50 Books

I read quite a bit.  I’ve always liked to read but now that I no longer go to a full time job working for someone else I find myself reading even more.  I also find that I watch less and less TV and rely more on books for my entertainment.

My goal for this year is to read 50 books.  As of late June I’m up to 40 so I should easily exceed that goal.  Not saying this to brag.  There are plenty of people that read more, and some of them lead very busy lives.

Here is a sampling of some of the books I have read so far this year:

Sci Fi and Other Fiction

Edge of Valor

The Enigma Cube

A Pivot in Time

Farpoint Rising

Quantum Space

Quantum Void

Quantum Time

Quantum Entanglement

Lost at L3

New Eden

History and Biographies

Benjamin Franklin

A Man for all Seasons

Guns, Germs, and Steel

Invent and Wonder

The Lessons of History

Where Wizards Stay Up Late

Only When I Step On It

Self Development

On Writing

Deep Work

Flow

Joy of X (A math book)

You Are a Writer

Born to Run

Do the Hard Things First

The Power of Discipline

The Four Agreements

Everything is F*cked

How to Read a Book

Everything is Figureoutable

The One Thing

Science, Programming and Technology

Seven Brief Lesson on Physics

Then there is my daily reading.  These I read almost every day, but I do scim them and read mostly what interests me.

Wall Street Journal

Medium

Astronomy Magazine (Astronomy is a hobby)

What Am I Reading Right Now?

So what Am I reading now?  There is always a mixture sitting next to my favorite reading chair.  Some are physical copies and many reside on my Kindle

The Arachnid (A Sci Fi entertainment book)

Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Reading this one again, which I do on occasion)

The Snowball (A biography of Warren Buffet)

Fire in the Valley (A history of the early days of microcomputers)

100 Things to See in the Night Sky (An astronomy book, related to a hobby)

Origin of the Species (Darwin’s book on evolution.  This one will take a while to get through!)

Be Your Future Self (Just started this one.)

Dive Into Algorithms (A programming related book)

Huckleberry Finn ( Read condensed versions as a kid, now I’m reading the original.)

What Are Some Highlights This Year?

On Writing by Stephen King

Partly an autobiography, and part advice, but it is all good.  Well worth a read.

Deep Work by Cal Newport

This is a well known self help book.  It is one of the better ones.  I’m still trying to implement some of the principles.

Guns Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond

This one won a Pulitzer prize and you can see why.  Have you ever wondered why some societies developed faster and dominated other societies?  This author did incredible amounts of research to understand why.  This is not a quick read but well worth the effort.

Born to Run

This one is well known.  It is about a hidden tribe of marathon runners in Mexico and much more.  There are a lot of stories about ultra long distance runners and what makes them tick.  These people really are super humans!

Quantum Space, Quantum Void, Quantum Time, Quantum Entanglement by Douglas Phillips

This is a science fiction series that really captivated me.  They are fairly quick reads that are based on modern science theories and totally addictive.

Only When I Step On It by Peter Conti

This is the story of a severely injured guy who decides to hike the Appalachian Trail.  His descriptions of how people in severe chronic pain deal with it are a real wake up call.  You will never complain again about “little” aches and pains again!

How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler

This is a really detailed reference book on how to read a book.  It was originally written in 1940 and is still considered a classic.  This is not a quick read, and only the really dedicated will be able to follow all the steps it outlines.  However, anyone who reads a lot will find something useful in its pages.

Read any good books lately?

Photo by Ed Robertson on Unsplash