Reading / Listening List

I love reading & reading lists. And I love discovering other people's reading lists to find out what they love and maybe I'll find something to put on my reading list 😊 - this is a hint, please share your list with me if you have one.

I have also become more and more invested in the goodness that comes from Audible, as I can (or would, pre-COVID) take advantage of drive time to/from work. I'll try to update this list with whether the entry was a book or audible, but the provided link will take you to the version I digested.

Current -- What's tickling my brain at the moment?

Active

• Surfaces and Essences, Douglas Hofstader, Emmanual Sander, Sean Pratt - the use of analogy as the lever of learning (or at least that's how it begins). I loved Gödel, Escher, Bach from back in the mid-80's (even though it took me 3 tries to get all of the way through it). DH has a way of taking you on a journey and opening your mind up to new ways of thinking about the mind and how it does that thinking.

Opportunistic - reading it when nothing else

• Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Collection, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle  - it is free (or damn near it on Amazon) for 4 novels and 56 short stories... and I love the writing style, the investigative mindset, the deductive (or is it inductive?) thinking...

Past

2020 list

• Infinite Powers: How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe, Steven Strogatz - I read Sync [paperback edition] years ago and loved it. Steven loves math and I think his ONLY desire when you walk away from this book is that you love it too. That makes him an exceptional teacher; he's not out to prove how smart HE is, he's out to prove that this subject is so beautiful, you'll be drawn to understand it. Infinite Powers not only tells you what Calculus is and how it is used, but is also rich in the historical progression of thought that led Newton and Leibniz to create The Calculus. I could write paragraphs about all the things I liked about this book, but I'll name 2: I loved the description of Archimedes and the description of his thought processes (revealed in a recent manuscripts) and I also loved the DETAILED description of Newton's sources and process as he developed the calculus that we use in countless ways today.
• Think Like a Monk: Train Your Mind for Peace and Purpose Every Day, Jay Shetty - read this as part of our wellness challenge at work (thanks Netsertive) - Jay takes us on a journey on the application of peace in our lives. Recommended this to my kids to read.
• Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, Margot Lee Shetterly - saw the movie (based on this book) with my daughter before I read (listened🙂 to) this book. As always, the book is able to go into deeper detail than the movie, and I found the explanation of the racial divide much richer (more educational for me) in the book. Loved the book for a different reason than I loved the movie. But both made me weep tears of awe for the women at the center of this story.
• Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life, Nir Eyal , Julie Li - This book predates "The Social Delimma" (which is worth watching with the whole family), this is a reminder that our devices should be tools for us, and not the other way around.
• Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great, Jim Collins - this was kind of a rehash of his earlier work. Short listen (1.75 hr). Again, smart and influential, but his narration contains a little too much self-promotion for me.
• Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love, Second Edition, Marty Cagan - My main takeaway "Agile: You're doing it all wrong" -- what's cool about this book is that Marty provides concrete answers (little process changes) which give your agile workflow a kick into a higher gear. We're using many of the ideas that Marty provides in this book. Hint: this book was so useful to me and our team, I bought the Audible first and then book as well.
• 1776, David McCullough - I love when he narrates and this story is worth every minute. This is an account of the year 1776 and why it was so important to the foundation of our country. Yeah, the Declaration of Independence was signed then, but this lays out what led up to and came after that signing. And the story about Washington and the team crossing the Delaware River to stage an attack on the Hessian troops was epic (ok, I didn't study history in school so this was the first time I had REALLY heard it :) ).
• Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime, Sean Carroll - Sean's podcast Mindscape (which is great) was where I first heard about Adam Becker's book (reviewed below) "What is Real?". "Something Deeply Hidden" is another journey down to the quantum foundations of the universe, and then using Hugh Everett's Many Worlds interpretation of Quantum Mechanics (what he calls Austere Quantum Mechanics) he builds up through the Many Worlds Interpretation of QM to begin to propose a theory of Quantum Theory for SpaceTime/Gravity – trying to come up with a completed Theory of Everything. As the ToE theory isn't complete, this book ends up without a good finish (not his fault that he doesn't come out with a ToE theory here, but he made me think he was going to reveal it). The only distraction in this book is that he spends ALOT of time on defending the Everettian view. I still struggle with the many-worlds interpretation. But hell, I still struggle with Bell's Theorem - LOL
• AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order, Kai-Fu Lee (Author) - ok, this is a little scary. KFL is impressively smart, and his argument for why China will beat US in the AI race is compelling and rich with detail. The bottom line is, China is investing in the long-play: pouring RMB into the development of infrastructure (cities) and education to win in this next era of tech supremacy. I wish the US Congress was smart enough to read and understand this.

