One of my goals for 2019 is to read 1 book per month. After doing virtually no reading in Q1 I’ve prioritized making time to read every day. As a result, I cranked through 9 books in Q2 and another 13 in Q3.
For each book I’ve read I’ve tried to take away one big lesson or theme. I’ve also written whether or not I’d recommend the book.
Note that I was able to get all of these books from my local library, and I recommend that you do the same. However, if you want to read one of these books and it’s not available at your local library, you can click on the book cover to go to the book’s Amazon page. If you purchase through this link I’ll receive a small payment from Amazon.
Recommendations
Highly recommended
- “Midnight in Chernobyl” – Adam Higginbotham
- “Good Calories, Bad Calories” – Gary Taubes
- “Crossfit Level 1 Training Guide” – Greg Glassman
- “Poor Charlie’s Almanac” – Charlie Munger
Recommended
- “Palaces for the People” – Eric Klinenberg
- “Wilderness Evasion” – Michael Chesbro
- “Why Nations Fail” – Daron Acemoglu & James Robinson
- “When Breath Becomes Air” – Paul Kalanathi
- “The Boys in the Boat” – Daniel James Brown
Not recommended or conditionally recommended
- “The Republic” – Plato
- “The Right Side of History” – Ben Shapiro
- “Rural Surveillance For Cops” – Van Ritch
- “US Marine Corp – Warfighting” – US Marine Corps
Detailed Reviews
Highly Recommended
Midnight in Chernobyl – Adam Higginbotham
This is an absolutely terrifying book about the Chernobyl disaster. The author has done a great job of reconstructing the events before, during, and after the meltdown that resulted in Chernobyl being a bigger disaster than it probably should have been.
What I thought was really interesting is that it appears that a Soviet nuclear disaster was inevitable. If it hadn’t happened at Chernobyl it would have happened somewhere else. And, as with most enormous failures, this one was the result of multiple interacting issues – design problems, lack of proper training, and human failures.
In addition to examining the failures that lead to the meltdown, the book includes plenty of stories of heroism – men who waded into waist-deep contaminated water to shut off valves, or grabbed nuclear waste by hand to protect others, knowing they were exposing themselves to a painful and certain death by radiation poisoning.
The Soviet reaction to the failure was fascinating. They attempted to cover it up and refused international help, which only made the problem worse.
Recommended? Highly recommended.
Lesson: Large enormous systems are bound to fail in ways that we can’t predict or foresee. However, trying to cover up the failure almost always makes the problem worse.
Good Calories, Bad Calories – Gary Taubes
This is by far the best book on nutrition I’ve ever read. Written in 2007, the book digs into the history of the Standard American Diet (SAD) and how the current dietary recommendations are almost certainly not just wrong, but counter productive.
Gary starts by investigating the history of the so called “Lipid Hypothesis“, which is essentially the belief that eating fat (especially less saturated fat and cholesterol) causes heart disease. This theory was advanced and promoted by a researcher named Ancel Keys and largely based on studies he was involved in. In fact, Keyes was instrumental in creating one of the seminal studies on diet, called the “Seven Countries Study”, which tracked the diets of people from 7 countries around the world. The results of the study showed that consumption of saturated fact and cholesterol were clearly linked to heart disease. Case closed, right?
Well, it turns out that Keys deliberated excluded 16 counties from the study that would have disproved the Lipid Hypothesis (for example, the French and the “French Paradox” where they eat lots of fat and have lower heart disease that many other countries that eat lots of fat).
It turns out that there is now strong (almost overwhelming) evidence that it’s processed carbohydrates (grains, sugar, etc.) that cause heart disease, not fat.
Recommended? Highly recommended
Lesson learned: It’s looking more and more likely that cancer, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and even cancer are related to the over consumption of carbohydrates, and especially processed carbohydrates/sugar. As a result of this book and “The Primal Blueprint” I’ve largely changed my diet to lots of vegetables, meat, seeds, and nuts, with some fruit and very little grains.
