Readers, I hope you are well. I’m excited to share this post with you. Please comment or share if you enjoy it!
Last August, I started recording my reading, with no idea of what I might do with my list of literary explorations. This post covers major themes I’ve uncovered from my year of reading. The book list itself can be found here (I’d encourage you to check it out, and share your book recommendations in the comments of this post)!
Highlight Reel | Top Books & Quotes
🥇 Top Book 🥇
Ready Player One wins best book award! Ready Player One was one of my first audiobooks (listened on Audible). I loved consuming the book that way - it takes focus to keep up, but the pace of the book made for a perfect listen. The book is over ten years old and is a prescient, fast-paced novel about a handful of young people navigating a contest created by a technologist in a (mostly) virtual world.
🥇 Top Books | Pre Reading List🥇
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention two of my favorite books that I read just before I started keeping track of my reading. For the last few years, I’ve gravitated towards books at the intersection of history, finance, government, and business. Such books seem to hold lots of nuggets of wisdom that lend themselves to building a directional understanding of the technology industry. Two of my all-time favorite books, ⭐️ Too Big to Fail ⭐️ and ⭐️ A Promised Land ⭐️ are dense, immersive narratives with robust character development via short anecdotes that attach back to a broader story arc.
🎨 Most Creative 🎨
Other ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reads
The Time Tax (Article)
Google Maps’s Moat (Article)
The Nightingale and The Midnight Library - the two books that made the five star list - were fantastic narratives that held me captive as a reader. Both articles, on the other hand, I used for a different purpose. I stumbled upon them and used them as research tools for The Promise of Govtech and The Promise of MAPS.
I read for one of two reasons - either for entertainment or to learn. I’ve not recently come across a book that delivers on both well (Too Big to Fail is probably the closest for me).
💬 Top Quotes 💬
I tried to pull out the quotes that stuck out to me while reading. There’s a column for this in the Notion document, but find some of my favorites below.
Publishing
Big Five of Publishing & Imprints - I’ve written about the “big five” before in The Promise of Stripe Press - the “big five” of publishing includes: Penguin Random House (PRH), HarperCollins Publishers, Simon & Schuster, Hachette Book Group and Macmillan Publishers. These five companies “are responsible… for around 80 percent of the books published in the United States each year,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
Most of the books I read by the Big Five were published by imprints. Imprints are “trade names” used by publishers that are tailored to a specific demographic or mission. Check out this eye-opening visualization by Ali Almossawi on the vast reach of the Big Five. The below screenshot is the vast world of Penguin Random House alone!
Of the 37 books I read randomly over the course of the last ten months, 17 were published by Penguin Random House - by far the most dominant publisher within the books I read, at least.
Methodology & Observations
💐 Grouping - A technique I’ve enjoyed is grouping the subject matter of my reading (or reading a handful of books and/or articles on the same topic in quick succession). You’ll notice some major themes in my reading - finance, government, history, business, art, and entrepreneurship. Grouping helps me get smart on a topic quickly (especially helpful if I’m looking to write a post about an area or learn more about a sector I’m hoping to invest in).
💰 Michael Lewis - maybe I’m late to the game, but I read three Michael Lewis books in the last several months, and have a fourth on the docket. None of his books have been five stars for me (I generally find business books educational but not earth-shattering), but I do find his storytelling insightful. His books generally fall into that elusive entertainment x learning category I mentioned above. My favorite so far is Moneyball.
👩🏽🚀 Genre - most books I read are nonfiction, but I enjoy interspersing fiction every now and then. I typically read fiction books quickly, and they feel like a good entertainment cleanse between bursts of heavier material.
📚 On reading multiple books at once - pre-pandemic, I never read more than two books at once. Now I find myself in the middle of three or more at times. The main thing I like about reading this way is that I can pick up a book that matches my mood.
🏁 On finishing books - also during the pandemic, I raised my bar for finishing books. Previously, I would generally complete each book I started. Now I only finish books I’m reading for a purpose, find compelling, or think they will teach me something.
🎧 Audiobooks - I love Audible. It has high utility for me. However, I feel the business model (monthly subscription + pay for credits) is pricey, and the interface is clunky. I wish someone would make a modern Audible and include its extensive book selection, but for a better price, and with better usability. | ❗️ | Update as of September 20, 2022, Spotify also offers audiobooks. Looking forward to giving the service a try! | ❗️ | Update as of June 2023, I now use Libby for audiobooks - its free. Sometimes there is a wait for books, but it is usually short.
Reply or comment if you have any great book or article recommendations, I’d love to hear them! 📖 🎧 💬