Marlies

Why?
From Tim Ferriss 5-bullet friday. Gizmodo has written that “the arrival of a new piece of short fiction by Ted Chiang is always cause for celebration and parades and wild dancing.”

Why did I pick it?
As a recommendation from this list: https://www.valetmag.com/living/culture/2019/successful-people-reading-list-080819.php
Apparently Tim Ferriss highly recommends it.

My thoughts
It's an interesting read, and describes a very cool new perspective which I hadn't thought about so much before (that we evolved from tribes and therefore are seeking that tribal connection, in a nutshell).
However, the book is very anecdotal and not as ground shaking as I had expected from the recommendation above.
I think a more interesting, deeper story is being released on Wait But Why now: https://waitbutwhy.com/story-of-us

Why did I pick it
Man's Search for Meaning is featured on all the must-read lists, hailed for -as the title suggests- giving answer to the big question of what the meaning of life is.
Since it's also a key to-read book for people interested in Stoicism I decided it was time to flip its pages.

The book itself
The book is split up in two parts (or rather, three in my edition); the first part detailing Frankl's experiences being a prisoner in a concentration camp.
The second part explaining the key elements of logo-therapy; the branch of psychotherapy that Frankl developed.
In my edition a short essay on logotherapy was also included.

It's a thin little book, but quite bland in it's writing. Not a real page-turner for me. The two parts of the book are really interesting on their own rights, but together they do not really form a whole that's better than it's parts.
The part on Frankl's experiences in the concentration camps is personal, raw and fascinating. Much more ‘real' than what can be portrayed in a movie. However, I feel it could have gone even more in-depth to really get a better grasp at how camp life would have been. For example by giving the reader more information on his capture, how long he stayed in the camp, interactions he had with friends and enemies, etc.
The second part gives a short description of logotherapy, it's key takeaways and how it differs from other psychotherapies. But I feel like Frankl could have connected this more with his experiences of part 1 of the book. Or given the reader more hand-holds for how to apply the ideas of logotherapy to his/her own life.

Recommendations
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in indeed finding meaning in his/her life. Specifically on getting a better grasp that life is not about finding success, riches or for that matter happiness.
I had hoped that this book would give me a better insight into Stoicism as well, but I would not recommend this book for that purpose. I think ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People' actually has better key take-aways for that. That one also offers more actionable tips on how to bring meaning to your life.

Amongst others from Derek Siver's book list.

Want to read: intermittent fasting and hopefully no-electronics before sleep are tiny habits that have a positive effect. What more can habits do?

Shorter book than I had imagined, but a great read.

A.J. Jacobs thanks everyone who contributes to his morning cup of coffee and goes all the way to the people who filter the water or who design the logo on the cup. Super interesting to see the fastness of the supply chain and love Jacobs' enthusiastic writing style.

Why did I read this?
I think it can be said that this book belongs on many people's ‘everyone should read this book at least once in their lives'-list. Therefore, of course it was also on mine. Combined with an interest in becoming more effective/successful I thought it time to start this book.

My view
There already exist great reviews and summaries of this book, so I want to focus on what I found unique about this book compared to the little literature I've read on this subject.

I really enjoyed the read, as Covey carefully constructs and explains a whole system of evaluating successfulness, effectiveness and a clear way of talking about Personal Change. It not only answers the question of which habits to develop to become more effective, but starts with why you should develop those habits and how to measure a new habits effectiveness.
As Covey states in the introduction, this book really focuses on deep-rooted, long lasting character traits, rather than short, quick-fix personality changes and having a concise way of describing this is essential in my view.
I loved this book more than Brendon Burchard's more recent book ‘High Performance Habits', of which I've listened to some chapters and a podcast interview. I think the Habits mostly overlap, but have slightly different names. I think Habit 6 (synergize) in Covey's book was not really actionable, and is something which (magically) might come about, but can not be formed by habit. I think a Habit like Get Energize from Burchard's book would be better.
I also enjoyed Covey's way of writing better. I feel Burchard starts from a point of view where the reader is currently in a negative effectiveness level and needs powerful and much coaching to address his/her problems. Covey's book on the other hand already talks to the reader like they are capable people and just want to slightly but consistently want to improve their behavior.

