There is something magical about books. Of course, they introduce you to new ideas, new worlds, and our past, but for me they are also bookmarks in time and space. When I walk past my bookshelf and look at the titles, I can see where I was when reading or listening to that book, who I was at the time, and what I was searching for. I get a similar feeling when I look over the list of books I read this year. Thirty-eight! This brings my tally up to 200 from when I started to keep track back in 2017. Assuming I average thirty-six books a year for the next sixty years it means I’ll be able to read another 2,160 in my lifetime. Honestly doesn’t sound like a lot when typed out, but it’ll be interesting to see whether I can keep up the pace now that I have an adorable son competing for my time (it’s not a competition, he always wins).

However, if there is a decline in books read over the next few years it’ll be a classic J Curve. Temporary decline before dramatic gains as I compete with my kids to see who can read the most books. Without further ado though, below are my book reviews for 2022. Unlike this intro they are short, sweet, and to the point. The only problem is there are thirty-eight of them.

Biographies/History

I think it’s impossible to read a book about Native Americans and not wonder, “Could things have turned out differently?” I get the feeling there is an alternate timeline where tribes in the Northeast and Pacific Northwest built the political foundations necessary to form nation states, avoided diseases to maintain a population density necessary to enforce borders, and negotiated enforceable treaties with the U.S.  There were plenty of officials and administrations that wanted bilateral relationships with tribes. It was just impossible to keep settlers off what looked like uninhabited land and there were too many parties to negotiate treaties with. But after reading Empire of the Summer Moon, I don’t think that scenario was ever an option for the Comanches. The Comanches (like Russia) did not pass the Mr. Rogers, “Will you be my neighbor” test. It is probably uncouth to say this but after reading the umpteenth instance of rape, murder, and dismemberment, I concluded most people in North America (specifically Texans, northern Mexicans, and other Great Plains Native Americans) have benefited from the surrender of Comanche raiders.  Let the Mountains Remember is another Native American focused book but this time on the Paiute of eastern Oregon and the army’s campaigns against them in the 1860s. Compared to the Comanches this campaign seemed almost provincial. But it was great to read history about some familiar places in Oregon.

We bring our 19th Century and Native American history to a close with Undaunted Courage. I had never heard about the close relationship Meriwether Lewis had to Thomas Jefferson before reading this book. Also, logistics and planning have always fascinated me, especially for pre-industrialized militaries. The most beautiful part of the book was the depiction of the abundant wildlife on the Great Plain. I don’t think I will see anything like the early 19th Century Great Plains, but I hope much of America is re-wilded someday in a way that is conducive for both people and animals.

The Great Degeneration is a story of western institutional decay, negligence, and complacency. It pairs neatly with my opinions on how we are over-lawyered, over-regulated on dumb stuff but not intelligently planning around the big issues, have too many committees with too many people on them, and an unmanageable bureaucracy with its own agenda(s). No one really wants personal responsibility and the few people that do want responsibility don’t want the downside, which is liability for your choices, and everyone gets a veto (the burrowing owl, the amoeba in the dirty pond water, etc). We live in a society with people who are gun-shy and need to check with their attorney, regulator, commanding officer, priest, mother, and astronomical phenomena before making a decision. Rant over.

Outlaw Platoon is a good autobiography of an infantry platoon leader’s experience in Afghanistan in 2006. I think it’s important to grab an individual soldier’s account of conflicts every now and then so we understand the sacrifices they’ve made. Grand history is exciting with the movement of army groups and whatnot. But we can never forget that all the flags on a map represent real people navigating the most trying and darkest parts of the human experience. On the other end of the spectrum is The Admirals. The Admirals covered the careers of Halsey, Nimitz, King, and Leahy from their first days at Annapolis to the Japanese surrender aboard the USS Missouri. These were people I’d read about it in books about Marshall, Churchill, and Eisenhower, so I was familiar with their names and what they did, but not their points of view. I usually read about the European side of the conflict, so King always seemed like he was trying to siphon off resources to fight the Japanese but in the context of this book he seems evenhanded all things considered. Four things I took away were:

1. People saw a conflict with Japan on the horizon for fifty years before the start of World War II. Are there expectations of conflict like that today and why or why would they not be different?

2. Entire careers are built up to succeed or fail in moments. These men had decades of experience before WWII. All older than 58!

3. Lean into disruption. The benefits of aircraft carriers and submarines were foreshadowed decades in advance.  

4. Test, test, and test equipment again. A world war is the wrong time to learn your torpedoes don’t work.

I had been wanting to read Anabasis for years and finally got around to it. 10,000 Greek mercenaries have won a battle in a Persian civil war, but their patron lies dead. Hundreds of miles in enemy territory they must march home. I love reading the ancients. The drama, the larger-than-life characters, and sudden turn of events. One lesson though is just how different we are. Xenophon can discuss the virtues of liberty in one paragraph and in the next casually mention how they must turn villagers they come across into slaves so they can make some profit from their expedition. Also highlights how precarious life was back in the day. One moment you could be farming and minding your own business, the next an army of angry young men could descend upon your village, steal your property, winter provisions, and abduct your family.  

