What I’m Reading
These are the books I’m reading. They are roughly in chronological order with the most recent at the top. Books show up multiple times for each time I’ve read them. Notes on each book include my thoughts and rating.
American Gods
Neil Gaiman. About a quarter into it, but very very good so far.
TBD/5
Zorba The Greek
Nikos Kazantzakis. Second read while I was in Greece. Continues to be a classic story of the repressed/anxious and the free/flawed. Modern readers certainly need to adjust for the misogyny a points.
5/5
The Food Explorer
Daniel Stone. The very interesting story of David Fairchild, the reason North America is home to many plants we now take for granted (including mangos, lemons, soybeans, etc.).
4.5/5
Korea’s Place in the Sun
Bruce Cumings. Just started reading this—seems to be a surprisingly Korean take for a white American historian.
?/5
Undaunted Courage
Stephen E. Ambrose. Just started reading—so far, very great. Will update thoughts and score when done.
?/5
The Art of Learning
Josh Waitzkin. Rereading this with our team at work. Extremely insightful and a great thing to refresh every year or two.
5/5
A Modest Genius
Hanne Strager. An extremely interesting person—I appreciate the particularly accidental nature of his work. The writing, focus, and storytelling could be a bit better, but it’s still a very good book due to the story despite this.
4/5
Walden
Henry David Thoreau. Feels silly and presumptuous to say this, but the language is so flowery (and self indulgent) that I had to stop reading and revisit it. I think this is partially a product of having just read Hemingway, but there’s also something in his writing. Will revisit soon and update.
3/5
The Old Man and the Sea
Ernest Hemingway. Mostly reread to internalize the simplicity and clarity of his voice…and I had also forgotten about the story. Hated this in middle school, love it now.
5/5
Freedom of the Hills
The Mountaineers. Incredible reference book for all things climbing, mountaineering, scrambling, navigating, reading terrain, weather, and a ton more. An amazing resource for anyone wanting to learn to be more self sufficient in the wilderness.
4.8/5
A Passion for Nature: The Life of John Muir
Donald Worster. Very insightful account of John Muir’s life and the meanings in and of it. The author’s insight is almost always welcome, though in very rare occasions, it gets a bit intellectual (which isn’t a bad thing unless reading before/in bed).
4.9/5
The Complete Guide to Hunting, Butchering, and Cooking Wild Game
Steven Rinella. Absolutely amazing reference book on…well, what the title says… Even outside of reading for the purpose of learning to hunt, it contains a lot of great wilderness knowledge that you wouldn’t otherwise get from mountaineering/climbing/etc. (e.g., reading the wind patterns, anything to do with wildlife, etc.).
5/5
A Walk in the Woods
Bill Bryson. Good mix of entertaining and quality nature writing. For some reason, I haven’t found a way to really connect with much of the nature writing out there…I think because I appreciate the first hand experience so much. But the right blend of interesting/adventure stories + lucid prose about the lessons of the natural world get through that. This book has just the right combo for me.
4.8/5
Meat Eater: Adventures From the Life of an American Hunter
Steven Rinella. Currently reading. I’m learning to hunt. I’d like to get to the point where all the meat we eat on regular basis is either net carbon negative or sustainably hunted/caught. This seems like an important way to experience humans’ place in the natural world. Very well written, authentic voice, and extremely thoughtful in a way that I really respect.
4.9/5
The Indian Cookery Course
Monisha Bharadwaj. Currently Reading.
Accidents in North American Climbing (2020)
American Alpine Club. Great annual publication. Important to read it each year because others’ accidents are extremely instructive. Also great for developing decision-making and risk assessment skills outside of the mountains.
5/5
A Promised Land
Barack Obama. Good so far. I appreciate the casual voice.
TBD
Eight Dates
John Gottman & Julie Schwartz Gottman. Great book to read with a significant other. Thematic chapters with just the right framing (even if you’ve talked about these things) that ends with a “date” with a conversation focused around the chapter’s topic. Good prompting questions (unlike other books like this) and conversation tips. All of John Gottman’s stuff is great and a must for any couple.