I would be interested to follow this book up with ‘The power of habit'. Covey's book has given me the tools to address what character traits I want to change, but I think The Power of Habit might give some practical examples of daily habits which might help me achieve higher effectiveness.

Why did I pick this book?
How to Build a Car was recommended by many of my recommendation sources. When a recently discovered YouTube channel, focused on engineering, suggested the book I decided it was time to check it out.
I'm an Industrial Designer, so the engineering aspect of the book really peaked my interest. The Formula 1 aspect did not particularly speak to me and I had never heard of Newey before.

What the book is about
This is the autobiography of Adrian Newey, apparently the best Formula 1 racecar designer ever. He chronicles his life, starting with early years, studies and then his many years in the racing industry.

My review
It's the largest (in size as well as in volume) book I've read in a while. Not a book you can easily take with you reading in the train.
Luckily, and surprisingly, it was super easy to read and I got through it in no time, not having to take it with me to finish it. Newey has a way of writing which is kinda similar to actual story telling, including getting off track and having to “But, let's get back to the story” interruptions.

Unfortunately that is the most positive I have to say about this book. I was pleasantly surprised it read so well, but I was disappointed the book dives so little into the real engineering aspects. I had hoped to get a deeper understanding of aerodynamics, the systems engineering that goes into a sports car, how to manage such an extended team, etc, etc.
However, we only get a description in the way of; ‘I designed a better car the next year and then this and this and this is what happened at the races.' I learned nothing, only that apparently Newey has had many accomplishments and he wants to see that reflected in his salary, and if his cars did not finish first it was due to reliability issues with the engine..

Was disappointed and would not recommend to anyone expecting to learn something from this book. Would however recommend anyone already interested for Formula 1 and people who could use a different perspective on the F1 world, which is not from the driver's perspective.

The experiences Kay talks about feel altogether realistic, strengthened by the lack of sleep from not being able to put the book down.

Hilarious, captivating, realistic

Terrific book!

I read it at just the right time, wanting a bit more of a story book rather than an educational book. Educational snippets still pop-up though, but what do you expect from a book about Mr Feynman.

Several times I laughed aloud, several times I was positively surprised that Feynman's greatness at some points was just shear luck and several times I was inspired to dive more deeply into technical subjects and get a deeper understanding of physics.

Recommended for people who are looking for an ‘easy' book to read, but still being informative/educational and especially for those wanting to get to know more of this charismatic person.

One of the best books I've ever read!
I tried to write a short review doing this book justice, but its impossible. If you're doubting to buy this book? DO IT!
I honestly believe this is a book everyone should read at least once and Rosling makes it super easy; easy language, the chapters are perfect length and even line spacing is optimized for easy reading.

Did not finish.

Why did I pick this book
This book was recommended by so many articles/people. Especially in the theme of Mental Models, personal development, etc.
It was a new addition to my local library, so I picked it up when it was available.

The book
The book is by famed investor Ray Dalio. In it he describes in short his personal history and the lessons he learned during his lifetime. Dalio has been very systematic in noting down these lessons and creating a set of principles which he uses to guide his everyday decisions.

It is divided in two sections; life principles and work principles. As the name implies, life lessons focuses on lessons which can be used in life in general, and work principles focuses more on principles you can apply at work.
The text is presented as a long argumentation of how certain principles came to be and what smaller sub-principles are contained within. This is really just a case of different header stylings with short bits of text in between.

What I thought
I was not able to finish this book.
The way the book is formatted it feels like just one long blurb of text and story-telling, with different header styles applied to random sentences throughout. Say you were reading through a long text -say the Bible- and you applied a Header 1 to every 100 sentences, Header 2 to every 80th sentence, etc.
With all these little sub-sub-sub-headers I lost track of the main points and these sub-sub-sub-headers are so general that they did not feel like eye-opening-must-remember-at-all-costs leasons to learn.

I stopped at the Work principles, because they also mostly apply to managers/directors and the higher-ups of a company (the ones making hiring decisions etc).

My recommendations
To get a start at self-development with really actionable steps I would recommend The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
To get a more fun-to-read, actionable, self improvement read my other recommendation would be An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth.

Did not finish.

