100 Book Goal For 2012

January5

January 2012
*146 for the year.

1. The Olive Farm – A great story about buying a house in the south of France on the coats and rebuilding it. A little dark near the end just due to problems in the family and it took a more bibliography turn but still very interesting.

2. The Hunger Games – Second time I’ve read it, but couldn’t put it down, fun book! Must read for everyone out there.

3. River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze by Peter Hessler. Peter is one of my favorite authors and I’ve read all his books on his time in China. This was one was about his time in Fuling during Peace Corp and was a more relaxed read than some of his others. I learned a lot like always (about China etc).

4. Sector 64: Coup de Main – An interesting book but a bit short and simplistic. Plot in short: Pilots, UFO, huge conspiracy, world is bigger and more complicated then you think, alien enemy, battle, done.

5. Devil’s Lair by David Wisehart. This was roughly based on Dante’s Inferno. It’s written as a historical novel / adventure novel as a group of people go down into hell to recover a sacred artifact.

6. The Coming Jobs War – A brilliant book, some amazing insights, and some I disagree with very strongly. I’m going to write a full post on this, I do think everyone in the USA should read it though.

7. Freight Train Across The Outback: On Board The First Train To Cross Australia From South to North – A fun travel book about Australia and riding the first train trip across the entire outback.

8. Firebird by Anthony Bellaleigh – Not bad for a free book on Amazon, about dragons in modern times, but pretty good. Writing a little hard to visualize clearly though.

9. 10. 11. and 12. X-Wing Series: Rougue Squadron, Wedge’s Gamble, Krytos Trap, and The Bacta War. A great series I last read ~5 years ago, good to visit old friends and an awesome series. It follows Wedge who did the death star run with Luke in the movie as he reforms Rogue squadron a few years after the Endor victory.

13. X-Wing: Wraith Squadron – Book 5 and another good one.

February

14. Rift Walker – Book 2 in a fun vampire empire series. Good fun cheap read.

15. 16. X-Wing: Starfighters of Adumar and X-Wing: Solo Command – Book 6 and 7 in the series, fun reads!

17. A Complaint Is A Gift – A fantastic book, going to have our team leaders read it and going to reread it every year. Great stuff on how to diffuse emotional issues in business to get to the root of the problem.

18. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. An amazing book about an amazing man, such a great read. A must read for the year!

19. Moon Guide to Living Abroad In China – Was curious, good book with broad overviews of cities, prices and so on.

20. The Last Days Of The Incas – An awesome book if you are interested in the Incas and the “discovery” of the ruins years later. The most amazing part is how a mere 60 to 200 heavily armed calvary destroyed such a vast empire, makes you realize how military technology can really do some crazy things. Very well written.

21. Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier – Very interesting read, good mix of history and modern information. I really enjoyed the timeline of how cities went from death traps to better then rural areas. The book is very balanced too, the author explains the benefits of living in both areas, provides balanced critiques of current american and international policies and so on. Highly recommended.

22. How the Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In – A short but always amazing read from Jim Collins. Tracks specific companies and why they failed, case study style as well as rambling thoughts. Fantastic read as always, Collins and his team do awesome research and write like a rolling stones reporter.

23. Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck–Why Some Thrive Despite Them All – An awesome awesome book, Jim Collins writes the best books. A must read for anyone who is an entrepreneur or anyone really. Fascinating stuff!

24. Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain. Awesome awesome awesome read, I like Bourdain and the book was great. All about his rise to become Chef and all the drugs, mistakes, drinking, etc along the way.

25. Business Stripped Bare: Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur by Richard Branson. This was a great read and Branson’s story is really cool. I also like how he runs his network of companies under one brand, very unique operational model. The dedication to customer service is great too, almost like a big version of Y combinator.

26. Choondoonga: A Journey Around Australia – A decent travel log about a family traveling around Australia. The one annoying thing is the guy writing it doesn’t seem to realize how rich it is to buy a $80,000 dollar car. But still a great read and sounds like a cool family!

