About once a month we start an internal discussion on Basecamp about what people have been reading lately. It’s a great way to get suggestions for good books. So why not try to see how it’d work on this blog. Here are five of the best books I’ve read in the last few months:
- The Intelligent Investor: Benjamin Graham’s immortal tome on value investing cuts right through the bullshit of the short-term stock market swings and valuation bubbles. He draws on examples from the stock market from the late 1800s until 1970s. The latest edition then contains chapter commentary with examples from the 2000s. It’s amazing how little has changed. As Graham says, “in the short term, the stock market behaves like a voting machine, but in the long term it acts like a weighing machine”. If you read just one book on the market or investing, make it this one.
- The New Jim Crow: Heart-breaking account of how the American justice system has been perverted through the War on Drugs to lock up utterly disproportionate number of blacks and other minorities. It then details the hopeless life that awaits those who are branded felons for the rest of their life by excluding them from public assistance, jobs, and housing. The book is full of real-life case stories that should make even the most ardent drug warrior’s stomach in disgust. Quick read too and great writing.
- Riding Man: Ad man decides to quit his job to follow his dream of racing the Isle of Man TT. Great story telling, great example of how it’s never too late to follow your dreams.
- Why Nations Fail: A thorough look through history describing why some nations rise to prosperity and others linger in poverty. It’s a little slow to get going, but once you get rolling it’s hard to put it down.
- Insanely Simple: Yes, there’s enough Steve Jobs hero worship tomes to last anyone a lifetime, but this one is full of specific examples that you can use in your own business. Written by an ad man who worked with Jobs on a number of projects.
What have you been reading lately?
Matt Henderson
on 04 Feb 13Thanks for the recommendation about The Intelligent Investor. I’d actually bought that book years ago, but was so intimidated by its size that I never got started. As you mentioned on Twitter, though, Graham is a great writer and the book is very readable.
I also get the impression that Graham was a great role model as a person, in addition to an investor. The forward by Warren Buffett seemed to reveal that when quoting what Graham hoped to achieve every day: “something foolish, something creative and something generous.” I’m looking forward to learning more about him.
Nathan Peretic
on 04 Feb 13Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain.
The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm by William Manchester and Paul Reid. After Manchester died it wasn’t clear the final book would ever be written. It was finally released late in 2012.
The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael Gerber. It’s a little hokey, but should still be required reading for any small business owner.
Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies and Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t both by Jim Collins. If The E-Myth is Business 101, Collins’ books are 102.
Also, The Complete Tales of Winnie-The-Pooh by A.A. Milne because everyone should read that.
AstonJ
on 04 Feb 13Last month I finished Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 minutes (read over two days – so easy to read!) and The Rails View (both excellent) and I’ve just got back in to Rails 3 Recipes. Before that I read Seven Databases in Seven Weeks and was a good way through Deploying Rails. Prior to that I covered most of the books I have read here: How to learn Ruby/Rails.
Non-coding wise, I am reading diet/nutrition books and I want to get Bad Pharma (by Ben Goldacre) next.
..I am working my way up to your top programming books DHH’s top five programming books... I just feel I am not ready for them yet.
wwatson
on 04 Feb 13If you are going to read the New Jim Crow, you might as well read the Brainwashed/Myth of Black Inferiority and Medical Apartheid too. All three together will pretty much explain the modern urban problem in America, completely. Prepare to be sad. Lots of stuff not found on wikipedia, but easily fact checked. I fact checked the New Jim Crow for 5 days because I thought the claims couldn’t possibly be true.
For software, I finally made my way through The Timeless Way of Building. It reminded me of your holistic software views on the ruby/rogues list. Its funny how the original source can be so different than the derivations. It’s readable in one hour, as recommended by the author in the forward.
A quick question on the New Jim Crow. Do you feel, after reading it, that the best option for an urbanite is “colorblindness” while keeping his/her nose clean? Did you feel that before reading it?
Christian
on 04 Feb 13FYI the website accompanying Riding Man seems to do some mass injection attack according to a Symantec popup. http://www.ridingman.com
Paul Mansour
on 04 Feb 13Friedrich Hayek’s The Constitution of Liberty. I’m re-reading this after 20 years. Timeless and even more important now than when it was written. This book will make you see the world in a completely new way. A book for the ages.
For programmers this book is of particular interest in its description and explication of spontaneous order and the knowledge problem. Computer systems are often like a microcosm of a society: built incrementally over time, no one mind can fully know the entire system, and rewrite it at your user’s peril!
Austin
on 04 Feb 13Just finished reading The Icarus Deception by Seth Godin and really enjoyed it. Very motivational to make you take charge and create more.
LittleBeam
on 04 Feb 13It’s interesting how “all” the books listed has a link to amazon. This looks like more an ad blog than ever!
