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Book Recommendations and Notes

Curated recommendations from books I read
2226 words 11 minutes

These are my recently read books and some comments and notes from when I read them.

As I love books and recommendations by others, I want to share them in a collective format so others can read gems of books, as I think books are still the best way to read new information these days. Even more with the fast pace we are going at, as books are well structured and made for the long term.

Book Recommendations I’ve Read

Over the years, I have made recommendations in Writer’s Room, my newsletter, on my now page or in person. Here I have collected and curated them over the years including some comments. I hope you enjoy.

2025

  • Novelist as a Vocation (Haruki Murakami): Such an amazing book on writing. It really reminded me of my writing style, as he translates words and tries to write beautifully for the sake of beauty, not to impress the reader. No timeline. It takes as long as it takes until the quality is good. And he likes a good challenge to keep him engaged, e.g., when he goes abroad to start from scratch. His style is so unique and amazing. It’s a joy to listen to.
  • Greenlights (Matthew McConaughey): This book was so real. Matthew reads and shares from his 35 years of journaling and life. So inspiring and straight from the heart. It was interesting and motivating to hear from a Hollywood actor and celebrity what truly matters: family and keep livin. Alright, aaaalright, alriiight. → I listened to the audiobook, and his Texan accent was the best. He was rhyming, slowing down, calming down, getting loud, all of it. It was like sitting next to him and listening to your dad or uncle.
  • Consider This (Chuck Palahniuk): The author of Fight Club shares how to write if you were his student. A masterclass if you want to enhance your writing.
  • You Can Negotiate Anything (Herb Cohen): Interesting perspective that you can negotiate even at places you’d never thought of, even at a shopping mall. Always keep in mind what the other’s objective is. There are always three elements that are part of a negotiation: information, time, and power.
  • The Bible: I also started to read the Bible, the most sold book on earth. I wanted to understand what’s in there. Obviously, it’s so massive, and it’s actually not one book, but a collection of many. I get a similar sensation to one of my favorite books The Daily Stoic (366 Meditations). It’s like a daily meditation. While Ryan Holiday’s book helps me feel calmer, the Bible nourishes my love and care for others.
  • Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention (Johann Hari): This book inspired me to write an article about flow myself: Finding Flow. Super insightful and probably will make you want to ban social media by the government.
  • Useful Not True (Derek Sivers): Derek is the master of stripping away. This book has so much wisdom in short one-page stories from Derek’s life. It’s a gem. Perfect to re-read, over and over. It’s next to my sleeping place to just grab.
  • Tao Te Ching (Lao Tzu): - Dao and Daoism: Men - earth - universe - dao. If you don’t want to read the bible, this is a none religious way of getting solitude and compassion.

2024

  • The Good Work (Paul Millerd): A continuation of the famous Pathless Path. Please read it if you haven’t yet.
  • The Extended Mind (Annie Murphy Paul): A powerful book. I started reading it again.
  • Do The Work (Steven Pressfield): It’s not the best book, maybe also because I’ve heard or read lots of the content already elsewhere, but I appreciated that it was short and that he didn’t try to extend it to 300 pages.

