Books of 2024: Part 2

Gazettabyte asks industry figures to pick their reads of the year. In Part 2, Scott Wilkinson, Nigel Toon and Kailem Anderson select their best reads.

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Scott Wilkinson, Lead Analyst, Networking Components, Cignal AI

I spent the year enjoying a poem a day from Brian Bilston’s Days Like These: An Alternative Guide to the Year in 366 Poems.

You may have seen his poems on social media, as he’s sometimes called The Poet Laureate of Twitter. It’s been a joy to end the day with one of his hilarious, occasionally poignant, and always topical poems.

I ended the year completing Andrew Roberts’ Napoleon: A Life. After the disappointing 2023 film, I wanted to know more about the person for whom an era of European history is named. At almost 1,000 pages, the author is remarkably thorough. Napoleon had a brilliant mind and his many achievements are lost in the legend of his military wins and losses. There’s no way I’ll remember all the details in the biography, but living in it for a few months was fascinating.

One book that I recommend to everyone is An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong. In this amazing book, the author spends a chapter on the senses and looks at how animals experience the world around us. We have historically coloured the world based on our ability to perceive it, which is just a small fraction of the stimuli surrounding us. The author doesn’t just cover the five senses that humans rely on but investigates echolocation, the ability of seals to follow fish trails through water, magnetic navigation, and more.

I guarantee you won’t be able to read a chapter without relaying fascinating facts to anyone sitting nearby. The chapter on smell will change how you walk your dog. The chapter on sight will help you understand why we use RGB colour codes – and why they wouldn’t be the right choice for other animals. The chapters on senses humans don’t use will blow your mind and leave you wondering how much you’re missing on a casual walk through the park. It’s a book that any engineer, scientist, or curious mind will enjoy, and it is a great gift. And no, I don’t get residuals.

Every year at the holidays, I get a huge stack of books, a few of which I discovered through these articles. I didn’t get through my complete stack this year thanks to Mr. Bonaparte’s rich history, but that won’t stop me from picking up a few more again this holiday season. I look forward to seeing everyone else’s picks.

Nigel Toon, co-founder and CEO at Graphcore 

My recommendation is Henry Kissinger on China. The book offers amazing insights into the relationship between the USA and China, which is as relevant today as when it was written in 2011.

Kailem Anderson, Vice President, Global Products & Delivery, Blue Planet

I love reading books on the history of technology. I’m currently reading Palo Alto: A History of Silicon Valley Capitalism and the World by Malcolm Harris. As an industry, it’s amazing how new technology can become old and then the old becomes new again. We forget the old and recycle many of the same issues from one technology transition to the next. I’m fascinated by learning from the past to see if solutions from our technology past can apply to the future.

I’m also reading Stephen Hawking’s Brief Answer to the Big Questions. This is a great book that stretches the mind on abstract concepts such as the universe, technology, predicting the future, and examining whether artificial intelligence will outsmart us. The book provides an insight into one of the most amazing minds, Stephen Hawking, and asks big-picture questions that we are afraid to ask ourselves.

Lastly, I would recommend Ali—A Life by Jonathan Eig. The book is an amazing read about Muhammad Ali's life, how he took on the establishment, and how he broke down stereotypes and prejudices. Despite being rejected for his beliefs, Ali stood by his convictions to change people’s perceptions and become one of the greatest and most admired people of the 20th century.