Happy New Reading Year 2022! There’s something very exciting about a fresh reading year to me – not in the least because of the fact that I can put together a new list of books I want to read that year!

The books on this list are my top priority for the year and I view them as the books that I have to read, no matter what. I usually choose books based on my current mood, but there’s actually one general rule: after every fiction book read a non-fiction one.

Last year, there were quite a few books on the list that were pretty light-read. This year, I’ve decided to do the same and add a couple of easy-read books. Obviously, the list will be updated from time to time.

  • "Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights" by Salman Rushdie

    Summary: The novel is set in New York City in the near future. It deals with jinns, and recounts the story of a jinnia princess and her offspring during the "strangenesses". After a great storm, slits between the world of jinns and the world of men are opened and strange phenomena emerge as dark jinnis invade the Earth.

  • "Journey by Moonlight" by Antal Szerb

    Summary: The novel follows Mihály, a Budapest native from a bourgeois family on his honeymoon in Italy as he encounters and attempts to make sense of his past.

  • "Immune" by Philipp Dettmer

    Summary: A gorgeously illustrated deep dive into the immune system that will forever change how you think about your body, from the creator of the popular science YouTube channel Kurzgesagt—In a Nutshell.

  • "Seven Brief Lessons on Physics" by Carlo Rovelli

    Summary: The seven lessons are about Einstein's general theory of relativity, quantum mechanics, the architecture of the cosmos, elementary particles, quantum gravity, probability and the heat of black holes and, finally, how humans fit into this picture.

  • "Helgoland: The World of Quantum Theory" by Carlo Rovelli

    Summary: Rovelli makes learning about quantum mechanics an almost psychedelic experience. Shifting our perspective once again, he takes us on a riveting journey through the universe so we can better comprehend our place in it.

  • "Strange Weather in Tokyo" by Hiromi Kawakami

    Summary: Shortlisted for the 2013 Man Asian Literary Prize, Strange Weather in Tokyo is a story of loneliness and love that defies age. Tsukiko, thirty–eight, works in an office and lives alone. One night, she happens to meet one of her former high school teachers, “Sensei,” in a local bar.

  • "The Time Traveller's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger

    Summary: It is a love story about Henry, a man, with a genetic disorder that causes him to time travel unpredictably, and about Clare, his wife, an artist, who has to cope with his frequent absences and dangerous experiences of reappearing in odd places.

  • "The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You" by Julie Zhuo

    Summary: In “The Making of a Manager”, Julie shares her experiences and learnings with regard to her transition from being a personal contributor to becoming a manager. “This is a book about how someone with no formal training learned to become a confident manager” is the starting point for Julie's book.

  • "The Courage to Be Disliked" by Ichiro Kishimi

    Summary: The book tells the story of an unhappy young man, who visits a philosopher on the outskirts of his city. Throughout five conversations, the teacher helps him take control of his own life and happiness.

  • "Beauty Is a Wound" by Eka Kurniawan

    Summary: Blending elements of magical realism, allegory, satire, and a skewed marriage-plot sensibility, the novel begins with Indonesia’s most beloved and beautiful prostitute, Dewi Ayu, rising from the grave to tell the story of her own history and that of her three beautiful daughters who are all beset by terrible tragedy.

  • "Mrs. Caliban" by Rachel Ingalls

    Summary: The slim surrealist masterpiece is the story of a romance between a lonely housewife and an amphibious humanoid named Larry.

And that’s it! Those are the books on my list of books I “have” to read in 2022! Have you read any of these? Do you have any top priority books for 2022?

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