For a few years now, a former colleague — an author and known book-hoarder — has suggested insisted I post an end-of-year reading re-cap. I promised to do so this year.

Here are the books I read in 2019, in the order I started them:

• Dune – Frank Herbert
• One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich – Alexander Solzhenitsyn (Re-Read)
• How to Train A Wild Elephant: And Other Adventures In Mindfulness – Jan Chozen Bays
• The Hike – Drew Magry
• Yoga Anatomy – Leslie Kaminoff
• A Rebours – Joris-Karl Huysmans
• Trout Fishing In America (and The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster, and In Watermelon Sugar) – Richard Brautigan
• What Are People For?: Essays – Wendell Berry
• Journal Of A Trapper: Nine Years in the Rocky Mountains 1834-1843- Osbourne Russell
• The Metropolitan Man – Alexander Wales
• The Conscientious Objector – Walter Guest Kellogg
• When In Doubt Go Higher: A Mountain Gazette Anthology – M. John Fayhee
• The Rise and Fall of The Third Reich – William L. Shirer
• Desert Solitaire – Edward Abbey (Re-Read)
• The Big Sleep – Raymond Chandler
• Assembling California – John McPhee
• Finders Keepers: A Tale of Archaeological Plunder and Obsession – Craig Childs
• El Viejo y El Mar – Ernest Hemingway
• Zen In The Art Of Writing – Ray Bradbury
• The Castle of Crossed Destinies – Italo Calvino
• Foundation – Isaac Asimov
• The Thrill of The Chase – Forrest Fenn
• Concrete Island – JG Ballard
• Nothing But The Night – John Williams
• A Sand County Almanac – Aldo Leopold (Re-Read)
• Pillars of The Earth – Ken Follett
• 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos – Jordan Peterson
• The Gulf: The Making of An American Sea – Jack E. Davis
• The Patch – John McPhee
• Farewell, My Lovely – Raymond Chandler
• History of Flyfishing Fifty 50 Flies – Ian Whitelaw
• The Last Pirate of New York: A Ghost Ship, a Killer, and the Birth of a Gangster Nation – Rich Cohen
• The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World – Andrea Wulf
• The Poetic Species: A Conversation with Edward O. Wilson and Robert Hass – EO Wilson & Robert Hass
• Suttree – Cormac McCarthy (Re-Read)
• The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War – Joanne Freeman
• Tarazan & The Castaways – Edger Rice Burroughs
• The Name of The Rose – Umberto Eco
• The Lost City of The Monkey God: A True Story – Douglas Preston
• Where The Side Walk Ends – Shel Silverstein (Re-Read)
• Messiah – Gore Vidal
• A Connecticut Yankee In Kind Arthur’s Court – Mark Twain (Re-Read)
• Riding Toward Everywhere –
• Kwaidan (And Other Weird Tales) – Lafcadio Hearn
• Survival of the Bark Canoe – John McPhee
• Ghombo Zebes – Lafcadio Hearn –
• Foucault’s Pendulum – Umberto Eco
• The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life – David Quammen
• The End Is Always Near: Apocalyptic Moments, from the Bronze Age Collapse to Nuclear Near Misses – Dan Carlin
• The High Window – Raymond Chandler
• The Headmaster: Frank L. Boyden of Deerfield – John McPhee
• The Limerick – G. Legman
• The Way of Kings – Brian Sanderson
• No One Is Too Small To Make A Difference – Great Thunburg
• 40s: The Story of a Decade – The New Yorker
• Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders – L. David Marquet

Here are a few 2020 book recommendations from this list:

The Tangled Tree – David Quammen

Most people are probably not familiar with Horizontal Gene Transfer (HGT) and, accordingly, may possess a slightly outmoded understanding of evolution. The Tangled Tree is a good introduction to HGT. David Quammen is one of my favorite nature writers, and I would recommenced his other books as well. (Quammen’s short story collection, The Boilerplate Rhino, is a good place to start.) The academic history of evolutionary thinking is quite interesting. The near future of biology — inevitably to impacted by the operationalization of genetic editing via CRISPR — is sure to be even more so.

No One Is Too Small To Make A Difference – Great Thunburg

She was on the cover of Time Magazine. She was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. I was walking though San Francisco last week and saw her face 40-feet tall on the side of a building. Worldwide, people know the name “Greta,” and they didn’t last year. This short collection of her speeches is worth reading because it is perfectly of-the-time.

To better understand the facts, assumptions, and projections tied to the oft-referenced 1.5°C warming threshold, I suggest also reading the 20-page “Summary for Policymakers” section of the “IPCC Special Report on Climate Change”, which has set the tone for the broader discussion on climate change.

The Patch – John McPhee

John McPhee is one of my favorite non-fiction writers (and even tops the aforementioned David Quammen as one my favorite nature writers). What I love about this collection of previously unpublished snippets from McPhee is what I love about reading shorter bits by EB White. McPhee, known for his sprawling essays, is just as compelling in unpolished bits and bites. If you’re new to McPhee, I would recommend starting by first sampling a collection like The John McPhee Reader, or a single notable essay like “Atachafalya,” then eventually working you way back to The Patch, but The Patch was probably the book I enjoyed reading most in 2019.

The Metropolitan Man – Alexander Wales

People think I’m joking when I say that Harry Potter rationalist fan fiction is more enjoyable than the original. They also typically don’t take me up on reading recommendations a hundred thousand words longer than War and Peace. I tell the I-don’t-like-reading-on-a-screen crowd that their issue can be solved for as well, but it doesn’t seem to matter. For those who don’t want to commit several dozen hours to reading Yudkowsky — or reading at all, for that matter — The Metropolitan Man audio is now available for free via The Methods of Rationality podcast. It’s similarly entertaining and thought-provoking, clocking in at only 7 hours long.

Journal Of A Trapper – Osbourne Russell

Russell is a name you’ll hear less than Coulter, Lewis, Clark, or Jackson, but his first person account of 8 years as a trapper in frontier Yellowstone-country is as compelling as any other account. The edition I read was shaped like a giant floppy workbook with tiny print which added some additional novelty value to the read.

I’ve had a handful of recent requests to have ‘office hours’ to discuss startup- and marketing-related questions.

I blocked off some Tuesday afternoons PST where you can book a short call. These office hours are open to anyone.

If you’re in one of the groups I’m working with in either the StEP Entrepreneurship Program or HaaS MBA Growth Hacking class at UC Berkeley, just email me directly.

I will keep this window open as long as my schedule allows. (I may shift the time, in which case you’ll see the updated times on Calendly. If no times are available, they have been booked.)

I’ll keep this time open for as long as practical. My hope is that the format works out, and I can keep the window open for some time.

Thanks. I look forward to chatting.

You can book open office hours here.

Quotes from Beloved by Toni Morrison.

"The sky above them was another country. Winter stars, close enough to lick, had come out before sunset."

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