This is a list of books I have recently read, with a short info following the structure below. I read some books in electronic version (epub/fb2/pdf), and would gladly share them. If you need any book, please contact me via trb21 [at] tutanota.com.
P.S. Pay attention to the language, I read both in English and Russian.
If you want to check out books I am reading now and want to read:
– BOOKS I'M READING NOW
– BOOKS I WANT TO READ
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A Book Title
| Author: ... |
| Category: ... |
| Language I read in: ... |
| Format: ... |
| Keep reading: ... |
My short notes on this book
Text...
Text...
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Think and Grow Rich đź“Ś
| Author: Napoleon Hill |
| Category: Self-development, Personal Wealth |
| Language I read in: English, Russian |
| Format: Paper Book, E-Book |
| Keep reading: Yes |
My short notes on this book
The most useful part is about 6 Fears!
Anytime I understand that some fears hold me back, I just re-read that part with various fears symptoms, to help my self to understand, that it's just a fear, not a reality, and I can handle it!
Useful book!
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Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger đź“Ś
| Author: Peter Bevelin |
| Category: Self-development, Popular Science |
| Language I read in: English |
| Format: E-Book |
| Keep reading: Yes |
My short notes on this book
This book combines finding on how we think as human beeings, originating from various fields starting from biology till statistics. Using examples of clear thinking and attained wisdom, author focuses on how our thoughts are influenced, why we make misjudgments and mistakes, and how we can improve our thinking.
Incredibly useful book! Would love to have it and re-read in a paper form!
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Programming the Universe: A quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos đź“Ś
| Author: Seth Lloyd |
| Category: Popular Science |
| Language I read in: Russian |
| Format: E-Book |
| Keep reading: Yes |
My short notes on this book
Great popular science book proposing the idea that the Universe is a quantum computer, and explaining how it then works.
Love this book! And especially the concept of connected atoms of which we all consist of and which exchange information all the time.
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How to Win Friends and Influence People đź“Ś
| Author: Dale Carnegie |
| Category: Self-development, Psychology |
| Language I read in: Russian |
| Format: E-Book |
| Keep reading: Yes |
My short notes on this book
This book provides some recommendations on how to change your personal behavior to be able to influence other people's behavior.
One need to re-reed each chapter's summary sometimes. It's usefull :)
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The Bitcoin Standard
| Author: Saifedean Ammous |
| Category: Economics, Finance |
| Language I read in: English, Russian |
| Format: E-Book |
| Keep reading: Probably |
My short notes on this book
This book provides overview of money history, ending up with Bitcoin as the best money so far which are immutable, decentralised, and trully sound (scalable, divisible, transportable and capable to store value).
There is an interesting concept of Time Prefference and how low time preference that is harmfull for our society is connected with fiat money we currently have.
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Outliers: The Story of Success
| Author: Malcolm Gladwell |
| Category: Self-development, Publicistic |
| Language I read in: Russian |
| Format: E-Book |
| Keep reading: Probably |
My short notes on this book
This book tries to examine and define factors that make some people successfull, and some not. Some ideas conflicting each other like from one side author make a point that success is not solely depending on a person (their smarts, ambitions, hustle and hard work), and at the same time he popularise the concept of 10000-Hour Rule claiming that to be successfull the hard work is the most important.
The idea that some factors leading to someone's success might be not that obvious and could be understanded only after a carefull research is totally appealing. Not sure if one may need to re-read this book.
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My Life and Work đź“Ś
| Author: Henry Ford |
| Category: Biography, Business |
| Language I read in: Russian |
| Format: E-Book |
| Keep reading: Yes |
My short notes on this book
This authobiography tells the story of Henry Ford and how he could built one of the biggest, most famous and successful companies known nowadays.
Great authobiography and story of the Ford company!
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The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon
| Author: Brad Stone |
| Category: Biography, Business |
| Language I read in: Russian |
| Format: E-Book |
| Keep reading: Probably |
My short notes on this book
This book unveils the story of Jeff Bezos, and his startup, which put book ctalogues online, and describes the road how it turned to what we know today as Amazon – the biggest online store selling almost everything.
It's surely interesting to read this well-written story, but I'm sure that it's a PR/marketing projects which will never share the whole truth :)
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Shoe Dog
| Author: Phil Knight |
| Category: Biography, Business |
| Language I read in: Russian |
| Format: E-Book |
| Keep reading: No |
My short notes on this book
A really good and interesting written autobiography of Phil Knight, covering the story of how he has built and developed Nike.
Good read, but of course not the whole true story of the company is told.