2023

  • Slow Productivity (Cal Newport): This is a fantastic book. It showcases why we should quit the race of everyday life and slow down for a compounding effect instead of overnight success. The same is true for money: investing long term instead of gambling in a casino. He describes that instead of pseudo productivity, which is the norm these days, where we try to be as busy as possible to showcase we are doing something, we should try to be as productive as possible.
  • Elon Musk (Walter Isaacson): It’s very long, but I loved every page (or word as I listened to it on Audible). It is inspiring. It shows how an exceptional, hard-working Musk is doing everything for humanity in an unhealthy way. He is also, to an extent, sick. He has his dark sides that just come out sometimes, which are also a sign of his mental state that he got from his dad, and also from his hard work and pressure. He is thriving in chaos. Whenever there is a calm time, he will do something new as he can’t stand the status quo.
  • How Will You Measure Your Life? (Clayton M. Christensen): A good book if you want to know more than just work and how you’ll measure it. This book was reassuring and strengthened many things I already knew. It reminded me that finding your principles is the key. Follow them and align your life so you have a happy life. It was also helpful for me as a dad and family member to pass on the same principles and values to my kids. Be intentional about your values. It’s hard to find them. They won’t be sent to you. You need to make them. But be aware that it is a process, not an event.
  • The Good Enough Job (Simone Stolzoff): A compelling book that challenges our conventional thinking about work. Instead of idolizing our jobs or incessantly chasing a better one, Stolzoff advocates for finding satisfaction in a “good enough” job. His ideas offer a refreshing contrast to the pervasive Instagram-era narrative that equates career success with personal fulfillment. A highly recommended read for anyone feeling pressured by the modern-day cult of work.
  • The Daily Dad (Ryan Holiday): This book is a sequel to one of my all-time favorite reads, The Daily Stoic. In the same tradition of offering daily philosophical advice, this book focuses on the challenges and rewards of parenthood. TODO
  • The Extended Mind (Annie Murphy Paul): An exploration of the intriguing ways our environment influences our thinking processes. Discover the surprising ways in which experts think beyond their brains, how harder thinking often leads to fewer results and the controversy over brain-training games and smart pills. Explore how we can use tools beyond the brain, such as the Body Scan technique and meditation, to tap into our intuition and sensations, and learn about the significance of the amygdala in our responses to stress.
  • All the Wrong Moves (Sasha Chapin): A captivating narrative where the world of chess serves as a backdrop for introspection and self-discovery. A story that shows how the love of chess can fully dominate one’s life, as it’s the most beautiful and worst thing in life at the same time.

2022

  • Atomic Habits (James Clear): The main argument: If you want to add a new habit, chain it to an existing one to make it stick.
  • Building a Second Brain (Tiago Forte): I knew most of it from his articles, podcasts, etc., but now it’s also available as a book.
  • Getting Things Done (David Allen): This book is life-changing if you apply its principles correctly to your life.
  • How to Take Smart Notes (Sönke Ahrens): The base for a Second Brain and where Sönke reveals how our brain is wired and how we can implement a note-taking style that supports our brain, mainly with the method called Zettelkasten.
  • The Pragmatic Programmer (David Thomas & Andrew Hunt): Although a lot was clear, summarizing it and putting it together as one piece, plus hearing it from two professionals, was very helpful and suitable for applying to my work.
  • How to Live (Derek Sivers): Every unnecessary word is removed and stripped to the bare essentials. This means you can’t read more than two chapters in one go as it’s that condensed and makes you think a lot.
  • On Writing (Stephen King): He gives deep insights into the life of a successful writer.

2021

  • The 5 Love Languages (Gary Chapman): This is especially helpful in any relationship with human beings around you and how you communicate with them.

2020

2019

2018

Not Complete
These are not all books I’ve read, but some of the recommendations and that I shared during the years. I will constantly add up more, and potentially link it to my more detailed note of each book.

These are some of my all-time favorite books that I recommend to everyone.

Top Books

  • The Daily Stoic (366 Meditations) (Ryan Holiday): One of my all-time favorite books. Daily meditations that help me feel calmer and more grounded.
  • Hell Yeah or No (Derek Sivers): Anything by Derek Sivers is worth reading. His writing is stripped to the essentials and packed with wisdom.

Business

  • It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work (Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson): Challenges the norm of crazy work hours and shows you can achieve more with less chaos.
  • Deep Work (Cal Newport): Essential reading on focused work in a distracted world.

Self-Help & Life Philosophy

  • Thinking, Fast and Slow (Daniel Kahneman): A deep dive into how our minds work, exploring System 1 and System 2 thinking.
  • The Pathless Path (Paul Millerd): Challenges the “default path” (going to school, work, mary, and have a family) and following your instict. Unconventional way. The new 4 hour work week book. One that I recommend the most lately. I wrote about Finding my Pathless Path.
  • Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals (Oliver Burkeman): A refreshing take on time management that embraces our mortality rather than fighting it.
  • Principles (Ray Dalio): Life and work principles from one of the world’s most successful investors.
  • Emotional Intelligence (Daniel Goleman): Understanding and managing emotions for better relationships and decisions.

⭐ 5-Star Picks (GoodReads)

Further Reads

  • Reading Books for a Happy Life: My thoughts on why reading books matters.
  • Audiobooks: I listen to most of my books as audiobooks. It works better for me and my brain, as I read all day long already. Books read by the authors on Audible are just another level. It feels like listening to them in person. Although a physical book has advantages, audiobooks are just something different. No wonder they are ever-growing.
  • Writer’s Room: Where I write and update on latest insight in my design process.

Other Recommendations

Last updated: December 30, 2025

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