
Derek Sivers: Books I've Read - rweba
https://sivers.org/book
======
sivers
Surprised to find this here.

For what it's worth, for anyone interested, a few things:

#1 : That list is sorted with my top recommendations up top. You can also
click to re-sort it by newest or by name, but by default, I highly recommend
the ones at the top of the list.

#2 : These aren't summaries of the book! These are just the little points that
I personally found surprising or inspiring. If a book wasn't surprising to me
- like if I'd already read a few books on the subject - then I'll have very
few notes. It doesn't mean the book isn't good. These notes are really just
for me, and I started sharing them as an afterthought.

#3 : If you want summaries, I hear
[https://www.blinkist.com/](https://www.blinkist.com/) does that.

#4 : If you want the see code for my site, it's all open at
[https://code.sivers.org/](https://code.sivers.org/) \- basically a little
self-made static site generator in Ruby.

If you have any questions, just email me. Email address in my HN profile here.

\- Derek

~~~
sizzle
I'm a pitifully slow reader, I like to stop often and think about new concepts
or insights so I can internalize them better. This way of reading is my
biggest obstacle in finishing books. I've tried speeding reading and while I
can finish chapters faster, I retain much less information like ~40% of
concepts.

Any tips for readers like me? Thank you for the wonderful list, I'd like to
get through it in this decade if possible :(

~~~
sivers
I read slowly too! I think it's an advantage. The real learning comes when you
reflect upon what you've learned.

This great book - "How to Read a Book" \-
[https://sivers.org/book/HowToReadABook](https://sivers.org/book/HowToReadABook)
\- has a great methodlogy for reading books deeply.

~~~
sizzle
Thank you I will check it out.

------
dash2
I would not recommend this as a book list. There is just one book here written
before about the year 2000. If you are not reading a regular amount of
classics, you are doomed to be historically parochial.

Some people will love these books. If you are not already in that category, I
would urge you not to go there. Pop social science and business self-help
books are like chocolate - healthy in small doses, as part of a balanced diet.

Sorry to be a nabob of negativism.

~~~
bshastry
> If you are not reading a regular amount of classics, you are doomed to be
> historically parochial.

Precisely. Often, I cannot relate to classics, and therefore end up feeling
let down and questioning the hype. But the reason it is a classic is because
it stood out from peers at the time. It is this quality of classics that I
believe you are referring to.

> Pop social science and business self-help books are like chocolate - healthy
> in small doses, as part of a balanced diet.

I suppose it's more like sugar for the brain. Too much of it is bad. But I see
what you mean.

------
nexfitter
I have a lot of books that get suggested to me that are on your list, on
topics like Stoicism and Self-help, but I ignore most of them. Many feel like
reading them would just be rehashes of early books I have read on the topic
with nothing new to contribute.

I like that your approach was to actually read these anyways, most of the time
you rate them low because there was nothing new, gives me an idea of what to
avoid. Thanks for posting the list!

------
uberstuber
Derek's book notes inspired me to post my own [1]. Making the effort to clean
up my notes and go through them strengthens the lessons learned.

However, I'm not sure how valuable these types of notes are for others. Often
I find a passage that resonates with me falls flat for others, and vice versa.
It depends on other books you've read, life context, etc.

I do try to indicate who might find the book helpful, or who should probably
skip it.

[1]: jamesstuber.org/booknotes

------
thisisit
Slight OT, I had two questions: a. how do you guys apply the stuff you read?
b. How many re-reads helps you get most out of the book?

I am on a recent reading spree and as I read the books I keep forgetting the
lessons therein. While I have set of highlights, using Play Books and Google
docs combo, one thing I found was that 2nd read seems to be better than the
first one.

~~~
psto
I use Paul Graham's advice from his "How You Know" essay
[http://www.paulgraham.com/know.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/know.html)

 _" Reading and experience train your model of the world. And even if you
forget the experience or what you read, its effect on your model of the world
persists."_

Also check out It’s Okay to “Forget” What You Read [https://medium.com/the-
polymath-project/its-okay-to-forget-w...](https://medium.com/the-polymath-
project/its-okay-to-forget-what-you-read-f4ef1c34cc01)

------
daryllxd
Nice. I've read a bunch of books and I'm also looking to make something like
this. Just a question: I'm not an American, how does copyright work for things
like this? Can I write something like a "10 things I learned from <BOOK>" with
a few (like < 20) lines copied (or should I paraphrase it?) from the book?

~~~
sivers
I kept my book notes private for years because I assumed it would violate some
copyright law to post them.

But one day I tried it anyway. Kept it quiet. But after years, people kept
discovering it.

Now the authors contact me thanking me for highlighting their book. And
publishers offer to send me new books asking to be included in my list.

So... I guess they don't mind!

I think if you encourage people to buy the book, and aren't trying to replace
the book, nobody will complain.

------
tyu100
Well, the debunking of many of Daniel Kahneman's insights was covered here
earlier:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15228712](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15228712)

I would everything on whatever this list is with a huge grain of salt along
with any other social-science heavy book.

~~~
elbear
Many? The link only talks about chapter 4 of his book Thinking, Fast and Slow.

------
jonplackett
Derek is such an inspiring guy - check out the Tim Ferris Podcast with him if
you haven't already.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnk4sgOFjBQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnk4sgOFjBQ)

~~~
r0fl
The one with James Altucher is great as well

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tonyedgecombe
Wow, that is a lot of self help, is it too much?

~~~
coldtea
No amount of self help books is too much, because they have no effect anyway.

~~~
camel_Snake
If I said the same about technical documentation, I bet you'd tell me I was
either reading it wrong or I wasn't the target audience in the first place.

~~~
coldtea
No, I'd tell you that you are taking a statement about one class of books and
apply it to a different one, with different target mission and utility.

Technical documentation has a very narrow scope, and deeply technical writers.
It's target users also are engineers directly applying what they read or
looking at it for reference to something very specific.

It hasn't been historically the province of any hack and/or snake-oil
salesman.

Nor do people buy book after book of technical documentation trying this and
that fad to no avail to fill some psychological void. Hmm, now that I read
this last sentence again...

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gadders
It's a long list, and reading from the bottom up (where the lower rated books
are) is good fun.

------
growthkarl
Awesome list. Good way to top up my Audible account!