We finally get to one of my favorite books of the year. I’m always suspicious of autobiographies written by popular figures. On average, if someone is in the middle of their career, on the way out, or applying for a new job (AKA running for public office) you can err on their autobiography being garbage. Who does that leave for good autobiographies? People who are dead (writing has stood the test of time) or have been retired for 10+ years. The Ride of a Lifetime by Bob Iger is the exception to my rule. The man clearly has an eye for storytelling and distilling his decades long career in entertainment, fifteen of those years at the head of Disney. I think three takeaways (though there are many) would be:

1. Sometimes it is better to hire for capability than experience.

2. You’re more likely to survive if you lean into disruption than trying to build a stronghold against it.

3. Know your prices, costs, and sales pitch 

Business/Work/Finance and Economics

Boring certification books are on the list again with the CFA Level 2 Secret Sauce and the first CFP book. If I end up getting both designations, material from both of these thrilling certifications will be on here until I’m 31 or 32. The (Mis)behavior of Markets read like a 300 page dissertation of an outcast nerd railing against the nerd establishment.  Mandelbrot was a super intelligent guy, and he clearly thought his fractal analyses was better than the efficient market hypothesis and Bayesian models. When it comes to statistical analysis, he is probably correct that relying on a normal distribution can lead to disaster if you’re following the model blindly and making systemically important decisions. But I don’t make systemically important decisions and I’ve always viewed these as rules of thumb and not to be followed come hell or high water. I also didn’t find his Ten Heresies of Finance very heretical. Maybe my thinking just developed in a post-2008 world where value at risk models were rightfully dunked on or maybe Jurassic Park taught me to respect what I can’t quantify so his fear mongering is preaching to the choir, but I didn’t find anything revolutionary here.

The Slight Edge is a lifestyle book on building habits and improving one's circumstances. Similar to “getting 1% better each day” and over time you’ll see splendid results. Nothing new but it’s always nice to have a personal responsibility reminder every now and then. I think the key to self-help books is that they’re great, but you must take action.  I wrote a much longer review of The Price You Pay for College earlier this year. I’m not sure if it should be required reading for parents planning to send their kids to college, but I imagine it’s helpful.

Ferguson’s second contribution to this list is The Ascent of Money. A look at the origins of bartering, money, credit, and public companies. They turned the book into a TV series if you don’t like to read. It inspired the first part of my “Why Do We Own Stocks” series.  

I’ve been reading Marginal Revolution for three years now, but Talent is the first Tyler Cowen book I’ve read. It’s about developing a process or frame of mind to discover undervalued talent. Similar to Zero to One (reviewed last year) I’m not sure how much of it applies to my day-to-day work. If anything, it is a lesson on how to make myself look like a talent prospective clients and financial advisors want to work with.

I read two HBR books with Guide to Thinking Strategically and On Sales. Both were occasionally insightful but moving forward I think I get more of a benefit from reading the latest articles on industry topics vs HBR books. I was pleasantly surprised that The E-Myth Revisited was a productive read. It goes over why small businesses fail and the importance of building systems. I think one of the highlights is its discussion of Technicians. Technicians are people who are experts at their craft and just entrepreneurial enough to start their own business, but not enough to see it scale or collaborate. It got me thinking on how we can ensure HFG Trust’s systems are replicable as we expand into other markets.

Current Events/Religion/Science/Philosophy

Next up we have Incerto (Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan, The Bed of Procrustes, Antifragile, and Skin in the Game). Reflecting on these books I am trying to figure out why they spoke to me on such a deep level. For the past twenty years Nassim Nicholas Taleb has been a force in portfolio management, probability theory, and philosophic circles. Having grown up in the home of a financial advisor have I just been surrounded by these ideas and finally found their source? Is it Taleb’s reverence for the ancients and fine Mediterranean wines? His writing of deep human truths or how the world really works? What I do know is that his musings nourished my soul. It was like drinking water from a well that flushed out old matter crystalizing in my brain cells and allowed me to see the world with energized eyes. 

I became a dad this year (best job in the world) so I felt I needed to do some reading to prepare. We’re Parents! The New Dad’s Guide to Baby’s First Year will be my bible moving forward and Cribsheet was a fun read about an economist stepping into the middle of the Mom Wars to separate fact from fiction in determining what is best for your baby.

