Last year I gave myself a Zuckerberg-style goal to read a book every two weeks. It started well, but some months were harder than others (usually when the book wasn't very good, so I would switch to podcasts for a few weeks, before getting back on track).
Here's an unordered list of the best:
[BUSINESS / SELF-IMPROVEMENT]
- "Work Rules!" - about Google's culture and values
- "Search Inside Yourself" - about mindfulness, meditation, and the impact on your life.
- "What got you here won't get you there" - Liked a lot more than I expected.
- "Re-read Innovator's Dilemma" - a great classic; never gets old.
- "How will you measure your life" - from the same author. Also excellent.
- "The Best Service is No Service" - good overview on why Amazon's customer service is so good
- "Crucial Conversations" - half is common sense; half is good tips to practice everyday.
[PROGRAMMING]
- "Fluent Python" - was afraid it'd be too basic, but not really. Enjoyed it a lot.
- "Think Complexity" - about algorithm complexity, data structures, etc. Great read.
- "Python Data Science Handbook" - meh.
- "Fundamentals of Deep Learning" - good intro. Helped me solidify some concepts from Andrew Ng's ML course
- "Deep Learning" - by Goodfellow and Bengio. Just started, but really liking it.
[STARTUPS] (all excellent; in order)
- "The Hard Things about Hard Things"
- "Zero to One"
- "The Founder's Dilemmas"
- "The Launch Pad"
[FICTION]
- Trilogy: "Off to be a wizard / An Unwelcome Quest / Spell or High Water"
- "Infinite Jest" - tried but failed to finish. May try again later.
- "Ready Player One" - nice, but repetitive after a while. Good read before the movie comes out.
[NON-FICTION]
- "What If?" - xkcd FTW
- "How to Read a Book" - good concepts, but should be a 10 pages blog post, not a book
- "Spark" - Science of the Exercise and the Brain - Long, but good
- "Sugar Shock" - still reading; hopefully will help me cut my sweet cravings
[BIOGRAPHIES]
- "The New New Thing" - about Jim Clark's life, one of the very first entrepreneurs
- "Machines of Loving Grace" - about the research and the rise of AI
- "Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution"
- "The Second Coming of Steve Jobs" - About Pixar's story. Liked more than Isaacson's biography
- "The Innovators" - great summary of computer industry, from the 1800's till today
- "Ghost in the Wires" - Kevin Mitnick's story. Had started years ago, but finally finished it
- "Idea Man" - about Paul Allen's story. Quite an impressive man.
How far did you get into 'Infinite Jest'. Did you break pg. 200? In my expeirance there seems to be this energy hump at pg. ~200, but if you can push past that it is smooth sailing till the end. (and absolutely worth it)
In particular, I remember it was the description of Hal's father effectively ending his tennis career on the court that made it impossible for me _not_ to finish--around p170 or 180.
Good tips, thanks! I definitely didn't get that far; more likely pg 100 or so. I was listening on Audible, so I guess that was the problem. Will try reading next time.
Here's an unordered list of the best:
[BUSINESS / SELF-IMPROVEMENT]
- "Work Rules!" - about Google's culture and values
- "Search Inside Yourself" - about mindfulness, meditation, and the impact on your life.
- "What got you here won't get you there" - Liked a lot more than I expected.
- "Re-read Innovator's Dilemma" - a great classic; never gets old.
- "How will you measure your life" - from the same author. Also excellent.
- "The Best Service is No Service" - good overview on why Amazon's customer service is so good
- "Crucial Conversations" - half is common sense; half is good tips to practice everyday.
[PROGRAMMING]
- "Fluent Python" - was afraid it'd be too basic, but not really. Enjoyed it a lot.
- "Think Complexity" - about algorithm complexity, data structures, etc. Great read.
- "Python Data Science Handbook" - meh.
- "Fundamentals of Deep Learning" - good intro. Helped me solidify some concepts from Andrew Ng's ML course
- "Deep Learning" - by Goodfellow and Bengio. Just started, but really liking it.
[STARTUPS] (all excellent; in order)
- "The Hard Things about Hard Things"
- "Zero to One"
- "The Founder's Dilemmas"
- "The Launch Pad"
[FICTION]
- Trilogy: "Off to be a wizard / An Unwelcome Quest / Spell or High Water"
- "Infinite Jest" - tried but failed to finish. May try again later.
- "Ready Player One" - nice, but repetitive after a while. Good read before the movie comes out.
[NON-FICTION]
- "What If?" - xkcd FTW
- "How to Read a Book" - good concepts, but should be a 10 pages blog post, not a book
- "Spark" - Science of the Exercise and the Brain - Long, but good
- "Sugar Shock" - still reading; hopefully will help me cut my sweet cravings
[BIOGRAPHIES]
- "The New New Thing" - about Jim Clark's life, one of the very first entrepreneurs
- "Machines of Loving Grace" - about the research and the rise of AI
- "Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution"
- "The Second Coming of Steve Jobs" - About Pixar's story. Liked more than Isaacson's biography
- "The Innovators" - great summary of computer industry, from the 1800's till today
- "Ghost in the Wires" - Kevin Mitnick's story. Had started years ago, but finally finished it
- "Idea Man" - about Paul Allen's story. Quite an impressive man.