2019 list

• The 10x Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure, Grant Cardone (Author, Narrator) - This is both a fun and challenging book. I would listen to it during my drive into work and it was like having Tony Robbins giving me a pep talk to get me jazzed for the day ahead. Grant says that whatever your goals are, they are set too low and they won't satisfy when you achieve them; they should be 10x higher. And the level of effort you were planning on putting into achieving those goals was waay too low; that level of effort should be 10x higher. It's incredible advice and worth listening to and acting on. Haven't read any of his other books (Arian wasn't a fan of those books but liked this one)
• Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss without Losing your Humanity, Kim Scott - Care Personally and Challenge Directly - excellent book for how to engage with others and lead them; and if you read the reviews, the narration (also by Kim Scott) gets some pretty Radical Candor - 😝
• Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It, Chris Voss (Author), Michael Kramer (Narrator) - as an FBI hostage negotiator, Chris Voss is well equipped to teach about what works and what doesn't when negotiating with someone else (and we're doing it dozens/hundreds of times a day without realizing it).
• What Is Real?: The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics, Adam Becker (Author) - this is going to be near the top of my favorite books of all time. If I go back and get my PhD in Physics, I'll have Adam Becker (author) to thank for it. This book explores the story surrounding the interpretation of the Quantum Mechanics (the Copenhagen Interpretation). Everyone has probably heard about the Bohr/Einstein debates, but this book dives into the history of the meaning of quantum mechanics, and to the degree that quantum mechanics describes reality, the meaning of reality. Blissful to listen to. Thought provoking. 
• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't, Jim Collins (Author, Narrator) - I love Jim Collins and his books have had a profound effect on the way we think about how to run/manage tech companies. But he also spends quite a bit of his narrative talking about what he has talked about -- a little too much self-promotion for my taste.
• Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds, David Goggins (Author, Narrator) and Adam Skolnick (Narrator) - Love this guy; if you haven't seen his twitter feed, it is EPIC. Reading this book, I feel his pain and love that he is using his life as an example of what to do and what NOT to do. He shows the outer limits of pain and endurance over and over again. The ending is a little soft, but absolutely worth taking the trip with him. Oh, and David Goggins really needs a stretch goal. :)
• Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley's Bill Campbell Eric Schmidt (Author), Jonathan Rosenberg (Author), Alan Eagle (Author), Dan Woren (Narrator) - 3x the authors made this 3x the work. Bill Campbell is legendary and he deserves celebration & praise. But this book is mere platitudes. Schmidt, et al spend the first half of the book talking about him, and not passing along any of his wisdom. That's a shame. It's like listening to people tell you what a great party you missed, and telling you who was there, but not telling you about any of the conversations that made it a great party. I have no idea what happened in the 2nd half... you can avoid this one...
• Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't, by Simon Sinek (Author, Narrator) - just buy all of Simon Sinek's books (IMHO). He is a true story teller and teacher. And makes you appreciate why leadership is both 1) so hard because its holistic and interlocking, and 2) so easy because it is a process you can learn if you have the temerity.
• Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, Laura Hillenbrand (Author), Edward Herrmann (Narrator) - a glorious read/listen. The story of Olympic runner Louis Zamperini, of his journey as a pilot shot down over the Pacific during WWII and what he and others endured. It is a jaw-dropping triumph of the human spirit. Was crying in amazement through a good chunk of it. Wonderful!
• Death in the Afternoon, by Ernest Hemingway (Author), Boyd Gaines (Narrator) - Learned of this book during a customer dinner with Maurice Bowen, where we ended up talking about how we both went to the bullfights in Mexico during our childhoods. Weird, right? Hemingway has the ability to put you inside a matador's mind and to better understand the motivation for putting themselves into the ring with an animal many times your weight, in a fight of mortal combat. There is a serene poetry in the dance of bullfighting, and in Hemingway's writing as well. After I read it, I told my dad and brother about it (my dad has been to bullfights all over Mexico for the past 50 years). They got so fired up that we made a trip to Mexico City in 2019 and saw the bullfights together.

• BTW, Mexico City on Sunday afternoon in Chapultepec Park, with people jogging and parents pushing strollers reminded me of a Sunday afternoon in Central Park NYC - and the Ballet Folklórico de México at the Palacio de Bellas Artes was a dream of colors and sound - I am sure the Folklorico is great no matter where it's done, but inside the Palace of Fine Arts, it was breathtaking.
• A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information, by Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman - Claude Shannon is a personal hero of mine. Shannon was mentioned almost daily EE undergrad. This book gives a great account of his Shannon's life, and the ground-breaking contributions he made in creating the information age. Hoping that this book can shed even more light on a true luminary in the field (ah, the puns).
• The Art of Public Speaking: Lessons from the Greatest Speeches in History, by John R. Hale, The Great Courses - (audible) I suck at public speaking, certainly more than I should. And that pisses me off. So I'm going to treat every failure as an opportunity (and indicator) to learn, and learn how to do it so that it becomes an opportunity to joyfully share ideas and lessons I've learned from others as well as ones I have developed.
• Lessons in elocution: or, A selection of pieces, in prose and verse, for the improvement of youth in reading and speaking, by William Scott - (written) Watch out, there are several different versions of this book on the internet... all of them useful, but this is the version which I've found to be most relevant. Again, on the topic of elocution, oration, communication, motivation, leadership. Turns out Abe Lincoln was a big fan of this book. Lots of great thoughts, stories, proverbs. It is also an anthology of sorts, bringing together some of the great passages of written word from history. 
• Abaddon's Gate, by James S. A. Corey - Book 3 of the Expanse Series

