Hard to believe we’ve arrived at yet another installment of the Biblioracle Book Awards in which I reflect back on my 12 months of reading and invent awards for books published in the 2024 calendar year. As a reminder, my awards are both completely definitive and entirely meaningless. (This is true of all awards.
) This week we’re looking at nonfiction, with fiction spread over the next two weeks after that. In general, I cover much less nonfiction in this space than fiction because my nonfiction reading is fit to purpose. Rather than ranging freely, as I do with fiction, I tend to seek out books that will help me better make sense of the world I’m living in.
My nonfiction reading clusters around the year’s obsessions. In that spirit, the nonfiction Biblioracle Book Awards for 2024 are themed by the categories where I was doing my most searching for wisdom. If you’re searching like me, these may be good books for you.
Because I was writing a book of my own on the impact of generative AI on our reading and writing lives (“More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI” coming Feb. 5, 2025) I read many books in this category. Two stood out.
“Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture” by Kyle Chayka explores how, without us being fully aware of the shift, the sorting of the media and even experiences we’re exposed to happens through aggregated, non-human calculations. Chayka questions if these processes are good for human flourishing and the .
