[sivers]

Surprised to find this here.

For what it's worth, for anyone interested, a few things:

#1 : That list is sorted with my top recommendations up top. You can also click to re-sort it by newest or by name, but by default, I highly recommend the ones at the top of the list.

#2 : These aren't summaries of the book! These are just the little points that I personally found surprising or inspiring. If a book wasn't surprising to me - like if I'd already read a few books on the subject - then I'll have very few notes. It doesn't mean the book isn't good. These notes are really just for me, and I started sharing them as an afterthought.

#3 : If you want summaries, I hear https://www.blinkist.com/ does that.

#4 : If you want the see code for my site, it's all open at https://code.sivers.org/ - basically a little self-made static site generator in Ruby.

If you have any questions, just email me. Email address in my HN profile here.

- Derek

[thisisit]

Regarding the Mindwise book, I recently read Jonathan Haidt's The Happiness Hypothesis where he talks about (at least what I interpreted) the silliness of good vs evil and differing beliefs. I haven't read his 2nd book but the title - " The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion", suggests it might be something similar to the Mindwise book.

[mark_l_watson]

Thanks for the great list Derek. I just bought Ego is the Enemy - I live by the same author's Daily Stoic book, so I am looking forward to this one as well.

I am an aspiring writer (I have written about 20 books, some of them are pretty good). I am addicted to writing and your book Anything You Want helped me understand what I needed to work on. Thanks again!

[sivers]

Wow! Thanks Mark!

[godelmachine]

A small basic question.

How do you implement all the different ideas for a good life that you find in all different books that you read?

It's very tough for me to do so. More often than not, I get lost and drift aimlessly.

Thanks for the excellent list :)

[sivers]

I'm still working on this.

Best idea I've got so far is to save all my notes as individual ideas in a database, tagged, then use them for deliberate lateral thinking - randomizing - reflecting. But also searching for themes when needed.

Email me if all this interests you.

[kaixi]

Not the OP but chiming in to ask this as well. I've read a few books of your list, and I'm interested in how you organise all the knowledge acquired from books and apply them to your life. It's easy to forget, lose focus and get lost.

[sizzle]

I'm a pitifully slow reader, I like to stop often and think about new concepts or insights so I can internalize them better. This way of reading is my biggest obstacle in finishing books. I've tried speeding reading and while I can finish chapters faster, I retain much less information like ~40% of concepts.

Any tips for readers like me? Thank you for the wonderful list, I'd like to get through it in this decade if possible :(

[sivers]

I read slowly too! I think it's an advantage. The real learning comes when you reflect upon what you've learned.

This great book - "How to Read a Book" - https://sivers.org/book/HowToReadABook - has a great methodlogy for reading books deeply.

[sizzle]

Thank you I will check it out.

[lpasselin]

Audiobooks!

[simonebrunozzi]

Derek, as you probably already know, most of your writing is of great inspiration for many people, including me. I have tried to create a list of "books I've read" like you, and I failed (many excuses not to do it, apparently). I think it's a great exercise per se, besides whether people would find it interesting or not.

I promise I will give it another try :)

p.s. I highly recommend 1491 and 1493, two of my all-time favorite books.

[gozzoo]

What are 1491 and 1493?

[arto]

Great list, Derek. Do you use Goodreads to organize your reading, by any chance? Your author profile would seem to be unclaimed over there:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2766361.Derek_Sivers

[sivers]

I don't, no. I just keep plain text files.

[andrew_wc_brown]

My Sivers, I've been reading about you for years. I love your story about how you scaled CD Baby with People instead of Algorithms. I think its of greater advice now in a startup world where every thought of every startup is that everything has to operate with a robot brain.

I lost my value in most books in 2010, We have lots of reads in common 2010 and my feeling about books is that lots fall under motivational porn and they provide instant gratification then things you can apply.

Seeing your list now I want to read Arnold Schwarzenegger book Total Recall and tempted to read Zero to One.

I would love to aspire to your level of success you had with CD Baby.

[simonebrunozzi]

I have not appreciated Zero to One much, and I know I might be in the minority here. My feeling is that most of that book is so specific, and so unique about Thiel's experience, that I found very little use in a normal life. My 0.02.

[thrav]

It’s definitely not advice for the average Joe or someone’s Mom and Pop. It’s about what it takes for a business to be monumental and transformative.

[dfxm12]

I lost my value in most books in 2010 ... my feeling about books is that lots fall under motivational porn and they provide instant gratification then things you can apply.

Plenty of great fiction exists, too, you know...

[uxcolumbo]

Always found your notes useful, helps me decide whether to read a book.

An alternative to blinkist is https://www.getabstract.com/en/

[slavoingilizov]

Given how extensive your notes are on most of those books, it would be interesting to know what process you have to take them while reading. I've always been a very lean note-taker and find this is the reasons I quickly forget many valuable insights from the books I read. Any tips?

[sivers]

When reading a paper book, I just underline or circle the bits I find surprising or useful. Then when I'm done reading the book, I type those bits into a text file.

On Kindle, I just highlight the bits I find surprising or useful. Then when I'm done reading the book, I connect the Kindle by USB, copy the documents/My Clippings.txt file, and edit from there.

[godelmachine]

Blinkist asks you to pay after some time. That's what deters me.

[smidge]

I found your site through Ferriss' podcast and have been using that list for a while. It's a gold mine, thanks for sharing it!

[thrav]

Any further progress on that list of short, straightforward maxims to live by?

[spookyuser]

How do you read so many books? I want to get into the habit of reading more but I always seems to struggle finding the time.

[sivers]

Lunchtime and weekends. Don't save it until night time. Prioritize it over other things.