Why did I pick it?
This book is about metaphors we (subconsciously) use in our language. I find it a very intriguing topic and after I had it recommended multiple times decided to pick it up from the local library.

The book
As I said it's about metaphors that we use in our everyday language. One interesting example is how we use the metaphor of war for arguing: he won the argument, that argument is weak, etc.
Breaking from this specific example means an argument can become a moment to learn from one another, and collectively seek the truth, rather than win a possibly invalid argument.

The book is structured in quite a few short chapters. Maybe on average 6-10 pages. These are structured around a statement the authors want to explain. It's a very structured way of bringing their idea across and easy to skip some info or dive into a certain topic.

My recommendation
As much as I was interested in the topic, I did not really like the book and decided not to finish it. It has a really informational/scientific way of bringing the information, while I had expected (/hoped) for a more entertaining read.
For me each chapter is a small essay/paper on a certain hypothesis that the writers want to argue for. It goes really deep into the matter and the nitty-gritty of language construction.
I would therefore recommend the book for people who use language in their profession to get a deeper/broader understanding of how to construct complex structures.
For the casual reader I would skip to something else...

why I chose this?
I've saw this book passing by in various recommendations and was intrigued: who isn't interested to learn what the best people have in common?
When I saw it laying around in a yard sale I had to pick it up.

what's it about?
Gladwell analyzes the systems and habits that “great” people have in common. As is probably in mind with a lot of people you hope for ‘easy' habits to pick up and copy. Contrary, Gladwell shows there's bigger mechanisms at play: the luck of when and where you were born, your cultural background, opportunities that have been given.

my opinion
At first I had a bit trouble getting through the book; each chapter generally focuses on a character, and then goes into the details of why that character had the successes it has had in it's life. Some of these backgrounds can be a bit dry.
However, towards the end Gladwell focuses in on cultural background and the difference between cultures which have a foodsystem around grains and cultures revolved around rice (pady's). It's super fascinating!

other recommendations
The last chapters on culture reminded me of the a-ha moments in Yoval Noah Harari's Sapiens and Michael Pollan's Omnivore's dilemma.

Oh wow! I was searching for a book on ecological land use and the price of agriculture on our land and for the environment and boy did I find it!

A book I certainly would recommend everyone to read, though, I do give permission to skip over some of the passages. Pollan deftly deeps into the details of the Industrial, Organic and Pastoral food chains, with “fun” facts about each system that almost had me underlining a passage each page.
One example; corn has become such a cheap commodity, we are putting it in everything, most importantly in animal feed. But did you know that cows are not made to eat corn, and that their rumen (the organ which turns the cow's food into protein/gains) will become slimy, causing bloat and the suffocation of the cow, as well as turning it acidic, which makes the E. Coli bacteria (that are present in 80% of cows), resistant to acidic environments so that our digestive system is no longer acidic enough to get rid of these bacteria?

Pollan interweaves his personal story in between these facts, going to visit feed lots, pastoral farmers and going on a hunting&gathering mission. At the beginning of the book I enjoyed these in between passages, to take a break from information overload. However the entire last chapter is on the ethical dilemma of killing & eating animals and the experience of eating food and was a bit to dreamy/spiritual for my liking. So, I really encourage everyone to at least read the first part, I really enjoyed the Pastoral part, but only read the last part if you're more focused on the spiritual/ethical dilemma.

Oh my, such a great read.

I love how Weeks can weave multiple storylines together, and each one of them goes three layers deep in what a character thinks happened, what he thinks the other character thinks happened, what actually happened or what should have happened. Think House of Cards meets fantasy.
In the Lightbringer series Weeks even manages to weave in a whole religion/magic system and dependent culture which is on point.

Definitely recommend if you loved this style of writing from his first series the Night Angel trilogy. If you need to decide whether reading the Lightbringer of the Night Angel trilogy, I would recommend the Night Angel trilogy because I think the ending of that series is magnificent (though heartbreaking).
If you're more the magic - fantasy fan than go with Lightbringer.
But actually don't choose and read both!

I chose this book because I both wanted to read some of the original Winnie the Pooh (because the bear has some great wisdom) and more about Taoism and this book seemed to capture both perfectly.

