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andbenn

andbenn@bookwyrm.social

Joined 1 year, 6 months ago

Trying to read more, and more, and more I have too many articles in Pocket, which also get read but not tracked here.

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"It's not that you read, it's what you read." Epictetus.

Is what you read making you a better person?

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andbenn's books

To Read (View all 5)

Currently Reading

2025 Reading Goal

Success! andbenn has read 23 of 20 books.

Cecilia Kang, Sheera Frenkel: An Ugly Truth (Hardcover, 2021, Harper)

Facebook, how could you?

The 2021 book that brought together several NYTimes stories and more. Written by two NYTimes reporters, this categorizes many of the company's questionable decisions (and indecisions) through it's existence. With an obvious "must grow" mentality, this drove many of the responses.

Kind of sad. A good management lesson for any aspiring or existing people manager.

Plato: Great Dialogues of Plato (Signet Classics) (1999, Signet Classics)

Writing in the fourth century B.C., in an Athens that had suffered a humiliating defeat …

Classic Plato dialogs. Not the easiest to read

This collection covers 7 complete texts of some of Plato's best known and perhaps most important dialogs.

This isn't the easiest to read though. My library had a $6.95 paperback copy that was an inch thick. The translations were easy to read, but overall, you are reading two or three people talking amongst themselves. For long periods of time. This was apparently the way at that time.

Overall, I did enjoy it. I did hit my max library renewals and even went longer. This is a particularly thick/dense book.

Massimo Pigliucci, Skye Cleary, Daniel Kaufman: How to Live a Good Life (2020, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group)

High level details of dozens of philosophy / religious alternatives

This book covers 15 or so philisophies and religions, the popular ones that readers might want to explore. Each is written by an expert, and they summarize the important points.

Each chapter is several pages. Nothing too in depth. It's a decent take on a morsel from each. Who'd benefit from this book? Someone who just realized they need to put more philosophy/religion in their life and don't know where to start.

Yeah, it's a niche. That's all I got. What I leared is that I have some altruistic tendencies among my other philosphy interests.

Ryan Holiday, Michael Jordan, George Raveling: What You're Made For (2025, Penguin Publishing Group)

His personal life philosophy and wisdom

This is a look back at his life, essentially his philosophy and how it formed through segregation, the civil rights era, and his storied basketball coaching terms at Washington State, Univ of Iowa, and Univ of Southern California and two USA Olympic Basketball teams He’s coached men who later became NBA royalty. The book has a forward from Michael Jordan. The cover has a quote from Charles Barkley. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr gave George his “I have a dream” speech as King stepped off the stage. George signed Michael Jordan to his Nike contract in the 1980's, which brought forth the Air Jordan line known worldwide.

The book covers 20 points to being a better person, each with stories from his life and experiences. A heavy tilt towards basketball, I’m not a basketball fan but found the book very enjoyable. It’s his manual for life for his mid 80's …

Sarah Wynn-Williams: Careless People (Hardcover, 2025, Flatiron Books)

An explosive memoir charting one woman’s career at the heart of one of the most …

A riveting book from the inside leadership at Facebook

Really enjoyed this. Thinking critically, I have to assume that this may be a bit lopsided in it's views and takes.

However, the wealth of experiences the author brings are just overwhelming. The fact that due to legal action, the author was not permitted to promote the book says something for how the Facebook legal team sees the stories.

In many cases, just simple in-actions have grave consequences. Philosophers have struggled about the importance of doing the right thing and action as part of leadership, and it's well written over time. History is covered in inaction examples.

This should be on the reading list for any company leader or manager.

Derek Thompson, Ezra Klein: Abundance (2025, Simon & Schuster)

America's scarcities and abundancies - wasting and not being used for better lives

A recent book from these writers/creators. They do not take a left or right view - they sling mud both ways to both sides. They revisit government decisions and show them as short sighted and not taken in our best interests.

This book covers the United States history and potential. They do focus on several building block programs and opine on what could be done to improve the situation. They cover artificial scarcities and how those have persisted over the decades, along with the impacts of such.

All in all, it's a well thought out and honest look at some huge problems the United States has, with prescriptions that may or may not work, but are probably worth trying. For the better of all of us.

The book does say that some of the content comes from their columns; fans may feel deja vu while reading.

Anne-Laure Le Cunff: Tiny Experiments (Hardcover, 2025, Penguin Publishing Group)

"I loved this profound, practical, and generous book."—Oliver Burkeman

A transformative guide to rethinking our …

Tiny Experiments ... to work better and be a better person

File this under self-help, which is an absolutely huge category with all sorts of famous and nearly famous authors, creators and academics trying to sell their methods to us.

Enter Anne-Laure Le Cunff's Tiny Experiments, as a neuroscientist. I don't know how I came across this - perhaps in a recommended reading list on the psychology side. While starting the book, I wasn't sure about it after getting through the Introduction. The section titled Pact though, immediately hit home with why goal setting is broken, drive for purpose can limit our growth potential and learning, and pacts, which seem similar to habits but are much heavier.

Being a neuroscientist makes this book stand out. Not only does she tell us why we might look at or do something in a particular way, but she adds her inputs on how to overcome the issues.

I plan to reread this book in …

Barbara Ramos, Sally Stein, Steven A. Heller, Rachel Kushner: Fearless Eye : the Photography of Barbara Ramos (2025, Chronicle Books LLC)

Fantastic - needs more photos, obviously...

This is 95 pages, and almost 10" x 11". It has two short essays about Barbara Ramos, then has 60+ photos from her time in California between 1969-1973.

