I suspect Moby-Dick — the quintessential Great American Novel — has the curious accolade of being one of the most famous books ever, while also being one of the least read books. Its reputation greatly exceeds its appeal. Nonetheless, I had always wanted to read this extraordinary 170 year old book. And now that I did, I think I understand its reputation as well as I understand the incongruent appeal.… Read More »Moby-Dick – Herman Melville
Frequent visitors might notice a change to the site: I switched WordPress themes. I have been a happy user of the Independent Publisher theme since this site started, and I still use it on my other blog. It’s a terrific theme and I like a lot. But because I really like clean and simple aesthetic I made quite a few tweaks to it, specifically to the fonts and CSS. My… Read More »New WordPress theme: Neve
My book tracking app alerted me that I read 52 books over the last twelve months. So, *franticly crunching numbers* yes, indeed, that averages to one book per week! I follow a couple of blogs of people that read way more than I do. Like these guys, respectively read 116, 105, 74 and 58 books in 2019. I don’t know how they managed to do so, but 52 is definitely… Read More »How I read 52 books in a year
I have a soft spot for Bono. The megalomaniac lead singer of probably the world’s most commercial band (“the only band with their own iPod”). The Irish humanitarian multi-millionaire. Yes, I get all the criticism. Still, few singers can belt it out like Bono can. And I will forever stand by that. On May 10th this year, Bono turned 60. So I thought it would be a good time to… Read More »Bono on Bono – Michka Assayas
People like stories, people remember stories. So, tell stories! This is what I learned from Seth Godin. But Spencer Johnson clearly understands this concept too. This little book embodies the concepts of how to deal with change in one memorable parable. Johnson probably wasn’t the first to do so, but this concept — packing management theories as stories — is everywhere now. And this little book, probably has a lot… Read More »Who moved my cheese? – Spencer Johnson
This was the third book in a twelve part series of introductions to famous thinkers/philosophers (previously I read Plato and Kierkegaard). You might expect these books to be small (check) and comprehensible (not so much). So like the other two books, this book suffers from the same problems. Sure, you’ll get an introduction on Marx, and you get a better understanding of what influenced his thinking and what his special… Read More »Marx – Peter Singer
I was impressed by the Netflix miniseries Unorthodox. Specifically with the talented actors, the believable authentic world-building and the spot-on casting (so good). With regards to all of these aspects this is a very good show. Huge parts of the show are in Yiddish which is a unique experience (especially when you speak a little bit of German). It felt genuine and intimate. I like that the story works with… Read More »Unorthodox – Netflix miniseries
I have a lot of respect for Bill Gates and tend to follow what he does. So this book, just like the one on Steve Jobs, is a nice reminder of the man’s personality and his thinking process. As it spans some 30+ years, there are mild variations noticeable, but overall: what you see is what you get and with Bill Gates and that is head-on, rational straightforwardness and a… Read More »Impatient Optimist: Bill Gates in His Own Words – Lisa Rogak
This is a book just with quotes from late Apple founder Steve Jobs. I already knew most of them, having read more than one book about Steve Jobs. Nonetheless, seeing his most salient quotes in one place is a good indication and reminder of the man’s personality and vision. Since the quotes are all dated I particularly noticed 3 types of Steve. The brass, cocky, young Steve (everything up until… Read More »iSteve – George Beahm en Wim Zefat
If one writer is responsible for how we think about robots it is, of course, Isaac Asimov. The terrifically prolific writer and groundbreaking author of the science-fiction genre, produced numerous works with terrific futuristic insight — and, some were about robots. And I, Robot is a seminal work in this oeuvre. But this book is of course not really about robots, or the famous law of robotics. No, this law… Read More »I, Robot – Isaac Asimov
Jitsi offers a great user experience because it doesn’t require an account, you just go to a Chrome URL and you’re pretty much good to go. You get a full blown video chat environment: complete with gridview, screensharing and chat options. No add ons or third party installations needed. I greatly prefer this instead of Zoom, Google Hangouts or Microsoft Teams or what have you. Jitsi is also a great… Read More »Jitsi finetuning and customization
One of my favorite podcasts is “A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs”. I’ve written about it before, it’s an absolutely terrific podcast. But this post is not about the podcast but about the book! After the first 50 episodes creator Andrew Hickey bundled the adapted episode transcripts into the first volume of a book series. And, of course, I had to get it, as an unmissable reference and… Read More »Volume 1: From Savoy Stompers to Clock Rockers – Andrew Hickey