It's time to start a thread for my 2022 reading log. I hope you enjoy it and find some books to your liking!
Here is the thread for 2021. https://tweets.berjon.com/1348485686731616260
And the one for 2020. https://tweets.berjon.com/1212591424002306048
I try to keep more or less up to date buying options up at Bookshop: bookshop.org/shop/robin.
No, this isn't for profit. I have yet to cover the price of one book 😁
"Governing Knowledge Commons" by @BrettFrischmann, @profmadison, and @KJStrandburg.
An adaptation of the Institutional Analysis and Development framework for knowledge commons, with a remarkably varied batch of case studies. 
The diversity of situations in which commons work, including for intangible resources, is quite astonishing even if you've been living them. I see an interesting angle in looking at what in more recent digital systems actively prevents the formation of commons.
I suspect there are multiple factors at play, but an umbrella one I see standing out is the manner in which those who design today's tech platforms do not distinguish mechanism design and institution design. It's all incentive and no agency.
"Design choices: Mechanism design and platform capitalism" by @salome_viljoen_, @jakusg, and @LJamesMcGuigan.
Forgot to list this (I'm including some papers this year) but I've been returning to it and it's a great critique of the role of mechanism design in the digital economy. 
There's a lot online that is described as "markets" (eg. in advertising) but that is really an infrastructure mechanism designed to look like a market yet to work for the benefit of the company running it. Being able to spot the difference matters.
One side note that I find interesting is that this is equally problematic whether you're a hardcore libertarian free marketer or a market-hesitant progressive.
Just burn it all to the ground 😁
"The Market System" by Charles Lindblom.
An overview of the market system of remarkable clarity, taking a number of difficult questions head on with frank lucidity. 
"A Desolation Called Peace" by @ArkadyMartine.
A space opera of political intrigue, linguistics, and collective minds. As delightfully smart as the first instalment, with great character chemistry. 
"Industry Unbound" by @ariezrawaldman.
If you've ever wondered why we hear so much about privacy law, know so many working on privacy, hear so much about how companies are trusted with data yet nothing seems to change, read this.
If you work in privacy: this is a must-read. 
At times I think that one of the key reasons we managed to move things forward at The Times (though we're not done) is because we had no idea what we were doing. We hired no one IAPP certified; just took stock, thought about what would be better for our readers, and got to work.
My team was extremely confused with what vendors were offering (retained none) and about why everyone else was so obsessed with consent when anyone who's used a computer more than five minutes knows how hostile it is to people.
Anyway - what we have is still far from ideal, but if you too have felt out of place amidst privacy professionals, read this book! (And reach out, NYT Data Governance is always looking for friends.)
"The Control Revolution" by James Beniger.
An in-depth history of control, from living things to bureaucracy to the information society. A lot of fascinating detail, but I would have preferred more theory and fewer lists of events. 
"How to Blow Up a Pipeline" by Andreas Malm.
In his overall argument, he definitely has a strong point. I've been wondering why there isn't more hacking sabotage of polluting infrastructure given the security problems it often seems to have. 
"Shifting Involvements" by Albert Hirschman.
His thesis that society oscillates between focusing on private and public pursuits due to cyclical disappointment is intriguing, perhaps plausible, but the case feels like a lot of anecdotes and detours. 
"Diagrammatic Immanence" by Rocco Gangle.
An approach to metaphysics that uses category theory as the best approach to formalise an immanentist and relational ontology. 
"Against the Grain" by James C. Scott.
Not quite another Seeing Like A State, but nevertheless a rich and inspiring deep history of the domestication of people. 
"Memory's Legion" by James S. A. Corey.
And so it ends! Good stories in there, exploring a little farther afield. The one downside is that I would have wished for an Avasarala story. 
"Blood of Elves" by Andrzej Sapkowski.
This was chattier and funnier than I expected. 
"How the World Swung to the Right" by François Cusset.
Good diagnosis, though largely depressing for the time being. 
"The Last Wish" by Andrzej Sapkowski.
The real monsters are the friends we made along the way, or something like that. 
"The Death and Life of Great American Cities" by Jane Jacobs.
Amazing precursor of complexity thinking, understanding the emergent organisation of systems through a process view. 
I see a lot of parallel with how the web is being destroyed by planners ("But you need performance! The data says so!") and we can only hope a Jacobs will stop the push to turn it into an ugly soulless strip mall, like its biggest properties.
"An Infinity of Worlds: Cosmic Inflation and the Beginning of the Universe" by @WKCosmo.
This is the kind of science writing that manages to be clear to a general audience without ever feeling like it's dumbing things down. 
"The Science of Can and Can't" by Chiara Marletto.
Some tantalising hints of potentially interesting ideas, but unfortunately too watered down to tell. 
"How Artifacts Afford" by @Jenny_L_Davis.
A clear, crisp, and highly usable framework to parse out the mechanisms and conditions of affordances.
Recommended for those who wish to understand technology. 
"Making Things Up" by Karen Bennett.
A metaphysical account of building relations and fundamentality. Lots of good things in there, though I'm not entirely sure that it's not all causation. 
"Sword of Destiny" by Andrzej Sapkowski.
I'm becoming quite familiar with the Polish romantic canon. 
"Bad Belief: Why They Happen To Good People" by @NeilLevy10.
Makes a convincing case that people with bad beliefs (eg. climate change denialists, antivax) are being rational but acting on different higher-order evidence (evidence about the reliability of first-order evidence). 
I particularly enjoyed the strong case he made in favour of collective cognition and how epistemic individualism is leading us astray. There's a lot to develop there. (If you've read berjon.com/stewardship/ this won't surprise you! 😁)
I was a little less enamoured with his defence of nudging. I think it's valid but a bit quick. My primary concern with nudging (engineering our epistemic environment as he aptly calls it) is precisely a concern with replacing social epistemic signals with industrial ones.