27. The Quants – An amazing book about the rise of math on wall street and a new breed of investors that use high speed computer trading and formulas to generate income. And traces the huge collapse in 2008 and a few other events to the “computer programs” failing. Overall a great read but I don’t see why we don’t just cap leverage to prevent the domino effect, why not limit leverage to 8x or something smaller. Or cap what hedge funds size can be. I need to read more as I know there are pros and cons but seems like you need to find big ways to limit the risk these people are taking with everyone’s financial system, not try to pass small micro laws that are outdated by the time they get to the paper.

28. Free: The Future of Radical Price by Chris Anderson. A good overview of the free business model, why it works, why it doesn’t, and a lot of case studies.

March

29. The Magicians: A Novel by Lev Grossman. My brother recommended this book to me, first this is a well written book and a good read. BUT, this book is depressing, the main character is a depressed little asshole, and the places this book go just make you want to pop some valium. I like the realistic dark view but they just carry it too far, why would you read a book like this? The ending seemed a little weak too.

30. Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You. – A short but great book with a fictional story of a business owner + real world tips. Less about selling and more about how to run a service company in a way that it can grow and prosper and be replicated. A lot of basics, but a few great tips I hadn’t thought of.

31. The Sweet Life In Paris – A great book about a chef’s move to Paris and some of the things he did, along with some great recipes! A short but fun read, although if you are looking for a france travel story there are more in depth ones I would recommend first.

32. Mountains Beyond Mountains – A great book about an amazing person/doctor. The guy is a machine and just stunned by what he has done and his ability to work. I think the best part of this book is his advice to just start something, nobody is going to hit his level of performance, but that doesn’t mean you don’t try, or that even your level is not good enough. If you can do some good do it, don’t put it off.

33. All In: The Education Of General David Petraeus – Another guy with amazing work ethic. Great book, gives you a better understanding of how much work goes into running our government/military. The one thing that is frustrating to me is how the hell it took us so long to rewrite the counter insurgency manual, and why we were not basing soldiers with the local populations from the start. We literally had proof of how well it worked for Greens in Vietnam, you could watch attacks go down in those areas. Just dumb founded that people think you can win a war by just shooting the guys/gals with the guns, you also have to win over the population.

34. The Breach, Ghost Country, and Deep Sky by Patrick Lee. A series of just fun Sci Fi books my dad recommended. Good reads, went very quick, and apart from the stupid ending pretty fun.

35. Timeline by Michael Crichton – I’ve read this book maybe 5 or 6 times and love it, just a really fun read. That said, the huge glaring plot hole is why the hell did ITC not make billions selling access to their quantum computers. I find it ridiculous that they wanted to build theme parks. Not that it’s a bad idea, but why try to get more investors when you can easily slow down the quantum computer, sell access to people and easily fund your take over of the world :).

36. Screw Business As Usual by Richard Branson. This dude is optimistic, I like it. Lots of the same stuff as the previous one though, and the other has a lot more advice so I recommend it before this one.

37. The Introvert Advantage: Making the Most of Your Inner Strengths – I wasn’t expecting a lot from this book but I was stunned, I didn’t realize there were actual brain/body differences between introverts/extroverts. Was really interesting to read and learned a ton about myself etc. I recommend this book for anyone introverted, some good tips and tricks.

38. And the Money Kept Rolling In (and Out) Wall Street, the IMF, and the Bankrupting of Argentina – The book read like a thriller, amazing telling of the financial crisis in Argentina and the role Wall Street / the IMF played. It placed the blame pretty fairly too. And basically Wall Street got a pass for the activity that caused this and no good nation bankruptcy protection was passed. I don’t think they are realizing that the vast amounts of money they control actually can affect millions of people on the ground. The stats for the amount of poverty and suffering they (in part) caused in Argentina was chilling.

39. 40. and 41. The Tourist, The Nearest Exit, and An American Spy by Olen Steinhauer. There are three books in this spy novel series and they are all good. Olen can write, the characters are a bit depressing and not your typical spy (ie alcoholic psychos). But decent plots and fun reads! I’m going to tackle his novel series next as it sounded good too.

42. Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success – I got sucked into Penelope Trunk’s awesome blog and ended up buying her book. Fantastic stuff and a great read for anyone entering the work force or in it. Hilarious blog too!

43. Bridge of Sighs – This is a mystery/cop novel set in Russia right after the war (more historical fiction than thriller). This is by Olen Stenhauer and I just read 3 of his spy novels. This book was not enjoyable though. First, his other books were well written, this one jumped around like crazy and at times was difficult to follow (I think this was his first). Second, I don’t know if the dude is depressed or what, but it gets old to have characters that are just destroyed wrecks of people. Good author but skip this one unless you want to try to make it through the series.

44. Executive Orders – One of my favorite Tom Clancy books, had to reread it! Great book and he is such an amazing story teller!

April

45. Debt of Honor – The prequel to Executive Orders by Tom Clancy, great book!

46. Stealth of Nations: The Global Rise of the Informal Economy – An interesting introduction to the off grid economy, or System D as the author calls it. I have mixed feelings on System D, we operate in it in some very slight ways. Long term I’m not sure if its growth in Africa and similar countries will continue, as I think the big explosion has only worked in the last decade because we are in a transition phase. With the cost of living super in low in some areas, but better then the traditional economy, and transition to the new information economy is happening world wide. Anyway, decent easy to read book with specific examples.

47. Wayward: Fetching Tales from a Year on the Road – Hilarious short book about a writers travels. Highly entertaining!

48. Inside Apple: How America’s Most Admired–and Secretive–Company Really Works – Fantastic book and very enlightening! Well written and recommend it if you just want to learn more about how Apple operates.

49. Invisible Engines: How Software Platforms Drive Innovation and Transform Industries – A good introduction into the model plus specific case studies. That said I already did a lot of research and was hoping they would focus more on companies that pivoted to offer this, or problems they encountered. A bit dated and needs an update too.

50. Kraken by China Mieville. A weird book but interesting, hidden reality, squid worship, magic, god’s, and all that cool jazz.

51.The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry, and Invention – One of the best book’s I’ve read this year and the author William Rosen does a fantastic job. This looks at what the industrial revolution did to society and specifically the concept of patents and creating inventions that were then protected. Read a review of this book at the New York Times. Great book!

52. American Gods – Good book just not for me. Answers the question what happens when people moving to America bring their God’s from home. Just didn’t click.

53. Oath of Fealty – A fantastic sequel to her first run. I wish it was bout 10x longer but still a great continuation after the crazy ending.

54. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. A good book just didn’t click for me. Neil can write and this is a cool concept, just wish he either went more with character development or the universe he created, instead he doesn’t go far enough with either. Awesome ending though!

55. Reversing the Slide: A Strategic Guide to Turnarounds and Corporate Renewal – A fantastic book and super super recommended! Goes into tons of specifics and great resource if you are rebuilding a company.

56. How to Heal a Broken Heart in 30 Days – A good book and worth a read.

57. The Match King: Ivar Kreuger, The Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals. An absolutely amazing book by Frank Partnoy, and a must read for anyone interested in why such strong regulations passed during the Great Depression and in globalization of business. Ivar was an amazing business man and apart from not knowing when to stop and be ethical he had a solid business plan. Matches + Monopoly is even better then Gnomes + underwear. One of the best books I’ve read this year, right up there with the history of the industrial age and patent system. Frank did a great job telling his story and putting it into perspective.

May

58. The Statues That Walked – Great book on Easter Island and answers a lot of the big questions.

59. 60. And I reread The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.

61. Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone. In a discussion with Joel or someone we found some stats that more and more people are living alone, so I decided to read a sociology book on the change.

62. Endless Enemies: Inside FBI Counterterrorism – Very interesting book on the emergency of the FBI’s role in international investigations.

63. Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk: A Novel – A hilarious book!

