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Hey everyone,
Hope you’re having a great month. Spring is in the air, the flowers are popping through, and 2017 feels like it’s just zipping by. I’m excited to share this month’s books with you below. Also, three cheers to New Zealand for calling me an American in a headline.
As always, drop me a line with any feedback or thoughts. I read and reply to every one.
Talk to you soon,
Neil
1. East of Edenby John Steinbeck. Crazy story. I was sitting at a bar a few weeks ago and I started chatting with the guy next to me. The conversation turned to books and we learned we shared a taste for writers like David Mitchell and Haruki Murakami. I got excited and said “So, what’s your favorite novel of all time?” and, you know, it’s a tough question, but he peeled back the top of his shirt and revealed a gigantic tattoo of a tree branch. “What’s that?” I asked. And he said “East of Eden. John Steinbeck. This is a tattoo of the cover of the book.” I didn’t have a moment to really gather the fact that he had a book cover tattooed on his body before the bartender shouted “No way!” She came up to us and pulled up her shirt sleeve and revealed some indecipherable quote. “From East of Eden!” she said excitedly. “I got it on my arm.” I don’t quite remember what my reaction was but I think it was something like “If two random strangers who don’t know each other both have a book permanently tattooed on their body, then I really have to read that book.” I picked it up from a used bookstore open till midnight near my house and started it as soon as I got home. It blew me away and I was honestly sobbing by the time I read the last page. The book is almost seventy years old but gave me the same feeling as reading a book like The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. Long, fast-paced biographical type narration that twists and ties together with giant themes of fatalism versus free will sitting on top. In High Fidelity fashion, East of Eden has suddenly crashed into my top five novels. An absolutely must read. One of those books you’ll look back on and go “How did I not read that before?”
2.How To Loveby Thich Nhat Hanh. The prolific Zen monk’s simple little paragraphs about mindful and compassionate love. I loved flipping through this and pulling out occasional gems. Stick it in your bathroom and guests will think you’re enlightened.
3.The Selloutby Paul Beatty. Can you trust awards? Maybe you already knew the answer was no. I just found out again. We need curated lists, filtering mechanisms. Some way to make the infinite manageable. So I was starting to think that the Man Booker Prize was my ticket to great books every year. Past nominees have been books I’ve truly loved like A Fraction Of The Wholeand Life of Pi. So when I found out that this year’s winner was a fast-paced and funny satire on race in the States, I was so excited to dive in. And then I spectacularly failed to enjoy any part of this book. I believe you should quit books and quit books often but I didn’t take my own advice here. I did the classic ten more pages, ten more pages, ten more pages sputter. The plot was too wild for me to follow, the characters too unrelatable, the satire about bringing back segregation and slavery too far out for me. So why am I including it in this book club? It gets points for pulling me through. And the crazy wordplay is a lot of fun. But combined with White Noise last month I’ve got to stop doing that. Quit more!
4. Unshakeableby Tony Robbins. I walked into the Barnes & Nobles in TriBeCa this month and came face to face with Tony Robbins. Every poster, wall sign, and book featured his giant smiling face. It was a bit unnerving. I wondered what it would be like to walk into a bookstore and it’s just you… everywhere. I figured I at least owed the guy a cursory little skim of his new book and I ended up standing there reading the whole thing. On one hand: If a book holds your attention all the way through while you’re standing in a bookstore… kudos! On the other hand… I didn’t buy it. For me it didn’t offer a ton of new investment information and didn’t come close to my favorite investing book which is The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John Bogle. The world is getting more busy and scattered so I feel like I need my books to be less all over the place than my real life. This book felt like someone’s hard drive threw up and was a jumble of listicles and interviews amidst fist-pumping rallying cries. I have nothing against the content itself but couldn’t quite take it home.
5. Think Like A Bronze Medalist, Not Silverby Derek Sivers. One of my favorite writers with a gem of a little essay out last week. Great perspective on gratitude versus ambition and I’ve already called it to mind a few times since reading it.
6. The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketingby Al Ries and Jack Trout. After hearing Tim Ferriss trumpet this old marketing book for years on his podcast I finally picked it up. In a way, it’s straight out of the early 90s, complete with grainy author profile pics with giant hair and boxy glasses and fresh case studies featuring New Coke and Dell Computers. But, in another way, it’s timeless and simple marketing advice. The Law of Focus talks about the importance of owning a word in the marketplace. The Law of Duality talks about how number three players never make it long term. My favorite phrase of the whole book was: “The target is not the market” which explains the difference between who you’re aiming for (super high-performance athletes) and who actually buys (the chubby guy who wants to run around the block). Marketing is changing so fast so it’s nice to read something grounding. If you can get past case studies about Atari and Remington Typewriters, this flipper is a great overview.
7. Selfish Reasons To Have More Kidsby Bryan Caplan. What happens when you ask an economist to look at declining global birthrates? You get this intriguing, imperfect look at why having more kids is a great thing. (He’s not trying to convert the child-free crowd, but get those who already want kids to just want more.) He starts by showing how modern parents are martyrs and most of the overinvestments made in parenting make zero difference on how kids end up, based on twin and adoption studies. You don’t matter much! And then he whips through all kinds of reasons to have larger families while cautioning against making rash decisions in the particularly painful early parenting years. Like any parenting book, there are lots of things to disagree with. I found his tone preachy (he skims past sleep challenges with a couple sentences about the Ferber Method, for instance) but overall there is a lot to like. A key question underpinning the book is: “How many kids do you want when you’re 60?” and he points out that 60 isn’t much past current middle age. We’ll be in the enjoying kids, rather than the raising kids, stage of life much longer than any generation ever has… never mind enjoying grandkids or beyond. The real gem of the book is the final chapter which shows off an amazing trick: He stages roleplay style roundtable chats with a roomful of extremely harsh critics of his arguments. He says he based these chats on his own discussions with friends as he shared the book and, basically, got his ideas bashed in. He knows his arguments are lightning rods but I’ve never seen such a powerful finishing move outside of Mortal Kombat. It’s incredibly convincing. If you’re a skimmer, his detailed introduction, detailed conclusion, and that final roleplay chapter are enough to get most of the argument.
8. The Iron Manby Ted Hughes. Not that Iron Man! This is the original. At least I think it’s the original. An award-winning kid’s chapter book published in 1968 about a misunderstood giant iron man who arrives out of nowhere, tumbles down a cliff, gets buried by fearful townspeople, rescued by a little boy, and then ultimately rescues the planet. Phew! Wonderful book on so many levels. Thrilling storyline, beautiful writing, wondrous imagery. After Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, this is right up there for kids. My big issue on books I’m reading to my almost three-year-old is I just don’t want them to be boring. This is anything but.
9. What To Do When It’s Your Turn (And It’s Always Your Turn)by Seth Godin. This book is an instant dose of energy for your next project. You can flip through and read it in an hour or two. Felt like a combination of a Kid President Pep Talk with The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. A visually beautiful book from one of the masters of taking risks, starting businesses, and just doing it. Loved it.
