Infidel

In no particular order. Empires of Light, by Jonnes. Titan, by Chernow. The Wright Brothers, by McCullough. His Excellency, by Ellis. The Wizard of Menlo Park, by Stross. I Invented the Modern Age, by Snow. Dealers of Lightning, by Hiltzik. Margin of Safety, by Klarman. Masters of Doom, by Kushner. Andrew Carnegie, by Nasaw. Infidel, by Hirsi Ali. Buffett, by Lowenstein. Where Wizards Stay Up Late, by Hafner. Shoe Dog, by Knight. The Making of the Atomic Bomb, by Rhodes.

I just started When the Air Hits Your Brain: Tales from Neurosurgery[1]. The author is a neurosurgeon and an excellent writer. The last book I read was Abdel Haleem's translation of the Qur'an[2]. For an ancient religious text, it's rather short. Total reading time was maybe 16 hours over the course of a week. I'm not religious, but it was interesting to get a better idea of what Muslims believe and why. That said, the whole thing reads like a 7th-century version of Time Cube. I came away with the impression that the author was a schizophrenic who knew of parts of the Bible. The most useful book I've recently read is Steve Blank's Four Steps to the Epiphany[3]. It's a more structured version of a lot of the stuff I learned in YC. My favorite books of the past year are Confessions of a Yakuza[4] and Infidel[5]. The subjects of each book are as different as can be, but their stories are quite captivating. Both survived immense suffering and managed to thrive afterwards. Reading those books reminded me of how lucky I am and how insignificant my problems are.…