64. 65. 66. 67. 68. 69. I stumbled upon the Repairman Jack series and read The Tomb, Legacies, All The Rage, Conspiracies, Hosts, and The Haunted Air. Repairman Jack is a very cool character that fixes “situations” people might have, and lives totally off the grid. He ends up kinda running into some supernatural issues and the series goes on from there. Great stuff and still a lot to read!

70. Gateways – The next repairman jack series, not too bad, one of the weaker ones so far. But nice that his dad has a better idea of what he does, and that he knows what is coming for him. The big plot is coming together. Just bought the next 5 or 6 too for the Aussie plain ride.

June

71. The Craft of Intelligence: America’s Legendary Spy Master on the Fundamentals of Intelligence Gathering for a Free World by Allen Dulles. Interesting read by the king of the CIA, he sure lived through a lot!

72. 73. 74. And more of the Repairman Jack series I’ve been really digging, good stuff! Crisscross, Infernal, and Harbingers.

75. 76. 77. Bloodline, By the Sword, and Ground Zero. Three more books in the long Repairman Jack series, great so far and only a few books left and hopefully Jack conquers the “otherness”.

78. 79. 80. Fatal Error, The Dark at the End, and Nightworld. The last three books in the 14 long series on Repairman Jack. A good ending, a little disappointed but still glad he saved the world and all. I wouldn’t mind a book or two without the crazy too.

July

81. A Gift to My Children: A Father’s Lessons for Life and Investing by Jim Rogers the famous investor. Not bad, short and some good advice. I’m interested in his move to China and have a few other books by him.

82. The Post American World by Fareed Zakaria. I like Fareed (esp when he is on the daily show) and a lot of what he says, this book echos that. With the news and people always freaking out that we are somehow “loosing” to other countries it’s nice to take a chill pill and realize what rubbish that is in a lot of ways.

83. The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t. A great rule and a must read.

84. The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John Barry. I’ve been reading this over the last month and it is one of the best book’s I’ve read this year. Great writer and just an epic view of what the medical system was like prior to this strain hitting, during, and after. A must read, I learned so much about the medical profession, medical school, influenza, rna, etc etc. Great book!

85. The Power of the Dog – By the author of the book Savages which is coming out soon in movie form. This one follows several characters in the Mexican drug cartels, DEA, and surrounding. It rips a lot from what is really going on in Mexico and the US and combines it with a riveting story that is probably a little too close to home.

86. Never Mind the Balkans, Here’s Romania – A series of short stories from a British guy who has lived and worked in Romania for a very long time. Very entertaining!

87. To Romania With Love – A crazy love story about a British Girl and a Romanian Guy. Crazy! Good 10+ year view of changes to Romania + cultural differences.

88. Out of the Transylvania Night – An interesting story, bit confusing at times but ok read.

89. Kill Decision by Daniel Suarez. His first book was genius, and the second fantastic as well. Unfortunately this one is just meh and not great, he is way better when he focuses on the technology and not the bad character development + dialogue. This book focuses on drones and a future where they are causing all sorts of mayhem.

90. Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time – Awesome book and an amazing story. One of the best business auto biographies I’ve read. Lots of great ideas from it.

August

91. Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul. By the guy that started Starbucks about saving them during the economic downturn and when they lost their culture. Not bad but I wanted a whole lot more specifics, this was more a story. I recommend his first book but not this one, just not enough details.

92. When Growth Stalls: How It Happens, Why You’re Stuck, and What to Do About It – Not bad but also pretty general. A decent read.

93. The Kill Artist – Part of the Gabriel Allon series, not bad, some holes. I might still try the 2nd one.

94. The English Assassin – Book 2 in the Gabriel Allon series, better, but not sure I’ll ready more. Decent spy / thrillers but seem to be missing something.

95. Weird Ideas That Work – An interesting book on some weird strategies that can work in a business setting. Not a bad read but nothing that really grabbed me.

96. A Year in the Merde – Hilarious story about a guy moving to France from the UK to open a chain of english tea cafes and then a whole load of merde that he stepped in… Can’t wait for the next one to finish the story.