Put differently, I think we're smart because we're epistemically social.
Replacing rich and diverse social signals with fully engineered ones is very much a "scientific forestry" approach. It's a highway to collective stupidity.
This has consequences for the ethics of nudging, for instance that it should never ever be personalised. It shouldn't shape collective signals.
But quibbles aside, great book and open access: global.oup.com/academic/produ…
"State Tectonics" by @m_older.
Great ending to a kick-arse trilogy. I'm still in awe that someone decided to write a novel about information monopolies *and* pulled it off as a techno-politico-spy thriller. 
Just a word of warning for some of you: sometimes this could feel a little too real compared to the issues I'm working on 😁 I took breaks between volumes even though I wanted to read more and I think that was a good move.
"Ways of Being - Animals, Plants, Machines: The Search for a Planetary Intelligence" by @jamesbridle.
Great book covering a lot of ground from the shadow noosphere of other intelligences to solidarity as the opposite of control and domination. 
If like me you are feeling your path to a properly Internet way of thinking beyond high modernist dominance and intermediated knowledge that has (temporarily) taken over the web and the world, this book is your friend.
"The Immortal King Rao" by @vauhinivara.
Very human (and unfortunately plausible) sci-fi. It leads up to a near-apocalyptic dystopia but it's the stories of imperfect people that are made to shine. 
"Reconsidering Reparations" by @OlufemiOTaiwo.
Bright and ambitious. If you have so much as the slightest interest in social justice, I warmly recommend this book. It has the scope and logic to drive the worldmaking it calls for. 
"If slavery and colonialism built the world and its current basic scheme of social injustice, the proper task of social justice is no smaller: it is, quite literally, to remake the world." 
"Une Brève Histoire de l'Égalité" by @PikettyLeMonde.
A great overview of the slow and painful march to equality and of the mechanisms that power it. Also features ways forward on top of the excellent analysis. This is basically Piketty's tldr. 
You can also read it in English: bookshop.org/books/a-brief-…
"Burning Men" by @mariafarrell.
A brilliant short story about a world without sexual violence. It packs a lot of emotional range in biting prose. 
For those of you in Perth, the author is delivering a public reading tomorrow: twitter.com/IAS_UWA/status…
"Le discours" de Fabrice Caro.
Hilarant. Si tu aimes les repas de famille, les discours de mariage, et les bites en contre-plaqué, ce livre est pour toi. 
"Decolonizing Universalism: A Transnational Feminist Ethic" by @SereneKhader
She develops a nuanced nonideal universalism that grounds an approach to anti-imperialist feminism. I feel like this method can be reused in other places too. 
"The Time of Contempt" by Andrzej Sapkowski.
Less romance and social commentary in this one, but Ciri is becoming more interesting. 
"Up Against It" by Laura J. Mixon.
A high-paced asteroid belt thriller with feral intelligence, the Martian mob, cool self-editing mutants amongst other swell things. 
"The Fifth Season" by @nkjemisin.
You all told me that it was amazing and you were all absolutely right. Loved basically everything about it. 
"The Happy Valley" by @benharnett.
I loved this! It's hard to describe well, in a sense like one of those cocktails the ingredient list for which seems like it could never mix but that come out exquisite. And the structure really works too, enticing hints to the last chapter. 
Also, a fair chunk of it happens in the near future and it's delightful to get small bits and pieces of a better tomorrow sprinkled throughout! It brought me peace to consider those fragments of context.
For instance, this is how it opens 😁:
d
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Get it on the Internet! kickstarter.com/projects/benja…
"Principles of Social Evolution" by Andrew Bourke.
How groups of living things form, persist, and eventually transform to develop individuality at another level.
I wanted to reread this because I'm curious about governance innovation in major transitions. Very clear and good. 
LOL I'm old 😜https://tweets.berjon.com/317067966124527618u
"The Domestication of the Human Species" by Peter Wilson.
Some interesting tidbits but overall unconvincing and a bit all over the place. 
I'll note this passage of interest which he quotes from Erving Goffman. 
"Habitual Ethics?" by @SylvieDelacroix.
Habits can support the ethical life but can also inhibit it at times when greater plasticity is called for. How this intersects with technical systems that explicitly aim to optimise habituation is a very interesting question. 
"Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch" by @neilhimself and Terry Pratchett.
This is indeed quite funny. Many thanks to @MaxGendler for making me read it 😁
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(Sorry, I've been falling behind on this thread. Picking up.)
"Understanding Privacy" by @WebDevLaw
This is the book you want to get started in privacy with. I wish Heather had written this book five years ago. No nonsense, no BS, just what you need to get your privacy programme going explained incredibly clearly. 
But don't just take it from me, take it from this guy who blurbed it. 
And you can trust @WebDevLaw to throw in some fun, too. (Why do people do this, seriously?) 
"The Obelisk Gate" by @nkjemisin
Just as good as the first volume! The plot unfolds with unimpeachable logic. 
"Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach" by Martha Nussbaum
I've been looking for a positive grounding for what "good tech" would be, and this strikes me as being part of the answer. 
"Baptism of Fire" by Andrzej Sapkowski.
An unlikely bunch of somewhat hapless people take a meandering stroll through a war zone, rarely knowing who is fighting or what is really going on. 
"The Stone Sky" by @nkjemisin.
Glorious finale to an incredibly creative trilogy.
"Don't be patient. Don't ever be. This is the way a new world begins." 
"Technology and the Virtues" by @ShannonVallor.
I wanted to revisit this as I have started working on next-generation tech infrastructure. If anything, it's even better the second time around. 
"All Systems Red" by @marthawells1
Biting, hilarious, great voice. Looking forward to reading the rest of the series. 