CrossFit Level 1 Training Guide – Greg Glassman
People tend to have very strong feelings about CrossFit. Some people love it and can’t stop talking about it. Some people hate it and think it’s a cult. Regardless of where you stand on CrossFit, I think you have to acknowledge that CrossFit has done a lot of people a lot of good.
The Level 1 Training Guide is the training manual used for the CrossFit Level 1 Certification Course, but CrossFit makes the manual available for free on their website.
There are a few things that really jumped out at me. First, I think that CrossFit’s definition of “fitness” is the best definition I’ve ever seen (CrossFit defines fitness as increased work capacity across broad time and modal domains).
Second, I do believe that the CrossFit training methodology is the best methodology for creating a base of general fitness. Somebody who, over the course of a few weeks, does sprints, Olympic weightlifting, some longer cardio work, gymnastics, and powerlifting, all mixed together in various combinations, will have the ability to participate in a variety of sports, go hiking, lift heavy things when necessary, and generally be in great health.
If you’ve heard about CrossFit but never done a CrossFit style workout then I think you’ll find this manual interesting. The manual itself is about ~180 pages, with another ~100 pages of illustrations on how to perform certain exercises. It’s a quick and enjoyable read.
Recommended? Highly recommended
Lesson learned: You can’t measure something if you can’t define it, and CrossFit’s definition of fitness is the best I’ve seen. The CrossFit methodology makes a lot of sense for somebody looking for a broad base of fitness.
Poor Charlie’s Almanac – Charlie Munger
If you’re reading my website you probably already know who Charlie Munger is, but on the off chance that you don’t – he’s been Warren Buffet’s partner for decades, and Warren has repeatedly credited Charlie with helping Warren away from a pure value investing methodology to a “great business at a fair price” methodology.
This is a huge book and I read it over the course of about 10 months. It’s a series of lectures/speeches that Charlie has given over the years to various audiences on a variety of topics. It’s easy to read but packed with great information. In addition, there’s lots of related information in the margins (for example, in a speech Charlie will mention some economist and in the margin there will be a brief description of who the economist is).
One of the reason I took so long to read the book is because although it’s easy to read, it’s packed with interesting info. I would read a section then think about it for a few weeks, then come back and read another one.
Recommended? Highly recommended.
Lesson learned: Charlie believes that you only need a handful of “mental models”, which are essentially basic ideas in a variety of fields, to do well in business and investing. Understanding the basics of psychology will help you understand the importance of incentives. Understanding some basic math will help you understand the power of compound interest, and so on.
Recommended
Palaces for the People – Eric Klinenberg
This was a random find in the library. I was looking at the display of new non-fiction books and this one piqued by interest because I’d enjoyed “Happy City” so much.
While Happy City was about city planning and urban design in general, Palaces for the People is about the power of certain types of buildings to encourage civic engagement. The book talks about the value and role of libraries, schools, barbershops, playgrounds, and bookstores. It also does a good job explaining how electronic communities (Facebook, for example) are not replacements for physical communities.
Recommended? Yes, if you’re interested urban planning.
Lesson learned: We aren’t good at properly valuing the things that provide the most happiness in our lives. The physical infrastructure of cities and the specific buildings in cities and either encourage or discourage the creation of strong communities, which in turn increase life satisfaction.
Wilderness Evasion – Michael Chesbro
This book was given to me about 15 years ago by one of my best friends from high school. I’d read it when I first received it, but I decided to revisit it because I wanted to have something quick and fun to read.
Most outdoor books are about survival with the assumed goal of wanting to be found/rescued. This book is about survival with the goal of evading somebody.
The author makes the point that the average person won’t be able to live in the wilderness if they just run out their back door when a bad guy runs in the front door. We no longer have the skills or experience to live in nature without equipment or food.
The author makes a strong case for creating “caches”, which are basically buried treasures of food and equipment. He talks about what to put in a cache, how to hide it, and how to ensure the stuff in the cache will still be usable at some point in the future.