97. he Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade – I loved this book! An economist follows a simple white t shirt around the world to see how it all works. Fantastic read, easy to follow and I wish they would write these for a lot of things. Should be required reading for anyone trying to understand global economics.

98. Bright Lights, No City: An African Adventure on Bad Roads with a Brother and a Very Weird Business Plan – Another amazing book about the guy who invented cranium creating a business in Ghana (renting out rechargeable batteries). Along with his brother they try to make it work and talk about the challenges, car wrecks, staffing issues, african marketing issues etc as . Fantastic book! With all the shit they go through it makes me realize that you have to have a lot more passion the harder it is to create a business, all that red tape would make me just want to quit, I hate red tape.

99. Jack: Straight from the Gut – Not bad and def an interesting read from Jack Welch the ex CEO of GE. Really interesting to see this book talk about GE’s financial division before the recent problems.

100. Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd. A very interesting book on what happens to products once they become commodities and how marketing tries to make them seem different. For example how there are like a zillion types of toothpaste. Interesting read given what the hosting industry is going through, and I look forward to trying something similar out over the next 5 years!

101. The Violinist’s Thumb: And Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by Our Genetic Code – A really interesting book, the first half was a bit boring but got more and more interesting. Especially learning that the mood of the mother can really alter the babies genetics is amazing. Generational differences and all those implications.

September

102. The Spice Necklace: A Food-Lover’s Caribbean Adventure – A fantastic book about the Carib food and other great stories. I believe I also read their first book a while back. Called mango something.

103. What It Is Like to Go to War – One of the most powerful books I’ve ever read. Literally wipes you out, amazing read and should be required reading for everyone in high school.

104. Marry Him: The Case for Settling – My brother and I have a lot of discussions about the economics of dating/sex etc and ended up reading this book which was super interesting. There is also a great article in the economist a while back too. Fascinating.

105. Why Good People Can’t Get Jobs: The Skills Gap and What Companies Can Do About It – A short but great book. I agree with large parts of it but as a business owner also feel he missed some key points. Read more about the issues and article that spawned the book here.

106. 50 Shades Of Gray – Had to finally read it as its gotten so huge and was curious why. After finishing it it feels just like a typical romance book with a little kinkier sex (nowhere near the level I was led to believe, and not really that kinky).
– Man that can read your thoughts? Check.
– Man that is a billionaire, plays the piano, speaks foreign languages fluently, flies his own helicopter, runs a global business trying to feed the world, is available 24/7 for your every whim, and buys you everything you need? Check.
– Man that has deep psychological problems and needs to be fixed? Check.

I read a lot of sci fi, fantasy, and spy novels so I’m assuming this is the same thing but for women. An escape from reality.

107. Hiking the Camino: 500 Miles with Jesus – A rather short book but very religious about hiking the Camino de Santiago. Written by a priest. Not bad but shorter and lacking details.

108. Skeleton Coast (The Oregon Files) – Decided to go for a fun adventure book, not a bad book but a tad boring at times. Clive Cussler and another author, no where near the quality of Dirk Pitt.

109. For Fukui’s Sake: Two years in rural Japan – A good book with little stories about living in rural Japan for a few years. Nothing mind blowing.

110. The End Of Men: And the Rise of Women – A very interesting book sparked by the article she wrote in the Atlantic about this shift.

111. Happier Than A Billionaire: Quitting My Job, Moving to Costa Rica, and Living the Zero Hour Work Week – A fun book to read with some good stories, but not one I would really dive into unless you specifically want to read about Costa Rica and are thinking of following this path. Quick read though and a few great bits. I really liked her spunk in some of the stories, good sense of humor too.

112. The Crowded Grave: A Mystery of the French Countryside – I’ve been trying to find some fun books as lately it’s been a lot more serious and business books. This one I had high hopes for but ended up just not doing it for me, not terrible but just a bit too drab. A solid 6/10 for a detective story.

113. Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why – A fun book to read about some survival stories and the author’s quest for why some people survive and others die.

