Today is February 21st, David Foster Wallace‘s birthday. So it’s rather fitting that today I finished reading his magnum opus: Infinite Jest. The notoriously long and difficult book from 1996 with visionary insights on modern life. Infinite Jest is one of the biggest books ever written, and it certainly is the biggest book I have ever read. It took me somewhere between 50 and 60 hours over the course of… Read More »Infinite Jest – David Foster Wallace
Gung Ho! is a management book written by well-know author Ken Blanchard. It was somehow never on my radar, so because of the strange title and my unfamiliarity I wasn’t expecting too much, and I only picked it up because I know Blanchard’s other famous theory. But it turned out to be a delightful, short read. This book can help any starting, aspiring or even seasoned manager to get their… Read More »Gung Ho! Turn On the People in Any Organization – Ken Blanchard & Sheldon Bowles
I keep a daily journal. And journaling daily make pocket planners usable as journal notebooks. I tend to be particular about certain things. So when searching for a new notebook — one that I will carry around for a year — I decided the following things are important. Must haves A5 format. Everything else is too big or too small. Hardcover. No flappy stuff. Lined paper Not too wide or… Read More »The perfect notebook
This year I’ve listened to 519 podcasts and 36 of those were episodes of A History Of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs. But it’s safe to say that A History Of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs is my favorite new podcast that I discovered this year and it deserves more attention and praise! 500 Songs ‘500 Songs’ is a mammoth project where Andrew Hickey sets out — over… Read More »A History Of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs
It’s clever. It’s smart. It’s eloquent. It’s articulate. It’s masterfully written. It’s the archetype of the whodunit. It’s the absolute queen of adverbs. It’s quintessential Agatha Christie. I enjoyed it thoroughly and can’t imagine someone who wouldn’t.
When this book came out it was seemingly everywhere. Especially in airport bookshops (I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not though). Or maybe I am imagining things and the book just sticks out, more than others, because of the swear word in the title, which is …. quaint? I happened to find* a Dutch copy and thought: well, why not? Seemed short enough. And sure enough you… Read More »The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F* – Mark Manson
In 1996 — when he was just starting out — Ammaniti published a collection of short stories titled Fango. This particular story (which was also made into a movie) is one of the stories from Fango published as a separate book in 2010 and it’s absolutely vintage Ammaniti. Being one of his earliest stories, it’s coarse and crude and a actually a bit too much for my taste. His later… Read More »Humanity’s Last New Year’s Eve – Niccolò Ammaniti
I don’t know what the English title translation for Rutger Bregman’s latest book will be. But I do know two things. One: there will be one. And two: it will be a bestseller. I do know now, and yes it will be a bestseller: The title will be something along the lines of: Most People Are Decent. Which is a terrible translation by me and I hope they come up… Read More »Humankind: A Hopeful History (De Meeste Mensen Deugen) – Rutger Bregman
It’s probably fair to say Niccolò Ammaniti is one of my favorite writers at the moment. This being his third book I read since last year. He has a gut stomping way of describing the human condition in a funny, recognisable and smart way. His dialogue, characters and plot ooze effortlessly from the pages. And especially his metaphors are one of a kind. This book specifically touches on a more… Read More »Me and You – Niccolò Ammaniti
When The Black Swan came out in 2007 it caused quite a stir. And understandably so. Taleb has a distinctive and fresh view of looking at the world through the lens of an emperic skeptic. He also likes to write, think out loud, and argue why he is right (and others are wrong). He greatly admires Kahneman, Poincaré and Mandelbrot. But he also dislikes a lot of things: the traditional… Read More »The Black Swan – Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Writing a Churchill biography is not an easy assignment, even though it would be difficult to butcher the job. Churchill lead an unprecedented rich and varied life and just writing down the bare facts would already be enough for a great story. But it would also be a massive undertaking. Haffner took a different route. He chose the high-level helicopter approach. And he managed to produce an impressive sketch and… Read More »Churchill – Sebastian Haffner
In his highly distinctive ‘tone of voice’, Maarten van Rossem provides the most succinct available lecture on the root causes which lead to the 2008 financial crisis. From the change in Keynes thinking (after the 1920s) to the Hayek and Friedman ideology — embodied by the neoliberal policies of Reagan and Thatcher. Van Rossem explains how culture and ideology shifted and, combined with technology and humanity’s never-ending greed, provided the… Read More »Capitalism without brakes – Maarten van Rossem