Most of the shots are from San Francisco; several from LA, and a few from the region. All in black and white, they are stellar shots of people going about their day and living their lives.

My favorites: * Friends in Laundromat, Leavenworth Street * Bejeweled Woman Reaching Out, Venice, California * Man Singing, North Beach (close your eyes, you might hear him sing).

A great selection of photos from this time. I'm sure there are hundreds of other shots though.

Colin Elliott: Pox Romana (2024, Princeton University Press)

A wide-ranging and dramatic account of the Antonine plague, the mysterious disease that struck the …

Extensive details of various economy data and points on how viruses/disease affected the fall of the Roman empire and surrounding territories

This was a great book, starting out with the Antonine Plague and perhaps subsequent infection waves, and how these affected the various economies (for instance, producing less coins or pottery). Steps through subsequent Roman emperors and summarizes details about their reigns and how they dealt with other waves brought on by trade, travel, and movement of armies.

The Antonine Plague is probably the worst disease event in human history to that point, the book dives into all things that were affected. Obviously tons of research and some rough connections are made, but it paints a vivid picture of what was actually happening during those years.

Fascinating read. This was very enjoyable as a history book, Roman book, virus outbreak/impact book. Comparing to what we went through in 2020 with COVID, it's probably a near equal comparison, factoring in that the Romans of the time had no idea how viruses spread.

Jay M. Feinman: Delay Deny Defend--paperback (Paperback, Delden Press)

An expose of insurance injustice and a plan for consumers and lawmakers to fight it …

Wow, Insurance Companies do pretty much suck

While I've always known that insurance companies don't have your best interests in their actions, I was kind of surprised to read this 2010 era book and read it's stories. Even since then, I doubt there's been much change in the industry.

The author lightly goes through the history of insurance to modern day, and how consultants came through the major insurers and helped them overhaul their businesses and focus on margins and profits.

The last couple chapters deal with things one can do to challenge the insurance companies three usual tactics of delay, deny and defend. It's not much - essentially ensure you are insured properly; use a company that is known for treating their customers well; take notes; send notes in so they get attached to your record/claim and some other actions.

Well written and an easy read. About 220 pages plus notes and index.

Mel Robbins: Let Them Theory (2024, Hay House, Incorporated)

This is really a philosophy book. Seriously. And it's good.

This is really a philosophy book. A modern well written eye catching book. It aligns with Buddhism and Stoicism, and as 2000+ year old philosophies, you know it's going to work.

She starts off with her 5 second rule for reactions/responses. Then brings in the Let Them Theory, which is essentially the topic that you can't control other people, so let them do whatever and don't worry. She then gets into Let Me, which is where you align, push, motivate yourself to get stuff done.

Lots of modern day examples and topics. I enjoyed reading this. I was not familiar with her work, but heard her on another podcast and was intrigued. My library has 80 copies, and 240 people waiting. This appears to be somewhat popular.

Christine Benz: How to Retire (2024, Harriman House Publishing)

Interviews with 20 Retirement Experts - fantastic

I do like the author's content, although it's usually somewhat generic given her role at Morningstar.

This book exceeded my expectations. It's 20 interviwes with other retirement experts and the ensuing discussions about a particular retirement topic. Some slightly overlap, but overall, this is a solid book.

Would be good for anyone maybe 15-10-5 years away or just into retirement. My take is that retirement is pretty darned complicated and most people should get some trusted hep.

Jeffrey Rosen: Pursuit of Happiness (2024, Simon & Schuster)

Why the founders of America were so interested in happiness

I liked this book. It covers early history of our nation, and what those founders were reading from philosophy and classic writing that influenced their approach and documentation for starting the United States.

In many places, you see that the founders did not have it easy. Businesses would burn by mobs. Mobs would come and rough up people. Etc etc.

The end of the book takes a rather quick turn through and up to modern times, which didn't feel like it fit. Ruth Bader Ginsburg? Ok.

A good read, especially if you are interested in history and philosophy. Would I re-read it? Probably not. Would I recommend it? Yes, to the right person who is interested in history and philosophy.

Sam Dogen: Buy This, Not That (2022, Penguin Publishing Group)

Good wholesome financial and life advice

Sam Dogen aka Financial Samurai's book. This covers all sorts of basic and intermediate financial and life advice. Covers for areas, being philosophy and mindset, putting money to work for you, working and maximizing wealth, and focus on the most important areas of life.

285 pages of text plus extra content. Includes a list of his blog posts for each chapter, should you wish to dive in deeper on a topic and type in a long-ish URL.

All in all, a good book. It's a great summary and rather general advice. Personal finance is a huge category so there was little here that was new. Couple of the chapters he gets analytical with data used to help make decisions.

Would I reread it? Unlikely. Would I recommend it? Probably to the right person who needs help with their finances and life and they are in their early to mid career.

Nir Eyal: Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life (2019)

This book is all about focusing

This is a solid book about focusing. All angles of being able to focus. It's pretty deep, and will require re-reading to review some of the points that you may be working on.

Having read a good deal of self-help/productivity books, very little of this content was new to me. Most of these topics he covers have been said elsewhere, usually in pieces though. The value of this book is it's focus on focus. haha

It's broken into small chapters of several pages each, and each chapter has a summary of the main points. Good for the focus devotee who isn't there yet.

It has 7 parts/themes each with several chapters. Part 3 as "Hack Back External Triggers" was my favorite and most valuable part. The last three parts weren't as valuable to me, being Work, Children and Other Relationships. Work because, it's rare that one can impact the work …