114. The Wrecker – An Isaac Bell Adventure – Another detective book, not terrible but not great. Uses the Clive Cussler brand so figured I’d give it a shot. Fun book but if you only read 10 books this year it’s not it.

October

115. Raise the Titanic – One of the best Dirk Pitt books out there and a classic. This is my 3rd or 4th time to reread it and a fantastic book. Great for the beach.

116. Corsair – The Oregon Files – Another Clive Cussler and a guest author one that wasn’t too good, just too typical. Maybe I’ve grown out of these or something. Don’t spend $10 bucks on this one.

117. Every Nation for Itself: Winners and Losers in a G-Zero World – A very interesting book about the emergence of this g zero world where no one nation has the power/drive to act unilaterally. With the EU/USA in a lot of debt and problems at home they are starting to withdraw back into their own regions while regional powers like China, Brazil, Russia and others grow in influence in their respective regions. And here was a great answer from the author:

Zakaria: What does the G-Zero mean for the United States?

Bremmer: It means that America will have to learn to do something it doesn’t do very well these days: Invest in the future. In a country where political leaders focus so much of their energies on winning the next news cycle, and business leaders try to maximize quarterly profits at the expense of long-term reinvestment, Americans need to look beyond the horizon described in this book.

Anyone who believes that American decline is inevitable has chosen to ignore the entire history of the United States and its people. For the moment, America can’t lead in quite the same way it did during the second half of the 20th century, because the world and its balance of power have changed profoundly. But the G-Zero will provoke a tremendous amount of trouble for a wide variety of people. It can’t last, because tomorrow’s most important powers, whoever those powers happen to be, can’t afford for it to continue. That’s why, if Americans can rebuild for the future, the country’s underlying strengths–its hard power capacities and its democratic, entrepreneurial values will ensure that U.S. leadership can again prove indispensable for international security and prosperity. I argue in the book’s final chapter that leadership of a post-G-Zero world should be the goal that guides American foreign and domestic policies in years to come.

118. Race Against The Machine: How the Digital Revolution is Accelerating Innovation, Driving Productivity, and Irreversibly Transforming Employment and the Economy – A must read book that fascinates me! Over the next 10 years as we are using robots more and more how will our economy react? Over the next 50 years where will people find unemployment in those areas? How do we transition? How do we maintain a middle class with this going on? A real challenge for everyone in the world and a really interesting topic.

119. The Lights in the Tunnel: Automation, Accelerating Technology and the Economy of the Future – Another one on the rise of robotics and what that means for our economy and people? This and #118 are must reads.

120. Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden–from 9/11 to Abbottabad – A fascinating book about the hunt for bin laden. Some really emotional parts and a good read. Really explains to a lot of people how hard government work is, people constantly second guessing you and not respecting that a decision has to be made and no decision is perfect. It was frustrating to read how many political possibilities had to be run by the white house before they could act. Both parties have created this and it’s sad to see this waste of brain power.

121. Automate This: How Algorithms Came to Rule Our World – One of the most amazing books I’ve read this year and a must read for anyone wanted to learn more about high speed stock trading and how it was born. It tells the story of this absolute amazing guy who immigrated and created the first computer trading. So so so so so good, read this book, accessible to anyone. And shows you why you can’t trust the stock market.

122. High: Confession of an International Drug Smuggler – A sad story about one of the biggest weed smugglers of the past, caught an article somewhere on him and bought this. Drugs can really mess up lives, need to legalize and stop the madness. People will always be addicted to something, better we bring it in the sphere of legality and control it + treatment.

123. Congo by Michael Crichton. Was waiting for the shower at a hostel this week and picked this up and ended up reading the entire thing. Love this book, especially the Crichton magic ending :).

124. The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt – One of the most AMAZING books I’ve read in the last few years, what an amazing person. Cornelius Vanderbilt was just utterly amazing, started from almost nothing to the richest person in the country. At his death his fortune was 100 million in the late 1800s, if he had pulled all his money out of the markets ~1 out of every ~$10 in existence would have gone to him. Read this book, amazing story of what makes America America, the good, the bad, and the ugly. One of the best book’s I’ve read this year.

