What’s good?

I’m reading no less than half a dozen books right now…

Infinite Jest – Holy shit. Seriously. Wallace’s mastery of the English language makes us all look like degenerate parasites who don’t deserve to live. High recommend, even if it’s a cliche and pretentious thing to like. The descriptions of drug addiction and parental conversation remain indelibly etched in my cortex.

Autobiography of Malcolm X – Wish somebody gave me this in middle school. The movie featuring Denzel ain’t bad, but the book captures the zeitgeist in a way the cinema doesn’t. Inspiring and utterly eye opening. Where the fuck is Malcolm X day? J/K, clearly the blue eyed white devil wouldn’t want a Malcolm X day.

Code – Not as well known as the first two, but IMHO, an increasingly relevant book as software/blockchain continues to eat the world. This lovely piece of non-fiction, replete with beautiful diagrams and charts, unpacks the inner workings of modern computers. From Morse code to source code, this beauty breaks down computing into edible bits.

Remodel Without Going Bonkers or Broke – Hardly a literary classic, but having recently purchased a home, it seems real fucking important that I learn how to manage the new liability. Having spent the vast majority of my years learning about virtual shit, prepping and planning to tear down walls, redo carpet and apply plaster without killing my wife seems like a good idea.

The Birth Partner – With wife and house come kid. I thought this book would tell me what to do for the first 8 months of pregnancy (foot rubs, cracker runs, etc), but it looks like this ‘classic’ is designed for people who don’t like to plan and are freaked out by the miracle of life. Haven’t read much, and it’s 400 pages… Guess I’ll cram in that last trimester.

A New Kind of Science – Say what you will about this book, Wolfram’s clearly a super duper genius, and though he wrote this book nearly 20 years ago, he still stands behind it. I’ve had many PhD’d associates pan it as nonsense, so I can’t be sure I’ll finish it, but the man wrote Mathematica for Christ’s sake. The nut being that computational thinking and process changes how we perform science doesn’t seem radical, but then of course, I’m only 15 pages in…

After nearly a year, I finished The New Trading for A Living. Not really sure why I read it, nothing here that I haven’t read/seen before, but it’s good as far as this class of reading goes. If you don’t know anything about trading, this is a top four book (the first three being Random Walk Down Wall Street, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, Dual Momentum).

My good friend and biz partner Heath Reinhard keeps a spreadsheet of the books he reads, sometimes clocking ~50/year. He’s been collecting this record for the past decade, and having recently viewed it, I think I’ll do the same thing. Here.

Not sure when the next literary update shall occur, but maybe I’ll do some retroactive book recommendations if the spirit moves me.