The next two books are on the philosophical side of life. I’ve listened to Russ Roberts’ podcast EconTalk since my junior year of college. Over the years he’s gone from posterizing the enemies of free markets to how we can navigate the human condition. A similar journey to Adam Smith who wrote The Wealth of Nations and The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Roberts summarizes key lessons from the latter in How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life. I read Awareness and How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life at the same time. I’ll probably need to re-read both books because they are so thoughtful. Awareness can’t be devoured in hour long stretches. It must be taken section or a couple pages at a time. There are plenty of lessons, but I think the theme is learning how we can anchor ourselves in reality and not get caught in the winds of society, relationships, etc.

I’ve already written my full review of How the World Really Works but in summary I think these types of books help build perspective.

C.S. Lewis made the list two years in a row with The Screwtape Letters. The book is a collection of letters from the demon Screwtape to his young nephew Wormwood who is trying to steal his first human soul. It was an entertaining read on how people can be separated from God’s message. It was also funny to see my own human deficiencies discussed. When Screwtape mentioned how some people view their time as solely belonging to them, to dole out as they wish, and that it is terribly annoying when other people interrupt it, I knew he had caught me! It was also interesting to read that once again many of the debates over religion and the moral life have not changed.  

I feel like there are certain interests’ society expects you to graduate out of as you grow up and dinosaurs might be top of the list. You can like the Jurassic Park movies, just don’t be obsessed with dinosaurs. Which I don’t get! Dinosaurs and the ancient world are way cooler when you’re an adult since you can better comprehend and put into context what you are reading. Do I expect to gain monetarily or even in wisdom from reading about dinosaurs? Not really, but when pheasant hunting it’s kind of cool to reflect on the pheasant’s beak and gizzard and think, “Wow, these are evolutionary adaptations that gave your ancient ancestors an advantage over their non-avian dinosaur cousins by allowing your ancestors to scavenge and digest seeds during the great impact winter 65 million years ago.” I don’t want to spoil the The Last Day of the Dinosaurs, but when the planet’s surface temperature goes up to 400 degrees for a few days after the meteor strike, I can understand why all the animals too big to burrow quickly died off. Required reading? No, but if you like dinosaurs I think this book should make your list.

The Comfort Crisis was the last book I read this year and it was near perfect. I’m always worried about my physical health and becoming too soft. So much so that future Haberling homes will need to have a gym, ice baths, and saunas. The Comfort Crisis covers the author’s Alaskan wilderness caribou hunt and is interspersed with topics on doing strenuous things, physical health, and eating well. By the end of the book, I was googling teepees and portable stoves I could take on my elk hunts instead of staying in the nice and cozy local cabins. Do my friends and co-workers think I am crazy because of this? Absolutely.

Fiction

Old Blue (not to be confused with the Velociraptor) was back in the final novel of his prequel series, Thrawn: Lesser Evil. At this point most of my Star Wars books are just books about the Grand Admiral. Though I bring up Star Wars more often, Halo was also part of my childhood and still an occasional escape from reality, which made re-reading Halo: First Strike a nice mental reprieve. Reading a Halo book is like a 4K movie experience in my imagination. Not world changing books, but Halo feels like home.  

The next book, Ubik, made the list of books I gift to people. It is some of the best mind bending sci-fi I have ever read. Though I loved the plot, one thing I appreciated is that it almost seemed respectful of my time. Anything that would create drag on the story had been stripped away to the essentials of the plot. A great and crisp read. I started The Boys from Brazil as my plane was taking off from Seattle and finished it as we were landing at Dallas Love Field. If you combine X-Files style conspiracies with post-war Nazis in South America, I’m probably going to read it. If you enjoy Michael Crichton novels, I think this will be the book for you.    

A few years ago I bought a book called 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die to get exposed to books I wouldn’t normally come across. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold was one of those books and I am happy to report it was a page turner! A good read on double agents and aging out of a profession during the Cold War.  

Finally, we’ll close out our 2022 list with The Tartar Steppe. Taleb references this novel in The Black Swan so I naturally had to check it out and mention it in the intro to one of our client quarterly letters. The premise of a soldier waiting for an invasion his entire life sounded too good, but I don’t think I was ready for the anxiety this novel produced. I recently turned 28 so I’m starting to creep up in years. Not old enough to be worried but old enough to notice I only have so much time. Reading Giovanni pass up opportunities to leave his watch in hope for an invasion that only arrives at the end of his life was tough. And it challenges you to distinguish between duty and what adds flavor to life! Are you responsible and better for standing watch on the wall (saving for retirement, being unselfish with your time, etc) or are you a sucker (experiences are better than security, etc)?  

Well, that’s my review for 2022! If you got this far, I hope you found a book to read in 2023 and maybe a last-minute Christmas gift!