You Can Just Read 25 Books

I would love to read more, but apart from not finding a lot of time lately, when I do read, it's fiction. Occasionally I have read a textbook on a topic I am really interested in, and I've read blogs and articles on various sciency themes, but when it comes to books, I have just never been very into reading non-fiction. I don't try often, but when I do, I get one or two chapters in and just .. fail to pick it up again.

I know that non-fiction would be "good for me." Particularly reading more in topics I'm less knowledgable about, like finance and business and politics. Personal growth. However, I do find that fiction helps expand my perspective and even, somehow, knowledge, but it's different from non-fiction, less direct. I don't read for that, explicitly, although I do like the effect. But I read because.. I guess, because it's nice for my brain to be somewhere else. I don't know. But non-fiction has never done it for me.. my mind just gets.. bored, I think, trying to absorb what someone else wants me to know. Even when I find the topic interesting.

I guess there are people who like non-fiction and people who like fiction and they often cross-over but I think most people lean one way or the other. I can see there being positives and negatives to either side. People who equally read both must be rare? Or maybe it's just my impression.

Recommendations of business books to read. I suppose for the aspiring CEO.

Couching the list in a kind of self-help framing is a little odd.

> Napoleon: A Life by Andrew Roberts

Napoleon kill the first French republic and actually reduce the size of territory control by France. Napoleon is IMO one of the most overrated historical figure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Paris_%281815%29

imo this is missing fiction which is a key part of building empathy, becoming a better communicator and also just enjoying yourself

Of the 25 authors listed there are:

  18 americans.
  24 people in the global north.
  24 men.

EDIT: people reaalllllyy hate when this is pointed out. See child comment for some alt recommendations.

  - Thinking in Systems - by Donella Meadows
  - Dead Aid - Dambisa Moyo
  - Day of Empire - Amy Chua
  - Mistakes Were Made (not by me) - Caroll Tavris 
  - Brotopia - Emily Chang

Yup, we've all been cornered at a party by that dude, the one who has all these great contrarian ideas he got from reading books. And listening to podcasts. And reading blog posts like this one.

As a westerner (USA), I would add a good interpretive book on the Bhagavad Gita. Just a few years of study might be life changing.

CEO of Decagon’s quote about Man’s Search for Meaning, a book that’s largely a first hand account of the horrors of the holocaust: “Not hard for founders to maintain grit when others have suffered far worse.”

That really made me laugh. What an insane takeaway.

Reading books is extremely important

However, as a nitpick, I don't think you're going to "beat the experts" as a "contrarian outsider" by reading books like Man's Search For Meaning and Lee Iacocca's autobiography.

Aside from the dubious value of building one's brand as a "contrarian", you're not going to get any information the experts don't have if your reading list looks like you grabbed the first 10 books you saw at the business paperback section at the airport book store.

That's not to say these aren't valuable books. But it's IMO a truly odd collection if your lead in is talking about contrarianism.

Completely separate point on the topic of branding as contrarian: One of the authors, Thomas Sowell, is mainly known for being politically conservative in a predominantly liberal field. That might unintentionally reinforce the impression that "contrarianism" means "I align closely with my in-group but my in-group is not the largest in-group." Whereas I would suspect that we wouldn't call a protestant in a predominantly Catholic country a "contrarian" or vice versa. But perhaps it's about trying to rebrand belonging to an unpopular identity with a kind of renegade status.

Why flag a list of books? Is it specifically because it's from A16Z? If it's just "I don't like the books they've chosen" that seems like a wild reason to flag a submission.

If I can only read 25 books,

I would be too scared to add them to that list because then I could not read crap books, and even crappy books sometimes contain useful ideas.

I just hit 25 books read for the year which was my goal for 2025. To make it happen I did a few things: - Listen to audiobooks when doing chores (dishes, laundry, mowing the lawn) - Keep a book on me and use a bookmark. Being able to quickly open and read a page or two when I would normally doom scroll on my phone - Rather than watch TV at night or play video games, read instead - Use goodreads to track progress and add my friends who are readers to provide motivation and goal visualization.

This year has been quite enjoyable and I have found my reading tastes evolve over time. For a while I was reading books like the ones on this list, self-help, business/management/leadership focused, and memoirs. I then got bored and moved into fantasy, and now I have been getting into history.

It's certainly a choice to call Napoleon, poster boy for great man history, underrated, but I think it's emblematic of the kind of thinking that makes up this list.

It's also pretty notable how few of these choices are fiction of any sort. They're mainly non-fiction books describing conventionally successful people and organizations.

From my experiences, a good book takes me a year to several years to read. I have one book (science & philosophy involved) which I kept re-reading for the last 16 years.

There are levels to reading.

Americans hate this one little trick...

If I could only read 25 books (I have read 80-something books this year) none of this would be this business self-help pablum.

(That said _The Wide Wide Sea_ is good). 1/25.

From the lead image (tweet screen cap): “You don’t want experts…I just read books.”

Isn’t reading books just learning from experts?

Preferably, read 25 good books, not 25 pieces of linkedin-bait.