I used to blog about just the interesting books I read, but as of 2019 I blog about every book I read. I try to keep these blogs deliberately short (max. 250 words), as an exercise to get to the point.
Partly because of this limit, I also TRY not to go into detail about the book plot or subject — whether it’s fiction or non-fiction. Instead I try to focus on if this is a book worth reading*. And I focus more on style, approach and form.
I take this approach for the same reason that dissecting a movie plot is only a small part of a movie discussion. Movies work (or don’t) because of the techniques used in the storytelling, so those are usually more interesting to look at than the plot.
And lastly, I try to love every book I read. Writing books takes time and dedication. I may not agree or like everything I read, but still someone poured part of themselves in there. So I try to respect that.
* The definition of “worth reading” is of course something you could write a book about. Worth reading for me heavily depends on “what you can take away” or “how it alters your views”. The best books have the ability to change your perception.
This was an exhausting book to read. Because it reads like a prolonged poem with a stream of thoughts about everything and anything and with very little dialogue. Two things are very clear though: Woolf went very deep and therefore this book can not be anything else than autobiographical. Feeling already exhausted as a reader, I couldn’t even imagine what the process must have been for a writer to put… Read More »To the Lighthouse – Virginia Woolf
In 2018 I read 24 books (25th in progress). Here is a list of 10 books that stood out in one way or another. Some are recommendations. Besides music biographies, computer history and management/business books, I tend to read bestseller novels from a few years ago. By then the crowd has decided what’s good and thrift stores will carry a lot of these books — which can be an indication… Read More »Ten notable books I read in 2018
When a co-worker handed me a copy of The Phoenix Project, the 8-bit art on the cover looked fun. But the tagline — ‘A Novel About IT, DevOps and Helping your Business Win’ — sounded a bit like the usual buzzword management lingo. But I was clearly wrong, I loved this book! It is unlike anything I’ve read before and it really spoke to me because the situations were so… Read More »The Phoenix Project
The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder is one of those books that always seems to pop up when ‘computer-people’ share book recommendations. Exhibit A, exhibit B, exhibit C and so on — you get the picture. It is supposedly about computers, and I like computers! So I had to read it. And the “Winner of the Pulitzer Price” notion on the cover also seemed promising! I had assumed it… Read More »The Soul of a New Machine – Tracy Kidder
This book by Ashlee Vance sat on my wish-list since it came out two years ago. So, long overdue, last week I finally got to it and boy, what a ‘fantastic‘ read it is. There is lot to say about the man, his ideas and the ways he goes about bringing those ideas to life. Whether you like stories about next-level entrepreneurship or bold boyish imagination about where we are moving… Read More »Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
This book had been sitting on my to-read list for way too long! But I finally found a second hand copy, so here we go! You could say this is the official autobiography of Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux. The Operating System that changed the world! You can wake me up in the middle of the night to talk about operating systems. So this book is right up my… Read More »Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary
You are probably aware that there are a *lot* of ways to visualize or model business and management related things. There are few fields of expertise with so many models and theories (sure, math and physics but they are older). There is even a book that specifically tries to list the most well-know models. There are already over 100 models in this book and the writer told me that the… Read More »Business Model Canvas
Best-of lists signify another year is coming to a close. People feel a need to sort and order things to make room for what is to come. Or something like that. So here is an assorted list of best new things I found in 2016. Things can be anything, as long as it was new to me in 2016. Feel free to share your list in the comments. Best new app Google Photos… Read More »Best of 2016
In 2004 I picked up this book about Donald J. Trump. Published in 1987, it is a story about the, then just, 40 year old Trump’s insane real estate successes. And I was genuinely interested. From what I knew then, Trump was the poster child of decadent 80’s Manhattan mega fortune makers. But around the same time his TV show started, and my interest dwindled. I had better things to do than read about… Read More »Trump – The Art of the Deal
I’ve always loved timelines. Visually seeing where things are in time resonates pretty strongly with me. This love goes back to my earliest memories of the dentists’ office where a huge year-round calendar hung on the wall. It had 12 distinct vertical columns and every day had its own little box. Maybe it’s because of the physical pain that went with those visits, but this calendar is cemented in my mind. It’s what… Read More »My January timeline
This weekend I read On Writing – A memoir of the Craft by Stephen King – something I should have done 10 years ago. This book is not a work of fiction as you might expect from mr. King but rather it is the accumulation of his thoughts on writing (well!). I don’t plan on writing fiction, I don’t even read that much fiction (tech history and music biographies mostly) but the rules in… Read More »On Writing – Stephen King
On my last vacation I finally got around to reading Masters of Doom by David Kushner. This book from 2003 keeps popping up every now and again and people always rave about it. I put it on my Amazon wish list years ago (which holds 50 books atm). But recently I came across it again, so it was time. And boy, what an absolute pleasure to read, it was. From start to… Read More »Masters of Doom