The 23 books I read this summer, and whether I would recommend them or not
Aug 28, 2017 · 3 min read

In my last post about what I accomplished this summer, I said I’d post my reading list from this summer. Here it is, with a small one sentence review of the book and whether I’d recommend it.

The nonfiction list:
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: wasn’t too useful to me since I’ve already got my own systems that work, but I’d recommend it to people who have trouble planning. There are other topics in here done better in other books
- How to Win Friends and Influence People: recommended to everybody, the absolute basics for social skills
- Models: recommended to everybody (not just men) since the first few chapters on non-neediness are very effective for cultivating a positive mindset
- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k: recommended, similar to last book but goes more into non-neediness
- Man’s Search for Meaning: partly recommended, the Holocaust setting may be a bit heavy for some but there are very important messages throughout the first part of the book. The second part on logotherapy isn’t as useful IMO
- Brain Maker: recommended, the gut microbiome is incredibly important and learning about it is a good idea
- The Personal MBA: not sure, I have no clue how effective the book is since I haven’t had many chances to apply the principles
- Never Split the Difference: recommended, fantastic book on convincing people to your side
- The War of Art: partly recommended, it’s a nice book for people who do creative work on mind blocks and overcoming resistance to creation
- Ego is the Enemy: recommended, a good book about how the ego can screw you over and why it’s important to keep it in check
- The Obstacle is the Way: recommended, a good introductory book to Stoic thought
- Trust Me I’m Lying: partly recommended, read if you’re interested in media corruption
- Surely You Must be Joking Mr. Feynman: recommended, Feynman was an extremely interesting physicist who had novel ways of looking at everything
- Antifragile: partly recommended, full of interesting ideas but Taleb’s writing can get very annoying with his boastfulness
- Think and Grow Rich: not recommended, just didn’t really have much I found of importance
- Mastery: recommended, a good discussion on what is required to master a skill and how it’s a long and difficult process
- The 48 Laws of Power: not recommended, the laws are contradictory and pointless to know. Some nice history in the book which could be gotten from other books though
- The 4 Hour Work Week: partly recommended, the concepts are good but I think Tim overhypes everything throughout the book
The fiction list:

- East of Eden: recommended, Steinbeck’s best work
- The Grapes of Wrath: recommended, one of Steinbeck’s best books that discusses the Dust Bowl
- Slaughterhouse Five: recommended, a very interesting take on war and has a series of other interesting concepts in it
- Fight Club: not recommended, a less interesting version compared to the movie
- American Psycho (this was a serious mistake… and yes I did finish it, although I skipped quite liberally)
