social media has made it out to be based on my career, experiences, and journey. It’s sort of like telling the truth about software engineering; everything I write here is objectively aimed at that.

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There’s one more day left in the year, and I saw a post of a lady who read 100+ books this year! I was tempted to ask if reading was her full-time job. Lol. I think that’s rare, but it is phenomenal. I did nothing close to that, but I did far better than I did in 2023.

Don’t be deceived; I didn’t read them; I just own them.

It’s not so easy to get physical books (without spending a fortune), and I prefer physical books to reading PDFs on an iPad, but ebooks are much better than nothing at all.

My range is broad, but I mostly read books that inspire and build my faith, tech books, church history, and stories that do not make me sleep.

I’ll divide the books I read into two baskets: those I read and finished and those I read half-in and half-out. Here goes.

Books I finished

You, too, brag if e sure for you.

1. 14 Habits of Highly Productive Developers - Zeno Rocha

   

   I started the year with this “short” book because, coming back from the 2023 holiday, I struggled to find motivation for work. January was fully up and running, but my head didn’t agree, so I took this up. It is really good for motivation. In it, a bunch of highly placed developers tell you how they handle a variety of issues, like burnout and meeting timelines.

2. Prophet - Frank Peretti

   

   I came across a physical copy of this book. I was already acquainted with Peretti's genius storytelling from his other book, This Present Darkness, so it was an easy choice to read Prophet. It follows the life of a TV personality and Journalist at the peak of his career and his struggles with God’s call upon him. You may not be able to put this kind of book down until you’ve finished it. It’s that good.

3. The Fisherman’s Tomb - John O’Neill

   

   I discovered this book on a random recommendation. Because I am 101% sold out on church history, it was a no-brainer. The narration was also extremely fluid. I enjoyed following the Roman Catholic church’s search for the real burial place and actual bones of the Apostle Peter, the first bishop of Rome.

4. Conclave - Robert Harris

   

   Conclave…hmm. It was a really good book (even though the ending ruined it for me), but I’ve always been curious about how the Pope (arguably the most famous man on earth) was selected, and this book gives a front-row seat at one. What made it better was that Robert actually traveled to the Vatican and did very intense research before putting this fictional conclave together. So it’s not very far from the real thing.

5. 2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity - Eddie L. Hyatt

   

   This is one of two books that should be in my re-reads yearly. The reason? Many charismatics are often unable to trace Pentecost from the Apostles till our time, and mainstream church history either chooses to ignore this or deliberately omits them. For instance, I did not know Jerome was a firm believer in the manifestations of the holy ghost, and neither did I know that the Montanists may not have been the heretics the catholic church and mainstream church history has made them out to be, as Charles Wesley himself witnesses.

6. Following God’s Plan for Your Life - Kenneth E. Hagin

   

   This is the second of two books I reread annually. Few books are as instructive for one’s life as this one. I did not see the fuss about it until I had to read it at a point this year when everything was really unclear. It gives you direction in a most profound way.

Books I did not finish

WGMI

1. The Jerusalem Assasin - Joel C. Rosenberg

   

   I liked the story. Time took it away from me, but perhaps in 2025. I will pick it up where I dropped it off.

2. Church History in Plain Language - Bruce L. Shelley

   

   I try my best to read this every year. I did in 2022 —I didn’t finish—and in 2023, too. I had to travel sometime in August, and this book was my take-along. It’s amazing how interesting it is every time I come back to it. It is arguably the best church history book out there.

3. The New Amplified Pilgrim’s Progress - John Bunyan

   

   I have tried to read John Bunyan’s immortal classic, but the English of that age is quite incomprehensible. Although the KJV is my best translation of the Bible, I still can’t read Pilgrim’s Progress. So, I found out there was an Amplified version of it. Lol. I started, but let’s see where we get to next year.

4. Designing Data-Intensive Applications - Martin Klepmann

   

   For the longest time, I have been unable to enter this book's flow because I still don’t have a physical copy. However, I will work on it in 2025. The e-copy is agonizing.

   PS: Do you know how to ship these tech or faith books into Nigeria without breaking the bank? If so, please share.

Final Notes

As I said, there’s a big problem with our generation. We spend all our time on social media, which is optimized for dumbness. Your best trends and most liked content are mind-impairing, cognitively deteriorating rubbish. Skits and the like. You are dumber for it (sorry). Maybe one of the ways to break free is actually to spend time away from it. Read a book—and ideally, make it a physical book. It’s not wrong to spend money buying them. It’s an investment in your well-being and mental health. It might be fun even to keep a log of books you’ve read, and let’s see if we can gamify the activity in 2025. You in?

Or, let’s take a poll.

Gracias Amigo!