Indeed in that sense it is a great read, with little snippets from the original Pooh books by AA Milne (incl illustrations) which Hoff uses to explain the fundamentals of Taoism. As Hoff explains in the introduction; the Tao is an Eastern philosophy, which is difficult to understand coming from a Western culture. However, using a Western story (Winnie the Pooh), we can kinda get a basic understanding and they both seem to strengthen each other really well.

In the first book, The Tao of Pooh, the two concepts really work together really well. You get the best quotes from Winnie the Pooh, with great insights about Taoism and I get a sense what Taoism is about. In the second book, The Te of Piglet, I felt there was a lot of negativity. There's a really long chapter on why the Eeyore's in the world are really terrible. In the book the writer also interacts with the characters, and is really awful against Eeyore, and I felt this was not at all according to the little things I knew from Taoism.
A large part of the second book is also negative about the current world situation, where people own too much and care too little about other human beings, which is more the writer's personal view of the world than what the reader could learn from Taoism.

Recommendation
All in all I really recommend the first book if indeed you have an interest in Winnie the Pooh and Taoism. Especially if you want to dive further into Taoism and get a basic understanding of the fundamental ideas of Taoism.
I advise against reading the Te of Piglet. All-in-all it was too much the writer's personal opinion, rather than more info on Taoism, and a really negative view in that.

Did not finish.

This is a very interesting read and there's so much to learn about trees which you don't generally get to know. However, there are no clear images that illustrate the trees that are mentioned in the book. So, while I was walking in the woods not too long ago, I knew there was a ton to tell about the trees along the road. However, I had no idea what.

Will need to revisit when I have an overview of the trees and insects mentioned.

Why did I pick this book?
This was on Bill Gates' summer recommendation list and as I liked the Headspace app before, decided to pick it up from the local library.

About the book
Andy Puddicombe has travelled the world to visit various mediation monasteries. From the stories he tells in the book it feels like he visited them all. In the book he takes you, through stories of his own adventures and missteps, and examples as explained by his various teachers, Andy takes the reader through the steps to start meditation.
This is not a book that just says ‘sit. close your eyes. meditate.'. It is very well, and very carefully crafted story that very gently, very carefully takes the reader by the hand in the world of mindfullness and meditation.

My recommendation
Yes, very much recommend this book to anyone interested in meditation. I don't think anyone can explain the process as well as Andy does.
If your on the fence whether or not to get the book, I'd suggest downloading the Headspace app, or visiting their website. The animations they have on there are made from the examples/lessons discussed in the book and will give a really nice insight in the contents.

If you already have the app, but your missing the context of when to apply which method/animation from the app, then this book is a very good addition. Andy will describe what he struggled with in his life, and then describe the exercise/example he himself got thought to address the problem. So the book gives more context to the exercises in the app.

Did not finish.

Why did I pick this book
As many people probably do, I came across varying quotes from John Muir, and mentions of the powerful nature essays he's written. Interested, especially now that days are getting shorter and colder, I decided to pick up a copy from the local library.

The book
As the title says, this is a collection of various wilderness essays by John Muir, written throughout his lifetime. The first one when he is just a young man on the farm, writing about the oxen that drive their carts. Later as a nature researcher, on ‘missions' to examine a river etc.

My recommendation
This is a very old book, and its clearly visible in the style of writing. Long sentences, old words.. For me the style of writing was too ‘slow' and too outdated. I enjoyed the essay, where he paddles down a river with a group of men, accompanied by a stray dog that someone sort of adopts and which causes all kinds of trouble, the most because something actually happens.

If you like old-timey books and nature this is definitely worth a read, but I'm afraid its too slow for current generations.

The book chronicles the life and death of the author, Kalanithi, who is a neuroscience doctor and later cancer patient. The author gives a description on how he views death from both the perspective of first a doctor and later a patient. Unfortunately, Kalanithi died before he got a chance to finish the book, and his wife has added a chapter at the end, detailing the last days of the author and giving her description of who Kalanithi was.

I selected this book since it was praised and a recommended read. Reading the description I thought it would give interesting points on death, indeed since the author has the unique perspective on death from both a doctor and a patient. Maybe it would give me an understanding of what it means to die, and thus, what it ultimately means to live.
However, I did not find clear and concise arguments on this. The book was halfway finished when the author died and indeed to me it feels like the author did not have time to clean up his arguments, but that the book is rather a collection of unfinished thoughts.
The chapter at the end, by Kalanithi's wife, at first read as a way to close off the book, describing the final days of the author. However, at the end I felt like she “took over” the book and described how much she missed him and how great he was, which I don't think fits in with the goal of the book.

