← Books Digest 2021

What I am currently reading

The following is a list of books that I am currently reading. I like to read several books simultaneously to have more options in case I am not ready to absorb specific content.

• Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
• A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
• How to avoid a climate disaster by Bill Gates
• The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons in Creative Leadership from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney by Robert Iger
• The Double Helix by James Watson
• Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu
• Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

What I've read

The following is a list of books that I've read and recommend to others to read or browse through. This list is not complete and sorted in no particular order. Some books are better than others. One day I will provide commentary on why these books are unique and how they shaped my thinking and personal philosophy for better or worse.

• 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris
• Poor Charlie's Almanack by Charles T. Munger
• The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson
• Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned by Kenneth O. Stanley
• The Einstein Factor by Win Wenger
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
• Megatech: Technology in 2050 by Daniel Franklin
• 12 Rules for Life by Jordan B. Peterson
• Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard P. Feynman
• Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
• The Lord of The Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
• Stealing the Network: The Complete Series Collector's Edition
• The Management Myth by Matthew Stewart
• The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch
• The Little Book of Stoicism by Jonas Salzgeber
• Lessons of History by Durant
• Only The Paranoid Survive by Andrew Grove
• What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars by Jim Paul
• The 22 Immutable Laws Of Marketing by Al Ries
• Be Here Now by Ram Dass
• The Daily Drucker by Peter Drucker
• Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss and Tahl Raz
• Letters from a Stoic by Seneca
• Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• Complete Short Stories by Graham Greene
• Leadership Strategy and Tactics by Jocko Willink
• Good To Great by Jim Collins
• The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek
• Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor E Frankl
• Free by Chris Anderson
• Masters Of Doom by David Kushner
• The Magic of Thinking Big by David J Schwartz
• Start With Why by Simon Sinek
• Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon by Colin Bryar and Bill Carr
• A Little History of the World by Ernst Gombrich
• High Output Management by Andy Grove
• The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande
• The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done by Peter F Drucker
• Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Handbook of Silicon Valley's Bill Campbell by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg and Alan Eagle
• Anything You Want: 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur by Derek Sivers
• What Do You Care What Other People Think? by Richard P. Feynman
• Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher by Matthew Sands , Richard P. Feynman and Robert Leighton
• The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks
• Every Tool's A Hammer: Life Is What You Make It by Adam Savage
• Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
• Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
• The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
• How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
• Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! by Robert T. Kiyosaki
• A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
• Zero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters
• Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You by John Warrillow
• Crime Dot Com: From Viruses to Vote Rigging, How Hacking Went Global by Geoff White
• Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
• David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants by Malcolm Gladwell
• Talking to My Daughter: A Brief History of Capitalism by Yanis Varoufakis
• Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull
• Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio
• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
• The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness by Eric Jorgenson

How do I choose what to read next

There between 600,000 and 1,000,000 books published in the USA alone every year. So, without any filter, you can easily get to spend time on books that probably do not matter in the long run. I try not to buy books that are not at least 5-10 years old. Most of the books I read come as recommendations from people that I like and trust. I buy more books than I can feasibly read so that I have options.

I believe books are the cheapest form of education one can get, so I go big on this investment.

When I read

The best time to read is before going to bed. Not only I have a great night rest but also plenty of good thoughts in the morning. The second best time is while commuting to maximize idle time. I can easily read about 30 books per year if I read 1 hour a day while on the train.

How do I read

Unless I approach fiction, I do not need to read books from cover to cover. The best way to read non-fiction books is to familiarise yourself with the contents by scanning the pages paying attention to titles, introductions, summaries, etc. After that, I can start from whichever part feels most natural to me. Often that is at the beginning of the book, as the author intended, but sometimes I want to jump forward and read the most interesting part first and then go back to the beginning.

When I read, I take notes with my phone. The Notes.app on iPhone has a feature that allows me to scan pages. It is a great way to collect valuable material you can go back to later. Taking good notes is a skill that you can learn with practice and a bit of patience. Once you get the hang of it, it will be very natural activity.