2018 list

• Demosthenes: Speech Against Philip the Macedon (351 B.C.) - an amazing speech in that Demosthenes was calling into question the men of Athens' manhood. The reason I love this speech is that Demosthenes started from quite humble beginnings, and ends up motivating the Athenians to go to war and win. 
• Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death!, by Patrick Henry – read this out loud. By the end of it I was ready to take up arms against the oppressors. 
• Caliban's War, by James S. A. Corey - Book 2 of the Expanse Series
• Leviathan Wakes, by James S. A. Corey - Book 1 of The Expanse series
• Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World - and Why Things Are Better Than You Think - Hans Rosling, et. al. - (audible) commended & recommended by Bill Gates as part of his summer reading list. 
• Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills, by Steven Novella, The Great Courses - (audible) - Great set of lectures on critical thinking. There is a whole raft of cognitive biases and how those biases impact how we ingest and process information. This set of lectures shines a light on those "blind spots". FYI, this is one of those times where the audio book isn't as good as the written word (or combination with the written word) - seeing it written down helps to make it stick better. BONUS: There is a 238 page pdf that is downloadable as a companion guide to go along with the course.
• Measure What Matters by John Doerr - (audible) - OKRs were born as a set of principles @ Intel in the 70's by Andy Grove and codified by John Doerr. Read this book and then we put it into action. Not for the faint of heart -- it took us about 2 years of iterating to come up with an OKR format and process that worked for us, but now its indispensible.
• Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, by Cal Newport - speaks to the idea that if you want to get something important done, then you are going to have to make room for that thing on a daily basis.
• 1984, by George Orwell - read this book in high school and thought it was pretty disturbing. Picked it up again when my daughter started reading it her senior year. It not only stands the test of time, but it also seems a lot more familiar this time around, and not just because I've read it before. The concept of a surveillance state is something we deal with at every level – it just seems that this was the first book (that I am aware of) that made it a central character of the story.
• The Lean Startup- Eric Ries - good. But wondering why I didn't write any review for it...
• How to Win Friends & Influence People - by Dale Carnegie - (audible) Wish I had read this long ago, but the title put me off – I was thinking it was a "read this if you want to manipulate others". It isn't that at all. If you've spent any time with people, you probably already know most of what's in this book. But the fact that we don't practice it daily reveals why we have trouble communicating and getting along with others. Read it and do it. You and others will be glad you did.
• The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion - Jonathon Haidt - (audible) - Great listen. Smart dude. Atheist (which doesn't win him any points by me). Shares his own psychological model about why people think the way they do, from the political spectrum of Conservative vs Liberal and the religious spectrum of Theist vs Atheist. A reasonably balanced view of subjects that tend to divide us. Definitely worth reading/listening to.

2017 list

• Courage under Fire, By Bond, James Bond Stockdale - http://a.co/1Qod9fD - an amazing account of surviving / living through unimaginable trials; a story of hope, courage and leadership. Truly worth my admiration. (side note: I only knew of Admiral Stockdale from the Vice Presidential debate in 1992 when he had this memorable opening line "Who am I and why am I here?")
• The Enchiridion, Epictetus - http://a.co/5GhgxKc - 1st century greek stoic philosopher, a meditation on life values - referenced as a must read by James B Stockdale in his marvelous essay Courage under Fire. 
• The War of Art, Stephen Pressfield - I wish I would have read this 30 years ago.
• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable - Patrick Lencioni - (audible)
• Nine minutes on Monday, by James Robbins (audible). Simple organizational tool for me and how to work better with the team – lessons that I need to be applying more regularly. (Bob from the future, never applied anything from this book)
• Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win - by Jocko Willink, Leif Babin - (audible) good stuff. but it was a little hard to listen to as it seemed to drag on. skip the intro and chapter 1 – they're just telling you that they were SEALs and you should listen to them. This is the book where I start listening to audio books at 1.25x and 1.5x speed.
• Outliers: The Story of Success - Malcom Gladwell - where the theory of 1000 hours of practice yields subject mastery. This book is wonderful to listen to.
• The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future - Kevin Kelly - (audible) 
• Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business, Charles Duhigg - (audible)