5/5
John Muir: Natural Writings
John Muir. A collection of extended stories about his time in the world—particularly the wilderness. Best read in snippets, though it is chronological. In a way, it feels to me like a less good version of actually being out in the wilderness myself, so after reading about a quarter of it, I can’t say it’s hooked me. Update: I’ve realized that this is because I need to read a biography to understand him better first, then I’ll revisit and expect to increase my rating.
3/5
Deep Survival
Lawrence Gonzales. Remains my favorite book of any genre. It has likely saved my life at least 6 or 7 times, thanks to the very practical decision-making and risk assessment frameworks it burns into your brain through extremely well-written and entertaining stories.
5/5
Pachinko
Min Jin Lee. A multi-generational “social epic”. Certainly interesting and I felt like I would have liked to get to know some of the characters a bit better, though that wasn’t necessarily the point. Very interesting commentary on family, class, etc. dynamics.
4.5/5
A Wizard of Earthsea
Ursula K. Le Guin. A classic that I wanted to reread from adolescence. Not quite as incredibly imaginative/immersive as I remember, but still very good. It probably had something to do with identifying with Ged.
4/5
Shogun
James Clavell. Very entertaining epic novel. There are certainly some weird artifacts throughout that serve as an example of why white people should stick to writing their own stories, but it didn’t really detract from the story for me.
4.5/5
Musashi
Eiji Yoshikawa. Incredible samurai epic novel. Does a great job illustrating the foolishness of ambition and how to find your way back from it.
5/5
The Goal
Eliyahu M. Goldratt. Incredibly boring unless you have a very specific reason for reading it, which I do. Incredibly instructive and helpful in deepening my understanding of the problems with the “social impact sector/ecosystem”. On it’s face, this is a graphic novel about supply chain management and problem solving.
4.5/5
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Robert Pirsig. I had extremely high hopes for this book, and it’s quite enjoyable. However, given a relatively broad background in philosophy, the actual philosophical content in this book is quite dated. An interesting discussion of the concept of “quality”, but this could have taken place in one tenth the time (and the prose didn’t make it worth it imho).
3/5
Who
Geoff Smart & Randy Street. I sometimes refer to this as “the Good to Great” of hiring. We’ve used the principles and some of the structures in this (and added significantly based on aligned principles and our own testing) to shape HNC’s hiring process. A must-read for anyone who hires people.
5/5
Awareness
Anthony de Mello. A very unusual book, which has the practical effect of smacking you into a higher level of self-awareness each time you read it. The voice and writing style takes some getting used to, but get past that and there’s some incredibly important perspective here.
5/5
Shantaram
Gregory David Roberts. An urban crime and survival epic novel set in the big cities and slums of India. Based largely on true stories of the autho’s. A very good pre-bed time read.
4.5/5
Dead Mountain
Donnie Eichar. An absolutely insane story if you haven’t heard of it. Completely crazy, terrifying, and mysterious story of Russian mountaineers who died seemingly of their own doing in extremely bizarre circumstances. Hard to put down. Very great for what it is, lost half a point just because the writing itself is fine, not great.
4.5/5
Radical Acceptance
Tara Brach. Started but haven’t finished. Very good so far, less “woo-woo” than it looks, sounds. Came very highly recommended from a very technically-minded, type-A person who has been working through their shit.
TBD
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Richard Bach. This was a very meaningful story to me in high school. it still mostly holds (though the allegory is definitely a bit on the nose), but I was definitely in the right place in life the first time I read this (searching).
4.5/5
Hitler’s Last Secretary
Traudl Junge. Interesting and quite weird, but not particularly well-written. Certainly entertaining and interesting enough to warrant a read.
3.5/5
What If?
Randall Munroe. Absolutely hilarious “serious scientific answers to absurd hypothetical questions.” Love this and can’t wait til it’s been long enough that I forget and can read it again.
5/5
Deep Survival
Lawrence Gonzales. Incredible book. Probably my most gifted book at this point. Everyone should read this regardless of whether or not they spend much time in the wilderness. We now use this at HNC to establish and discuss certain decision-making/risk assessment principles.
5/5
Good to Great
Jim Collins. Most important business book ever written. The concept of a flywheel has changed everything, and in so many ways.
5/5