Reading List — May 2016

I just don’t find enough good stuff to write Reading List posts that often. That’s why it’s been a few years since I’ve written one. Below are seven books I rated above average in that time. Seven whole books. It is almost depressing that there are not more good books out there …or that there is no decent recommendation engine.

I read Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods a few years before and didn’t care for it, so I’m not sure what prompted me to pick up In a Sunburned Country but it was a great read.

After having so much fun with In a Sunburned Country and thinking about a pending trip back to the US, I decided to read Bryson’s I’m a Stranger Here Myself. Also highly recommended.

I’ve rekindled my interest in computing, and Linux specifically, in the last year or so and decided to read a few books on open-source software. Paul Graham’s Hackers & Painters was great. Most of his essays are available on his blog but I’d never read most of them. Graham writes in a way that is easy to understand even when the subject matter is complex.

Then there was Eric S. Raymond’s The Cathedral & the Bazaar; a perennial hacker favorite. Raymond uses his tenure as the lead developer of Fetchmail to help you understand the thinking of an open-source hacker. If you only read one book about Linux and open-source software, make it this one.

After getting excited about programming after all these years I knew I’d need some exceptional focus. Cal Newport’s Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World covers just that and gives a decent overview of how you can implement deep work.

Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith had been on my Kindle for a while and, for a lot of people, software is just as “invisible” as services. I thought the overlap between running a service business and running a software business would make this worth reading, and it was.

Just in case you thought I haven’t read any fiction, Barry Eisler’s Graveyard of Memories was great. I think it’ll be the last book in the John Rain series and that makes me a little sad.

Update: July 2017:
A new John Rain book, Zero Sum, was just published.

Web Articles

Here are the best of the best web articles I’ve read over the last few years. It’s quite a few links, but they are all good.