2016 list

• (Audible & Kindle) The Advantage, Patrick Lencioni - damn this took a long time getting started; author spent a long time “admiring the problem” (as Scott Thompson used to say) before getting started with telling you how to solve the problems of unhealthy organizations. Picked up steam nicely. Became a fan.
• Principles(PDF) - Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates - this is a big, audacious read and requires 2-3 iterations to do it justice
• Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days, Jake Knapp
• vN: The First Machine Dynasty, Madeline Ashby
• Infomacracy, by Malka Older - Mashup of Snow Crash and fivethirtyeight.org😃. Lots of fun. Already sad I'm finished.
• Start-up Hats, David Gardner - local Raleigh entrepreneur, very much worth the read. Chocked full of Nuggets of Wisdom. I’ve been recommending this to everyone
• The Three Body Problem, by Cixin Liu - Fantastic, sweeping Sci Fi. This is one I will most definitely read again. Loved the fact it was a Chinese author; loved it even more when he took me across space and time.
• The Signal and the Noise, by Nate Silver - Great read to get your mind thinking about data.
• The Wright Brothers - David McCullough - wonderful read. Get it on audible and hear David McCullough read (worth it!). It is an amazing journey that I thought I knew. But now that I live in North Carolina, it was especially poignant -- like a love letter to North Carolina and the world they found out on the Outer Banks.
• Flash Boys- decent read, pissed me off to learn about how rigged the market is toward those with direct, physical compute access and how nanoseconds matter. Truly dampened my taste for the stock market more than anything else -- at least for a little while.
• Ancillary Justice, Ancillary Sword, Ancillary Mercy, Ann Leckie - masterful storytelling. This set of books did almost as much for my love of science fiction as Star Wars. This set of books introduces a new kind of character, a new kind of consciousness that opens new possibilities. Amazing
• Ready Player One, Ernest Kline - Lots of fun and gobs of 80’s throwback.
• The Martian- great read, fun movie
• Elon Musk, Ashlee Vance -- enjoyed it immensely
• The Hard Thing about Hard Things- I like hearing Ben talk, but the book is distractingly self-referential & self-congratulatory
• Zero to One, by Peter Thiel - Awesome book. But not that keen on Thiel, especially now that I know a little more about how radical he is.

2015 and prior

• How To Deliver a TED Talk, Jeremy Donovan - a must read (and re-read) for anyone who needs to present for a living. Even if you only present once a year, this book will help you tune your message so that others can hear what you’re trying to say.
• Start with WHY, Simon Sinek - this was an exceptional TEDx talk. The book goes into greater detail, but the TEDx talk really does a great job of getting the point across. I find myself referring to this book (and the thoughts in this book) all the time.
• The Story Factor: Inspiration, Influence and Persuasion through the Art of Storytelling, Annette Simmons - our minds are programmed to remember stories. the premise of this book is that "if you want people to remember what you say, give them a story"
• The Heart of Change, John P  Kotter - John Kotter is the father of change management. this book is a succinct overview of his thoughts on how to make change happen.
• Getting Things Done, David Allen - quite a few great ideas in here, wrapped in a process that just didn't stick with me.
• Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, Chip Heath/Dan Heath
• Winning, Jack Welch - used to be a big fan of Jack Welch, as he presided over some amazing change at GE. Has revealed a more narcissistic side, but still a worthwhile read
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R Covey - the grandad of them all. Must-read productivity book

All-time Favorites

• Man’s Search For Meaning, Victor Frankl - I cried almost all the way through this. A beautiful story on how good and evil exists all around us, and the choice is ours of what we choose to see and how we choose to respond. Victor Frankl came through the Nazi concentration camps Auschwitz and Kaufering. That he speaks of light in the midst of great darkness continues to be immensely inspiring
• The Wright Brothers, David McCullough - One of my favorite biographies, a love story for North Carolina. 
• Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson - Over 1000 pages and I didn't want this to end. About cryptography, and gold, and old-timey mechanical organs (the musical kind) - written across 3 different generations of mathematicians and explorers. Epic.
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Persig - read this in high-school and was like someone lit something in my mind.
• Three Roads to Quantum Gravity, Lee Smolin - If you like gravity, and if you’re kept up at night by the fact that we don’t have unified model for physics, you’ll want to read this. There is a mind bending discussion of Plank-space & Plank-time and the Big Freeze (instead of the big bang). Beautiful.
• Neuromancer William Gibson - my life of reading for enjoyment started with this book in 1989 when a circuit designer (Kirk Holden) at Motorola introduced me to science fiction - before this, I had never really read for pleasure - this unlocked an entirely new world for me.