125. Starting from Scrap: An Entrepreneurial Success Story – I caught a few of Greer’s articles somewhere and decided to read his story. It’s a great one that I highly recommend, very interesting and great examples of managing people in different countries and some of the challenges. Great read!

126. Just Run It!: Running an Exceptional Business Is Easier Than You Think – A good book for small business owners. I found a few tidbits of wisdom and really liked the culture chapters. Solid book that you should read if you are thinking of starting a business or struggling with one. Especially the basic finance section too.

127. The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business – A fantastic book I recommend to anyone thinking about getting a MBA or just wanting to get a broad level of knowledge. Lots of good definitions and examples that I found very useful. I’ve always thought about getting a MBA as I enjoy the material, and I could use a lot more background in finance I think. All in all a great book.

November

128. Liar’s Poker – By Michael Lewis. An amazing book about his exp in the 1980s at Salomon Brothers (investment bank), and the creation of the CDO market that eventually caused so many problems. Plus a nice overview of why wall street is broken, and why the massive growth of debt is a big problem. A little leverage is great, too much leverage is really really bad. Great book.

130. Operation Mincemeat – An amazing true story from WW2! The story of how a British spy group planted a fake body to convince the Germans that we were not going to invade Sicily. Great story with some weird people. One guy even wanted to make whale cheese.

131. The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine – By Michael Lewis. A followup to his other book that tracks who profited off the crashing CDO market. Amazing story once again, I recommend reading this one if you pick one book this year to understand CDOs and what a piece of shit our stock market is.

132. The Paradox Of Choice – Awesome book and a must read. It starts a little slow but the last half of the book is amazing. Explains why it’s so hard to make choices when you have so many choices :)

133. Faceless Killers: A Mystery (Kurt Wallander Mysteries). A well done mystery / police book. The only thing I dislike is how the book makes his life so shitty, why aren’t there ever any cops who have a so so life, or even a good one? It’s always the worse it possibly could be. Drinks too much, doesn’t eat right, dad is loosing his mind, never talks to his sister, wife leaves him, daughter is crazy and hasn’t spoken to him in 4 years, etc. We get it, he’s messed up.

134. Singularity Sky – A great book by one of my favorite authors, a nice break from the more serious books I’ve been reading this year. I need to find some more scifi. This book is out there but very enjoyable characters :).

December

135. In the Merde for Love – Book 2 in this guys story about France. Pretty hilarious, I hope all this stuff is true. There are more but I think I’m good. Funny read though on the whole british french thing.

136. Eat and Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness – Fun book and lots of food I would like to try and make!

137. The Last Man – One of the best thrillers / military ones I’ve ready since Clancy. Going to buy 2 more of his and see if they stack up, if they are good too going to buy them all. Very excited to finally find a decent writer. This one is about a missing CIA station chief and the search for him…

138. Romania – Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture – Quite interesting! Can’t wait to visit! I’m visiting Romania end of this year + work with a lot of people there so wanted to learn more! Some funny jokes in this one.

139. 140. 141. 142. 143. 144. 145. 146. American Assassin, Kill Shot, Transfer Of Power, The Third Option, Separation of Power, Executive Power, and Consent to Kill, Memorial Day – A series of amazing books by Vince Flynn about an off the books CIA agent named Mitch Rapp. Best thriller/military author I’ve read since Clancy, highly highly recommended.

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This is bwb’s personal blog, so he can share his thoughts with the world, however scary or silly they might be. Plus family and friends can track what I am up to, and where I am in the world.

I am pretty simple. I love Mangos. I love the ocean (although mostly at sunset, as I’m a ginger). I love to travel, eat exotic food, do long bike rides, read, and use my imagination. At some point, I decided it was better to be a pirate captain than an admiral. I am a globalist and see the entire world as my responsibility and playground. And I am married to an amazing woman who makes life even more fun :)! And we are now the proud parents of Calico Jack :).


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