These caches would include equipment and food, and these caches should be hidden at various locations that you could find if needed.
He also talks quite a bit about anti-tracking techniques – i.e., how to lose people who are tracking you. However, he’s pretty realistic about this – a good tracker has likely spent many years building their skills, and an untrained person is unlikely to be able to completely lose a tracker.
The thing I found most interesting was the author’s stance on being tracked by dogs. Basically, if you’re being tracked by dogs, you’re screwed. You can’t really trick a dog, and most of the techniques people talk about (like leaving cayenne pepper on the trail for a dog to sniff, thereby making the dog unable to smell you), just don’t work. Your only hope to escape a tracking dog is to hurt either the dog or the dog’s handler.
Recommended? Yes, if you are interested in learning more about survival skills, disaster prepping, etc.
Lesson learned: Nothing is more important than preparation. With the proper preparation you can handle just about any scenario.
Why Nations Fail – Daron Acemoglu & James Robinson
Why are some countries rich and why are some poor? The book starts with the example of the city of Nogales – 1/2 of the city is in Arizona and 1/2 is in Mexico. It’s the same people, the same culture, the same geography, and yet somehow the outcomes have been completely different. Why is one city so wealthy and one city so poor?
The authors believe the difference is due to the institutions in the US vs. Mexico. Societies with inclusive institutions (where people participate in the political system and can benefit from their own hard work) result in “creative destruction” (i.e. new investions and technological progress) that create wealth and prosperity.
Societies that without inclusive institutions (where your hard work and innovations don’t benefit you) discourage hard work. This is why communism/socialism have never worked. In the long run, people will always work harder for their own benefit than for the benefit of other people.
Recommended? Yes, if you’re interested in social and economic commentary.
Lesson learned: You can’t separate properly functioning political institutions from property functioning economic institutions. There’s a reason that all democracies are capitalist and vice versa. There’s also a reason that throughout human history, freer societies create higher standards of living.
When Breath Becomes Air – Paul Kalanathi
This was a tough book for me to read, as Paul Kalanathi was a friend of mine. We grew up in the same town (Kingman, AZ). His older brother was the same age as my sister. His younger brother was the same age as my brother. Paul was one year behind me in school. I was valedictorian of my class and he was valedictorian of his class. We were both on our Academic Decathlon team. We both went to Stanford. In short, although we weren’t best friends, we were certainly good friends, especially in high school.
If you don’t know his story, Paul was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic lung cancer and he died at age 37. The book was written in the last year or so of his life and discusses his struggle to come to terms with what is essentially a death sentence. He doesn’t spend time feeling sorry for himself or asking, “why me”? Instead, he writes about what it means to live and what it means to face death.
The hardest part for me was when he wrote about his daughter. He realized that he was almost certainly going to die before his daughter was old enough to have any memories of him. As the father of 2 young children, the idea of my kids never knowing me is just heartbreaking.
The book is unfinished – Paul died before he could write the ending (although I’m not sure what kind of ending you could have for a book about the author dying). His wife writes an absolutely heartbreaking afterward about Paul, their daughter, and what his life and death meant to them.
Recommended? Yes, if you can handle the emotional impact of this kind of book.
Lesson learned: Everybody has to decide for themselves what will make their lives worth living. As Paul was writing about death, never once did he mention money or other material success. I think there’s a powerful lesson there.
“The Boys in the Boat” – Daniel James Brown
This is a book about the 8 man rowing team from the University of Washington that won a gold medal at the 1932 Olympics. As somebody who has a rowing machine at home, the idea of somebody intentionally and repeatedly exposing themselves to the level of misery created by intense, long distance rowing is terrifying.
The book is an interesting look at what life was like for an average person before and during the Great Depression, and how rowing was the ticket to a better life for the men on the team.
There’s also a lot of detail on what training was like, how miserable it was to train at the crack of dawn in the freezing cold of winter in Washington, and some of the broader social issues (the 1932 Olympics were held in Nazi Germany).