Just saying…
GregT
on 04 Feb 13Favorite book ever: http://www.amazon.com/The-Curious-Incident-Dog-Night-Time/dp/1400032717
Dave
on 04 Feb 13I love how each post always results in someone bickering… I for one appreciate the links even if it means we put a nickel in the tip cup with purchase (I assume).
Just finished Lawrence Wrights ‘Going Clear’ about scientology. His last book (Looming Tower) is one of the best books I have ever read and I recommend it to everyone… Going Clear was kinda a let down, very interesting story and obviously very well researched (his speciality) but I felt a bit let down by the sort of abrupt ‘ending’.
Now reading Peter Hook’s Joy Division memoir ‘Unknown Pleasures’. Nothing remotely programming related on my kindle :)
Brade
on 04 Feb 13“How Proust Can Change Your Life” is by far the most interesting book I’ve read lately. And it’s not too long either.
DHH
on 04 Feb 13Dave, these links are not even associated with any affiliate account. Could the simplest possible explanation merely be that I bought these books from Amazon? Indeed.
ecbp
on 04 Feb 13Antifragile, in fact I’d recommend all of N.N. Taleb’s books.
LittleBeam
on 04 Feb 13Another interesting thing, DHH tagged me as troll, because I wrote that this post looks like an ad post, since he linked all the books to Amazon, which is by the way, one investor of 37signals.
Why not he uses wiki links or noble and barney’s??
Oh right, because he bought those books on Amazon! Yeah right!
Brandon Durham
on 04 Feb 13A Long-Haired Handsome Jesus, an online memoir with new chapters posted every two weeks. Full-disclosure: This is my husband’s memoir. I designed and developed the site, but I’ve also read all chapters and they’re good.
David Andersen
on 04 Feb 13Thank you, LittleBeam, for making the world a safer and more righteous place.
John H
on 04 Feb 13“Isle of Man”, not “Island”.
Jacki
on 04 Feb 13Basecamp?
You don’t have this discussion on Campfire?
David Andersen
on 04 Feb 13The Demon-Haunted World – Carl Sagan The Hidden Reality – Brian Greene Killing Pablo – Mark Bowden Which Comes First, Cardio or Weights – Alex Hutchinson Under the Banner of Heaven – Jon Krakauer
LittleBeam
on 04 Feb 13David Andersen: Welcome!
And here is my list:
- Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? | by Bill Martin - Can’t You Sleep, Little Bear? | by Martin Waddell - The Carrot Seed | by Ruth Krauss - Chicka Chicka Boom Boom | by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault - Goodnight Moon | by Margaret Wise Brown
PS: All bought at Barney’s & Noble!
Jackie
on 04 Feb 13In all fairness to LittleBeam, whenever someone talks about or links to a company who has invested in their own business – you should make a disclaimer.
Much like how Bloomberg News reminds viewers/listeners who owns their company whenever they do a story on Michael Bloomberg (the mayor).
Mazen
on 04 Feb 13The Intelligent Investor is in my top 5 books of all time (not just for finance). The lessons in that book are timeless, and I constantly find that they are just as applicable today (in some ways more so) than when the book was originally written.
A close second for me are Warren Buffet’s letters to Berkshire Hathaway’s shareholders. http://www.amazon.com/Essays-Warren-Buffett-Lessons-Corporate/dp/0966446127
Similar to The Intelligent Investor, it’s full of gems and wisdom that apply to all aspects of life, not just finance. “Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks” always reminds me of the DD business. And “there seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult” really seems to capture popular/trendy approaches to web development these days.
If you like The Intelligent Investor, it’s a must read.
Nicholas Smith
on 04 Feb 13The Talisman
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Rails 3 in Action
Rails 4 in Action
Ricardo
on 04 Feb 13http://www.startupbook.net/
Santhanam
on 04 Feb 13Good List and Good Work. Please tag the such “reading list” posts with label “reading lists”, so that all of us can view the reading lists of “37signals ” team easily.
Thanks Again.
andy idsinga
on 04 Feb 13reading “Escape from Cubicle Nation” by Pamela Slim … loving it. (amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Cubicle-Nation-Corporate-Entrepreneur/dp/B002YNS10M )
working through bits and pieces of “The Scientist and Engineers Guide to Digital Signal Processing” by Stephen W. Smith ( author’s site here (read html or PDF for free or buy): http://www.dspguide.com/)
Funny Stuff
on 04 Feb 13Along with the LittleBeam comment, at the bottom of this page, you see:
“If you liked this Writing post by David, you’ll probably like reading Rekindle my love of reading, “
REKINDLE? Kindle?
Isn’t this an e-reader from Amazon?
David Andersen
on 05 Feb 13LittleBeam – that was sarcasm; keyword: righteous.
But clever of you and others to uncover the secret plot by Bezos to enrich himself by getting DHH to post links to books on Amazon.