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The Innovator's Dilemma: When New technologies Cause Great Firms to Fall đź“Ś
| Author: Clayton Christensen |
| Category: Business, Technology, Innovations |
| Language I read in: Russian |
| Format: E-Book |
| Keep reading: Yes |
My short notes on this book
This book explores the phenomenon of disruptive technologies. Author propose the idea that some large successful companies lose their market leadership failing to serve low-value customers, who prefer new technology solutions provided by small niche new companies, which may take over market share if they stay operational long enough till the technology improves.
There are many interesting findings that are based on a thorough research. A model (Windermete Hierarchy) that explains on what basis customers make a selection of products (in descending order of priority: Functionality / Reliability / Convenience / Cost) is incredibly useful.
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Bullshit Jobs: A Theory đź“Ś
| Author: David Graeber |
| Category: Society, Economics, Antropology |
| Language I read in: Russian |
| Format: E-Book |
| Keep reading: Yes |
My short notes on this book
That's an increadiblt short book (or essay) proposing a theory about the mutiple meaningless jobs existing in our world, which are also harmfull to people and our society in general.
Love Graeber's enthropological and scientific approach to the phenomenon of usefull jobs, including overview of association of labor with suffering, neoliberal ethic that connects work with self-worth, and how psychologically destructive and harmfull becoming pointless jobs in such set of “values” and believes.
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Business Adventures
| Author: John Brooks |
| Category: Business, Finance |
| Language I read in: Russian |
| Format: E-Book |
| Keep reading: Probably |
My short notes on this book
The book covers 12 stories from the world of Wall Street, which represents pretty common situations.
Really useful book if one wants to understand reality of financial markets and big businesses.
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Reminiscences of s Stock Operator đź“Ś
| Author: Edwin Lefèvre |
| Category: Finance, Trading, Biography |
| Language I read in: Russian |
| Format: E-Book |
| Keep reading: Yes |
My short notes on this book
This amazing book tells the story of a professional stock trader on a Wall Street with all his lessons learned.
Super actual nowadays!
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Zero to One
| Author: Peter Thiel |
| Category: Business, Entrepreneurship |
| Language I read in: English |
| Format: Paper Book, E-Book |
| Keep reading: No |
My short notes on this book
This book provides few appealing and well-memorizable concept such as “0 to 1” in context of new startups/products creation, matrix of perception of future (optimistic vs. pessimistic | definite vs. indefinite), importance of “Secrets” in business and daily life, importance of sales and various approaches.
Following the author's idea, I don't think that info he made public might be super useful and help someone to create a next successful multi-billion business. I think, he kept the most important secrets about how big money are made to himself :)
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Good to Great đź“Ś
| Author: Jim Collins |
| Category: Business, Innovations |
| Language I read in: Russian |
| Format: E-Book |
| Keep reading: Yes |
My short notes on this book
This book is valuable, because it's summarising the findings of huge scientific research (over 5 years the research team studied 28 companies via data analysis and interviews) on which traits distinguish good companies from great, that not only achieved great results, but also could sustain those results for at least 15 years. The book is also greatly structured and easy to read!
Such ideas as need to Confront the Brutal Facts, Hedgehog Concept, Disciplined People/Thought/Action, and Flywheel Effect are super useful!
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A short History of the World đź“Ś
| Author: H.G. Wells |
| Category: History, Non-fiction |
| Language I read in: Russian |
| Format: E-Book |
| Keep reading: Yes |
My short notes on this book
Easy to read historical overview spanning the origins of the Earth to the outcomes of the First World War.
Super useful book covering the general history of a humanity and the most important stages and events happened on the Earth going beyond the last 2000 years.
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A Brave New World
| Author: Aldous Huxley |
| Category: Fiction, Novel |
| Language I read in: English |
| Format: Paper Book |
| Keep reading: No |
My short notes on this book
One of versions of a future dystopia with so vivid pictures drawn by author that they make us hate what we imagine while reading.
One time read for me.
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COVID-19: The Great Reset
| Author: Klaus Schwab, Thierry Malleret |
| Category: Publicistic, Society |
| Language I read in: English |
| Format: Paper Book |
| Keep reading: No |
My short notes on this book
This book looks to be reflecting fears of the current ruling class of capitalists: they are scared that COVID pandemic can be a bigger shock to our society and can lead to the change of the “status quo”. Schwab warns his mates about the happening and possibly upcoming “Resets” on multiple levels (Macro, Micro, and Individual) and that “deep crisis provoked by pandemic” (sure not by something else...) leave us at a crossroads, where wise choices needs to be made for a better world (but for whom?).
Read to understand what rich people are now carrying about :)
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The Richest Man in Babylon đź“Ś
| Author: George S. Clason |
| Category: Finance, Personal Wealth |
| Language I read in: English |
| Format: Paper Book |
| Keep reading: Yes |
My short notes on this book
Really short, but insightful book written in the form of ancient stories, that provide pretty basic, but working recommendations (7 Cures for a lean purse) on personal finance.
