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Will Fox
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Reading

In the fall of 2020, I began keeping track of the books I was reading. I am by all accounts quite a slow reader, but it is one of my favorite things to do. I do try to stick to a couple of guidelines:

  1. Read what you love until you love to read [1]. Credit to Naval. When searching for motivation, seek out a genre that delights you, not one that bores you.
  2. There is nothing wrong with stopping a book. I've heard this idea expressed by many, but most recently Ryan Holiday. If you're not enjoying a book or getting value from it, just stop! Your time is better spent elsewhere.
  3. Avoid books written in the last year. Inspiration from Tim Ferriss for number three. While this isn't a complete ban on new books, I find that nothing filters out noise better than the test of time. I want to make sure I get the most out of the few books I will read in my life! Of course, I happily break this rule when it comes to emerging fields and the occasional acclaimed book.

Below you will find my reading list. Books in-progress are indicated by the 👉. Some of my favorites are marked with ⭐.

2024

  • 👉 Uncommon Carriers by John McPhee
  • 👉 The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis
  • 👉 Courage Is Calling by Ryan Holiday
  • ⭐ Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
  • ⭐ Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
  • The Code Book by Simon Singh
  • The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiking
  • Outlive by Peter Attia and Bill Gifford
  • The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin
  • The Everything Store by Brad Stone
  • Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
  • The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton
  • The Wager by David Grann
  • Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson
  • The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu
  • Slow Productivity by Cal Newport
  • Open Borders by Brian Caplan and Zach Weinersmith
  • A Man for All Markets by Edward O. Thorp
  • Foundation by Isaac Asimov
  • Same As Ever by Morgan Housel
  • The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

2023

  • Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson
  • ⭐ The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
  • The Prestige by Christopher Priest
  • The Inevitable by Kevin Kelly
  • American Gods by Neil Gaiman
  • The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
  • The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy
  • The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
  • The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz
  • The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkein
  • Ikigai by Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles
  • The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling
  • Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
  • Essentialism by Greg McKeown
  • An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears
  • The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkein
  • ⭐ Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman
  • A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
  • Thunderstruck by Erik Larson
  • No One Goes Alone by Erik Larson
  • Unreasonable Success and How to Achieve It by Richard Koch
  • ⭐ To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
  • Build by Tony Fadell
  • The Call of the Wild by Jack London
  • The Client by John Grisham
  • Atomic Habits by James Clear
  • The Lion Tracker's Guide To Life by Boyd Varty
  • Net Gains by Ryan O'Hanlon
  • The Art of Money Getting by P.T. Barnum
  • ⭐ Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson
  • The Ascent of Money by Niall Ferguson

2022

  • The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli
  • ⭐ Encounters with the Archdruid by John McPhee
  • Awareness by Anthony de Mello
  • So Good They Can't Ignore You by Cal Newport
  • A Guide to the Good Life by William Irvine
  • The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
  • ⭐ Barbarian Days by William Finnegan
  • ⭐ The Innocence of Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton
  • ⭐ Deep Work by Cal Newport
  • Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
  • The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga
  • The Fish That Ate the Whale by Rich Cohen
  • Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
  • Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
  • The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
  • The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday
  • ⭐ Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
  • You Only Live Twice by Ian Fleming
  • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
  • The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz

2021

  • The Blue Zones Solution by Dan Buettner
  • Moneyball by Michael Lewis
  • Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
  • ⭐ The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch
  • Empire of the Summer Moon by S. C. Gwynne
  • The Old Man and the Sea by Earnest Hemingway
  • A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin
  • ⭐ The Club by Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg
  • The Prague Cemetary by Umberto Eco
  • Good to Great by Jim Collins
  • Dare to Lead by Brene Brown
  • ⭐ Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
  • Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne
  • Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
  • The Prophet by Khalil Gibran
  • The Inner Game of Tennis by W. Timothy Gallwey
  • Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
  • Dracula by Bram Stoker
  • The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson
  • In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

2020

  • Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson
  • Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John Le Carre
  • Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
  • ⭐ The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
  • Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman by Richard Feynman