Mark
on 05 Feb 13The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
Multipliers by Liz Wiseman
Bill Blum
on 05 Feb 13Gun Machine, by Warren Ellis: Could not put this book down.
Practical Vim, by Drew Neil: This book has given me an entirely new appreciation for vim as a tool to help me write code.
Rick Wolnitzek
on 05 Feb 13James Gleick’s book The Information A History A Theory A Flood gives an appreciation of how we arrived in our digital world.
Matt West
on 05 Feb 13I can second the recommendation for Insanely Simple, it’s a great read.
I’m reading Team Geek by Brian Fitzpatrick and Ben Collins-Sussman at the moment. It has loads of great tips for working in, and managing teams of developers.
Mike W
on 05 Feb 13The Bible. It’s the only book you can read again and again and it only gets better. Most importantly, be sure to read the King James version. It has power where the others do not. God’s words are powerful!
Jacob
on 06 Feb 13I’ve been reading Antifragile, which I got from this list
I plan to work my way through all of those this year.
Daniel
on 06 Feb 13It’s not a business book, but a book about the meaning of work.
Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work
JC
on 06 Feb 13Read Rand! The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.
Just watch this video where Steve Wozniak tells us what book inspired a young Steve Jobs (you might want to fast forward to 8:44). By the way I have always thought of DHH as thinking much like a Randian hero. So I wouldn’t be surprised if he has already read them? However these books are in my opinion a better reread than the Bible like someone mentioned above, the main characters are at least not crucified (with all respect for religion and Christianity). Even if you have heard a lot of bad things about the author in media (which is misrepresenting her a lot) and are reluctant to read her, I will challenge you to find me a better prediction of America’s decline than Atlas Shrugged, a book written more than 50 years ago. And please judge for yourselves.
Ryan Rushing
on 06 Feb 13I’m trying to finish 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea for the 4th time. It’s more duty rather than entertainment at this point.
Neil
on 06 Feb 13Power Of Habit – An excellent look at how habits are formed, their power over us and the information we need to re-shape them.
Abundance – An invigorating book about ideas and technologies that have the potential to define the future.
Rational Optimist – A perspective on current issues which takes into account the history of human progress.
barbwired10
on 07 Feb 13on my night table, a very non-sequitur line up: Don’t Gobble the Marshmallow…Ever! / The Know-it-All / Drop Dead Healthy / Geography Dicitionary / To Kill a Mockingbird
Paris T
on 07 Feb 13I read and liked:
- REWORK
- Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
P.S. As an ISTP I love your “quiet time” plan prohibiting coworkers from talking to each other and limiting distraction. Also I wish companies had a “no talk (insert weekday)” rule. I don’t see it happening anytime soon though.
- The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
- Bright Sided by Barbara Ehrenreich
- The Education of Millionaires by Michael Ellsberg
- Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
- Death of the Liberal Class by Chris Hedges
- The Dip, All Marketers Are liars, Small is the New Big and Purple Cow by Seth Godin
- Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes
Currently reading:
- Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking by M. Neil Browne, Stuart M. Keeley
- Head First JQuery (Don’t laugh I’m an inexperienced designer trying grasp Javascript.)
On my soon to read list:
- All of Ron Paul’s books
- Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
- Democracy Inc. by Sheldon S. Wolin
- The Law by Frederic Bastiat
and a bunch of JQuery and Javascript books.
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Randall
on 09 Feb 13I second The New Jim Crow. Completely changed how I thought about criminal justice. Drug policy isn’t about making it easier for naughty college kids to get high, it’s about changing things so we don’t unfairly hand felony records to thousands and thousands of people for nonviolent, victimless crimes.
Old now, but if I had one book to recommend a stranger, Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains, about Haiti (and how Paul Farmer and others built Partners in Health/Zanmi Lasante), is eye-opening. I read it before his more famous Soul of a New Machine—seeing how faithfully he dealt with tech and technologists in Soul of a New Machine actually made me much more confident that he was writing as an honest reporter in Mountains Beyond Mountains. (If you’ve read that, Portfolios of the Poor is a more recent book that told me a lot I didn’t know about the financial lives of a billion or so folks.)
Going a whole other direction, Hugh Howey’s Wool and Shift books are a good escape.
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Cleavon J. Blair
on 10 Feb 13DHH, you know what I like about you? You’re a person who cares very deeply about people, regardless of race, age, gender, sexual orientation, financial position, etc. You use your voice to advocate for people whose voices aren’t always heard. I’ve seen you do this in the technology community, and you’ve done this socially as well. I pay attention to what you write, what you rant about, and at their core, you speak about the injustice of people in this world not being seen as equal. You guys, 37Signals, also give a lot back to the communities you live in. Just want to say that I respect how you use your position and your voice in this world…
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This discussion is closed.