Worth to read and re-read!
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The Anti-capitalist Chronicles đź“Ś
| Author: David Harvey |
| Category: Society, Capitalism |
| Language I read in: English |
| Format: Paper Book |
| Keep reading: Yes |
My short notes on this book
The book describes the evolution of capitalist system, especially it's most recent from: neoliberal capitalism (or Neoliberalism), and its ongoing crisis, possible evolution into neo-fascism, as well as opportunities for possible changes in the opposite anti-capitalist or socialist direction created by the Covid crisis.
Insightful book that is pretty hard to comprehend. Need to re-read it few times.
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What's to Be Done? đź“Ś
| Author: Nikolay Chernyshevsky |
| Category: Novel |
| Language I read in: Russian |
| Format: Paper Book |
| Keep reading: Yes |
My short notes on this book
The book is advocating for a better socialist world with better people while opposing it to the “current” world, where many things going wrong and should be fixed, while some “good” people already appear and start doing small “good” things. Narrative style is super involving and made me read the book in one breath.
Want to read it in English, but have found just in a terrible quality.
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Manifesto of the Communist Party (or The Communist Manifesto) đź“Ś
| Author: Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels |
| Category: Politics, Society, Economics |
| Language I read in: Russian |
| Format: E-Book |
| Keep reading: Yes |
My short notes on this book
A short pamphlet attempting to explain the class stuggle between 2 social classes – bourgeoise and proletariat – defined by their relationship to means of production; as well as why capitalism won't make self-realization possible for humanity, but will bring perpetual alienation of people from their work results and self-destruction.
The best way to start learning about socialism and communism.
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The Conquest of Bread (or The Bread Book) đź“Ś
| Author: Peter Kropotkin |
| Category: Society, Economics |
| Language I read in: Russian |
| Format: E-Book |
| Keep reading: Yes |
My short notes on this book
This book is really easy to read. It describes defects of feudalism and capitalism systems, and the possible ways how to address them through a decentralised (anarchists) economic system based on cooperation, mutual aid, common ownership of all intellectual and usefull property created by collective work, and right of every human to well-being.
Love these ideas, and the book easiness and structure! Definitely worth to read and to re-read!
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| Author: Anita Croy |
| Category: Biography, Non-fiction, Popular Science |
| Language I read in: English |
| Format: Paper Book |
| Keep reading: Yes |
My short notes on this book
As the “Extraordinary Scientists” Series is aimed for young adults, the book is super easy and interesting to read! It covers Darwin's biography, as well as key facts and ideas of his theory of evolution and main work “On the origin of Species”.
Amazing book!
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The Art of War đź“Ś
| Author: Sun Tzu |
| Category: Philosophy |
| Language I read in: English, Russian |
| Format: Paper Book, E-Book |
| Keep reading: Yes |
My short notes on this book
The pretty popular book describing a philosophy and strategy of war, which could be applicable to politic, business and daily life.
Many chapters especially on Strategic Assessment, Planning a Siege, Formation (with 5 rules of military), as well as Emptiness and Fullness and Adaptations are to re-read!
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What Has Government Done to Our Money? đź“Ś
| Author: Murray N. Rothbard |
| Category: Economics, Finance, Banking |
| Language I read in: English, Russian |
| Format: Paper Book, E-Book |
| Keep reading: Yes |
My short notes on this book
A great historical overview of money and monetary system, as well as issues of the current international money system, connected with elimination of gold standard, governmental control, and current “fractional reserve” banking system headed by central banks.
Useful book.
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Your Brain at Work đź“Ś
| Author: David Rock |
| Category: Self-development, Publicistic |
| Language I read in: Russian |
| Format: Paper Book, E-Book |
| Keep reading: Yes |
My short notes on this book
Through a story of a couple living their daily life, this book provides importnat info about how our brain works, thanks to which we can better organize, prioritize, remember, and process our daily lives.
Useful book, need to re-read it!
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Rich Dad, Poor Dad
| Author: Robert T. Kiyosaki |
| Category: Finance, Personal Wealth |
| Language I read in: Russian |
| Format: E-Book |
| Keep reading: Probably |
My short notes on this book
Book provides a guidance on various aspects of money, wealth creation, and financial independence. It highlights the difference between assets and liabilities, the power of financial education, and the importance of taking calculated risks, as well as the need of the right mindset and beliefs around money.
Concepts around assets generating income vs. assets draining money, as well as the usefullness of LLC are surely helpful.
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Some further reading include novels and fiction books such as “For Whom the Bell Tolls”, “A Farawell to Arms”, “The Old Man and the Sea” by Ernest Hemingway, “All Quiet on the Western Front”, “Three Comrades” by Erich Maria Remarque etc.