Recommended? Yes, if you’re interested in sports, early 20th century history, or a feel good story.
Lesson learned: No matter how hard you work, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to accomplish anything truly meaningful without help from other people.
NOT Recommended
“The Republic” – Plato
As part of my general “I need to read more books” initiative I decided that I need to read (or reread) some of the great classics. I looked at a number of lists of “classics” and “The Republic” was on just about all of them.
Frankly, I didn’t enjoy reading it. It’s hard to read, and the ideas are pretty outdated my today’s standards.
There is one part that’s pretty interesting – the allegory of the cave. However, if you’ve ever taken a Western Civ or philosophy class you’ve already learned about the allegory of the cave.
Recommended? No
Lesson learned: We’ve come a long way in the last ~2,500 years. Ideas that were radically ahead of their time in Plato’s era are now outdated and old fashioned.
“The Right Side of History” – Ben Shapiro
If you’re not familiar with Ben Shapiro, he’s a conservative author, blogger, podcaster, writer, and lecturer. I agree with some of Ben’s stances and disagree with others. Perhaps most importantly, I think Ben’s a pretty smart guy and has a number of interesting things to say.
However, I just couldn’t get into this book. The general thesis of the book is that the combination of Judeo-Christian religious thought and Greek philosophy lead to the ideas of “Western” culture, and Western culture has lead to the most free and prosperous societies in the history of mankind.
Unfortunately, I’m not religious, so I found half of Ben’s arguments less than compelling.
Overall, the book was interesting but certainly not required reading.
Recommended? No
Lesson learned: The arguments that you find compelling will largely depend on having the same background and philosophical mindset as somebody else.
“Rural Surveillance For Cops” – Van Ritch
My friend sent me this book about 10 years ago (along with another book I read in 2019 Q2 called “Wilderness Evasion”. This book was intentionally written for a very specific niche – law enforcement officers who, for one reason or another, need to perform surveillance in a rural environment. It’s written by a former soldier turned cop who clearly has a lot of experience in this field.
Although the book itself is interesting and has lots of detailed instructions, the reality is that there is approximately a 0% chance I’ll be using any of these techniques anytime soon.
Recommended? Not unless you’re really into the outdoors or are a police officer who patrols rural areas.
Lesson learned: One of the main lessons of the book is that you can never practice a mission too many times, and you can never be too prepared for an unknown environment.
“US Marine Corp – Warfighting” – US Marine Corps
I’ve been reading/watching a fair amount of war related stuff recently (including some podcasts and TV shows). I’ve been intrigued by this material for two reasons. First, I love the strategy and tactical aspect. I’ve always been into strategy games, both old-school board games like Risk and their newer video game forms, like the Close Combat series. As a result of this interest I thought it would be interesting to read what the US military thinks are the key aspects of war fighting.
As with all of the US military manuals, this is free to download. This manual is considered an “entry level” introduction to the doctrine of the US Marine Corp and is supposed to be required reading for all Marines.
I was hoping that the book would be about low-level tactics and strategy, but for me, it was disappointingly high-level. It describes things like the importance of the will to win, a discussion of what war is, and some very high level discussion of the importance of having a professional army.
Recommended? Only if you’re either currently in or will be in the US armed forces.
Lesson learned: Winning a war is as much about total commitment to victory as about specific arms and tactics.
Conclusion
I read a few really great books in Q3 2019. If you’re interested in health then I highly recommend “Good Calories, Bad Calories” and “Crossfit Level 1 Training Guide”. If you’re interested in becoming a better investor and/or businessperson then I highly recommend “Poor Charlie’s Almanack”. And if you want a very readable description of a near apocalyptic tragedy, then I absolutely recommend “Midnight in Chernobyl”.
If you’re interested in reading any of these books I recommend that you borrow them from your local library, if possible. However, if you’re interested in purchasing any of them, the pictures of the books’ covers are hyperlinked to the appropriate Amazon page. Note that these are affiliate links, so I will be paid a small amount of money if you end up buying a book through these links.