It's a great retelling of real-life experience of a terminal ill person, and how his unsure future affects his life. However, for the doctor's aspect of the story I would rather advise ‘This is going to hurt' by Adam Kay, which is more entertaining and clearer to follow. For a tragic end-of-life story I would advise ‘the Heart' by Maylis de Kerangal.

Fun read. Interesting to gain insight into Tesla and SpaceX.

Looking forward to reading more books focusing on Elon Musk's way of thinking (thinking from first principles).

Why did I pick this?
Highly recommended by most of the people who I get my book recommendations from. I'm also interested in Mental Models and recently came across an interesting way of deducing Mental Models by Peter Kaufman, called the three-buckets method. Here you take the three largest sample sized there exist; the organic universe, the biological universe and recorded human history.
Sapiens tells the history of human kind, so I thought it would be a good fit for bucket number three.

The book
The book is divided into four parts; the cognitive revolution (separating Homo Sapiens from other ‘human' species), the agricultural revolution, the unification of humankind (going from very separate societies to a world-spanning species) and the scientific revolution.
In each part Harari describes the factors contributing to the revolution, for example, he argues that money, imperialism and global religions played major factors in the unification of humankind.

My thoughts
Loved the read. Harari has a great way of explaining concepts in layman's terms, making the rather dry subject of Human History very accessible.
This is even more so due to his novel ways of describing certain concepts. This is already the case in the opening pages (from memory); “At first there was the inorganic universe, and we call the field that researches this Physics. Chemical reactions started to take place and we call this field Science. Etc”
I had the feeling that Harari skipped over some statements quite quickly and would need more argumentation. Or state that it was personal opinion.

Recommendations
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the overall history of humankind and especially those who want a general overview (rather than specific events).
As I mentioned in my intro it's also interesting for people looking for Mental Models, although from what I've heard maybe his second book is more interesting (called Homo Deus).

Another book on my want-to-read list that I think would nicely complement this book is The New Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan, which describes the way the Silk Road and global trade has influenced the unification of mankind.

This is an author trying to convey his enthusiasm for materials with the reader and he is able to do it in both an enthusiastic and informative tone.
Miodownik combines personal experiences (being stabbed by a knife to delve into metals), musings about a specific material (a chapter on paper musing about note paper, paper bags, glossy paper, tickets, etc) and extensive material science knowledge (all the different material structures of carbon) in an easy to read book.

Really loved the chapter on glass, explaining that, although the Chinese were way ahead of Europe on materials science, they did not start to develop glass (as they were happy sipping tea from porcelain). However, the Romans were not satisfied drinking their expensive wines from opaque containers, so they developed glass.
This knowledge of glass lead to the development of lenses, microscopes and of scientific tools (petri dishes, test tubes, etc), leading Europe into the scientific age.
This knowledge on glass makes me interested to read ‘the Silk Roads' by Peter Frankopan, which explores these ages of development in full.

Entertaining.
Finished in one evening though.

Kolbert has gone on many expeditions to discover the status of several animal species (Golden Frogs in South-America, the Brown Bats in America, Auk's in Iceland etc) and tells in an entertaining though disheartening fashion how they became (or becoming) extinct.
To round it all of these stories are interspersed with how humans discovered how there have been past extinctions (including the famous extinction of the dinosaurs, which was only discovered in the 80's).

I had expected that the book would have a stronger opinion on the role of humans in the sixth extinction, but it is surprisingly neutral on this. Of course it explains which effects climate change will have on the future of animal species, but it tells this in a manner of fact way and by the way, one of the other extinctions was also caused by massive climate change, so you can see what kind of effect that had.


Would recommend because:
Features a nice explanation of the different extinctions that have already taken place on earth (there were already 5, while I mostly only knew about the dinosaurs one) and what kind of effects they had.

Still curious about:
What kind of effects will the current extinction have on earth. What will the future look like with acidic oceans and animals missing from the foodchain?