Reading

A list of books I am currently reading, have tried to read, or have read.

I have consistently been an inconsistent reader throughout my life. I go through phases where I read every day and phases where I don’t read for weeks or months (or years) on end. So this list comes with no guarantees.

I started this list in May 2020. So it only includes books I’ve read since then. And it’s not exhaustive as I’ve failed to add a few as I’ve read them. Sometimes I write a short review and if I do I add the link to the review to the list below.

  • Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout by Cal Newport(September 2026): How doing less, working at a natural pace, and obsessing over quality will lead to a more productive professional life.
  • Dopamine Nation by Anna Lembke MD (August-September 2026): An excellent book that can help you understand why you can’t put your phone down and give you the power to do something about it.
  • Don’t Believe Everything You Think by Joseph Nguyen (August 2026): I wanted to like this book. I expected a deep but accessible and hands-on approach to mindfulness by another name. That’s not what I got. The ideas are there, but it’s not deep nor accessible in my opinion. I’m sure this book is helpful to some people but I didn’t find it particularly insightful or useful.
  • Cosmic Queries: StarTalk’s Guide to Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We’re Going by Neil deGrasse Tyson with James Trefil (August 2026): This one has been on my coffee table for a long time. I imagine it’s difficult to cover the subject matter of this book in an accessible and concise way. If you like the StarTalk podcast you’ll probably like the book.
  • Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman (June 2026): I picked this up in the airport on my way out of town for a work trip and tore through it in two or three days. A very fun read in the LitRPG category. It’s violent, suspenseful, creative, and unexpected. I ended up working my way through the next 7 books in the series on Audible over the next two months. As a series I felt it looses some steam after a while but I’ll probably keep following it as additional installments are released to find out what ultimately happens with Carl, Princess Donut, and all the rest.
  • The Sales Acceleration Formula by Mark Roberge (December 2024): Excellent book on sales for digital businesses. Something of a classic at this point. Also includes some talk of marketing which isn’t as relevant today as it was in 2015, but a great read with lots of great insights into how to set up and lead a sales org.
  • Exit-Ready Marketing by Shiv Narayanan (December 2024): Great high-level overview of marketing for digital product / service SMBs. Very short. Can be read in a day.
  • No Plan B, a Reacher Novel by Lee Child and Andrew Child (March-April 2023), Kindle ebook version: This was an entertaining read but Reacher didn’t feel as well-developed in this book, especially compared to the earliest Reacher books. Honestly, this might be most enjoyable for someone who isn’t a Reacher fan as the thing that bugged me was that Reacher himself seemed to lack depth.
  • Gone Tomorrow, a Reacher Novel by Lee Child (March 2023): I picked this book off my shelf to read for a second (or third?) time. It’s a solid entry in the Reacher series, but re-reading it reinforced my existing position that the Reacher books get weaker the deeper you get into the series. The first few are the best.
  • Sundial by Catriona Ward (March 2023): I picked up Sundial on a whim in the Miami airport and read it in two days. A good read if you’re into psychological horror (think: Stephen King), but it does contain a lot of material that may be disturbing (child abuse, violence committed to and by children, animal abuse, psychological torment and manipulation, etc).
  • Humankind by Rutger Bregman (January-February 2021); 10/10, perhaps the most important book I’ve ever read. Everyone should read it
  • Cross Country: A 3,700-Mile Run to Explore Unseen America by Rickey Gates (February 2021); 9/10, read in a single day, inspiring, moving, I only wish it was a bit longer
  • Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin (September 2020-January 2021 with a break in Nov-Dec 2020); 8/10, solid book, would recommend and read again
  • Relentless Forward Progress by Bryon Powell (October 2020-November 2020); 8/10, solid, will refer back too from time to time
  • Never Wipe Your Ass with a Squirrel by Jason Robillard (October 2020); 4/10, some funny stories
  • Into the Furnace by Cory Reese with Luke Thoreson (September-October 2020); 7/10, inspiring, worth your time
  • Ultramarathon Man by Dean Karnazes (September 2020); 6/10, inspiring but asks for a bit more faith than I was willing to give
  • Nowhere Near First by Cory Reese (September 2020); 6/10, funny, positive, inspiring
  • Breathe by James Nestor (August 2020-September 2020); 7/10, extremely well-written, interesting
  • The Room Where It Happened by John Bolton (June-August 2020), quit approximately 350 pages in; 2/10, would not recommend
  • Both Feet on the Ground by Marshall Ulrich (July 2020); 8/10, inspiring, interesting, worth a second reading
  • Why Buddhism is True by Robert Wright (July 2020); 8/10, eye-opening, well-written, worth a second and third reading
  • Running on Empty by Marshall Ulrich (June 2020); 8/10, inspiring, interesting, worth a second reading
  • Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins (June 2020); 8/10, incredibly inspiring
  • Run Less Run Faster by Bill Pierce, Scott Murr, and Ray Moss (June 2020); 8/10, useful, will refer back to, repeatedly
  • What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami (June 2020); 8/10, inspiring and interesting
  • Deep Work by Cal Newport (May-June 2020); 8/10, incredibly valuable if applied
  • Waking Up by Sam Harris (May 2020); 7/10, interesting, well-written, can get a bit dry
  • Free Will by Sam Harris (May 2020); 8/10, interesting and thought-provoking, but extremely short, more like a long blog post or magazine article than a book
  • Measure What Matters by John Doerr (April-May 2020); 6/10, well-written, useful, I have a hard time getting excited about business books and this is perhaps the best I’ve read