Books I read in 2025

 Each year I write a list of books I read during the year. This is the 2025 list:

1. Tracers in the dark. Once upon a time there was a website called Silk Road where you could buy drugs using Bitcoin. This book is about how various groups managed to take down that website, crimes related to that website, and how similar websites were taken down. The theme is that Bitcoin is not as anonymous as you might first think. 
2. Ghost in the wires. Written by Kevin Mitnick, it tells the story of his life as a hacker of computers and phones back in the 80s and 90s. He never made money from his hacks - he was just curious if he could do it - but he still ended up in prison twice. 
3. The Cuckoo's Egg. Back in the late 80s the author realizes someone has been hacking his computer and the book is about how he and other organizations (FBI, CIA, NSA, etc) found the hacker. As a side not, the author Cliff Stoll is the so called crazy-Klein-bottle-guy from Numberphile. 
4. The great firewall of China. Tells the story of China's heavily regulated Internet and how it spread to other countries like Russia.
5. Cybersecurity and Cyberwar. Gives you a summary of the area up until 2015. Roughly half is covering the history of the area and the remaining is covering what you/companies/countries can do to make cyberspace more secure.  
6. "And I was there." Tells the story of the codebreakers during famous battles like Pearl Harbor and Midway. It is written by Edwin Layton who you might have seen in the 2019 Midway movie. The guy in a bathrobe is also in the book.   
7. The Code Book. Tells the history of how to send secret messages from the Romans to Alan Turing to computers. It ends with some ideas how to do it in the future when the current "unbreakable" cryptology techniques have been broken by quantum computers.  
8. Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy. Tells the story of Anonymous which are a decentralized groups of hackers. Everyone can be part of a group but whatever you do don't self-promote yourself - stay anonymous. 
9. How computers really work. Is trying to teach you how computers work: from 1s and 0s to Bitcoin. Is unfortunately using Raspberry Pi in all examples. 
10. How cybersecurity really works. Gives you a brief overview how how the area works and how you can protect yourself with examples in Windows and Mac. 
11. The Phoenix Project. Is a novel about a company transforming their chaotic IT organization by borrowing ideas from the manufacturing industry.
12. 1793. Crime novel set mostly in and around Stockholm, Sweden in 1793. Has an English translation. 
13. 1794. Part 2 of 3 in the same series.   
14. 1795. Part 3 of 3 in the same series.  
15. Linux Basics for hackers. A very brief introduction to Linux for Linux noobs like me. We all better learn Linux as Windows seems to be going downhill.   
16. The Indispensable Community. The idea behind the book is that you don't need just a community - the community also has to generate some value to the organization. Otherwise someone might argue it's a waste of money and the community manager will be unemployed.
17. Buzzing Communities. Written by the same author as The Indispensable Community, this book is more practical and will tell you how to measure your community to make sure it provides some value.    
18. Neural Networks from Scratch in Python. Explains how to design basic Neural Networks. I wish the book had started with a simpler example like XOR - otherwise it was good. 
19. Machine Learning Design Patterns. Design patterns are common solutions to programming problems. This book was really good because it gives you are more in depth view how to become better at solving machine learning problems than if you for example read a book on how to implement a neural network. 
20. Coq Rouge. Book number 1 in the Hamilton series who is like a Swedish James Bond. 
21. Den demokratiske terroristen. Hamilton #2. 
22. I nationens intresse. Hamilton #3. 
23. Fiendens fiende. Hamilton #4. 
24. Den hedervärde mördaren. Hamilton #5. 
25. Vendetta. Hamilton #6.
26. Ingen mans land. Hamilton #7.
27. Den enda segern. Hamilton #8. 
28. I hennes majestäts tjänst. Hamilton #9. 
29. En medborgare höjd över varje misstanke. Hamilton #10. 
30. Madame Terror. Hamilton #12. 
31. Men inte om det gäller din dotter. Hamilton #13. 
32. Ut ur Kabul (Out of Kabul). Tells the story of the chaotic evacuation of Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2021 from a Swedish perspective. 
33. Stockholms undergång (The end of Stockholm). Consists of shorter science fiction stories with the theme how Stockholm, Sweden might end - from vampires, to poisoned water, to asteroids. 
34. Sista kulan sparar jag åt grannen (I save the last bullet for the neighbor). Novel about a woman and her family in the middle of the 90s Yugoslav wars. 
35. Den som dödade helvetets änglar (The one who killed hells angels). This book could be said to be Hamilton #14 but is written from one of his friends perspectives. 
36. Eventuellt uppsåt (Possible intent). Follow up to the book above. Instead of killing terrorists Hamilton is now trying to stop phone scammers. 
37. Awareness: Conversations with the Masters. This is one of those self-help books. The theme is that we were happy as children, but as we become adults we get poisoned by silly ideas that we need to win, we need to be popular, we need to get promoted, we need to get rich, and so on. To be happy again you need to stop with these silly ideas.
38. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. Novel about two indie game developers and their struggles with the ups and downs of daily life.
39. Pol Pots leende (Pol Pot's smile). Swedish book telling the story of how a group of Swedes could travel through the Cambodian genocide without seeing any signs of the genocide.
40. Human Acts. Korean novel about the Gwangju Uprising.