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Short non-fiction books to read

By Bobby Voicu

Some books are long, some books are short. And, if they’re non-fiction books, the shorter, the better. At least for me.

I’ve never thought of books in terms of pages, but it kinda makes sense.

Fergus McCullough started to make a list of the best non-fiction books with less than 250 pages.

  • Allen, Global Economic History: A Very Short Introduction (170)
  • Bayles, Art & Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking (122)
  • Caplan, Open Borders (248)
  • Carse, Finite and Infinite Games (162)
  • Collier, The Bottom Billion (244)
  • Cowen, Stubborn Attachments (161); The Great Stagnation (60)
  • De Solla Price, Science Since Babylon (240)
  • Gibbons, Partition: How and Why Ireland Was Divided (220; h/t Tyler Cowen)
  • Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (72)
  • Jünger, The Forest Passage (120)
  • Karatani, Isonomia and the Origins of Philosophy (176)
  • Knight, Chinese Literature: A Very Short Introduction (158)
  • Krugman, The Age of Diminished Expectations (244); Pop Internationalism (240)
  • Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching (128)
  • Machiavelli, The Prince (144)
  • Schmitt, The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy (184)
  • Smil, Oil (219); Energy (210)
  • Thiel, Zero to One (210)
  • Ward-Perkins, The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization (239)
  • Weil, Gravity and Grace (183)
  • Wilde, The Critic as Artist (124)

The original article is not online anymore, so I got the full list from archive.org.

Of all these books, the only one I’ve read is Thiel’s Zero to One, so it’s a good list to start with.

Oh, and apparently there’s a reason why some books are bigger than they should: having a bigger spine allows them to stand out in a bookshop. Or that was the thing in 2006.

via Tyler Cowen

Books to Read in February 2020 [Poll] – The CEO Library Book Club

By Bobby Voicu

Update: Here are the results:

  1. Man’s Search for Meaning – The Classic Tribute to Hope from the Holocaust, by Victor E. Frankl
  2. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones, by James Clear
  3. Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, by David Epstein
  4. Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell, By Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, Alan Eagle
  5. Born to Run, by Bruce Springsteen

Here’s the first poll for The CEO Library Book Club:

My Rediscovery of Isaac Asimov: I, Asimov

By Bobby Voicu

One of the first “modern” SF books I’ve ever read was one in the Foundation series. I don’t remember exactly which one, but I was around 14 and I read all the books written by Isaac Asimov that I could find. Unfortunately, though, you couldn’t find most of them in Romania, where I was born. And you couldn’t find the non-fiction books in particular.

Last week I read I, Asimov: A Memoir, his autobiography. I didn’t read a book that I liked this much in a long time. As I said already, Asimov was part of my youth and I’ve read and re-read the Foundation, Robots and Empire books over and over again over the years. And, through the 600 pages of I, Asimov, I almost turned back in time.

In I, Asimov I’ve discovered a genuine happy person, someone that did what he loved his entire life. I discovered that one of the biggest authors of Science Fiction actually stopped writing fiction novels almost completely for 20 years. I discovered that he enjoyed writing mystery short stories a lot. And this shouldn’t surprise me since most of the books in his SF series are, actually, mysteries. Especially the Robots ones.

His autobiography reads like the archive of a blog, with anecdotes and short stories of the author’s life. It made me smile so often, I didn’t believe it. I was reading in bed and I would read out loud to my fiancée something that made me laugh loudly.

Besides the laughs, I also appreciated the power of Asimov’s convictions. I’m taking example, as well, since sometimes I forget to support my opinions as strongly as I should. And I’m sure my friends might think differently and laugh at the last sentence.

Here, in Asimov’s biography, I found the best reasoning for reading ever. And a refute of watching TV at the cost of reading.

I also pointed out that television yielded so much information that the viewer became a passive receptacle, whereas a book gave so little that the reader had to be an active participant, his imagination supplying all the imagery, sound, and special effects. This participation, I said, gave so much pleasure that television could not serve as a decent substitute.

In short, the age of the pulp magazine was the last in which youngsters, to get their primitive material, were forced to be literate. Now that is gone, and the youngsters have their glazed eyes fixed on the television tube. The result is clear. True literacy is becoming an arcane art, and the nation is steadily “dumbing down.”

I was born in communism and, even if my parents had a big enough library at home, most of the books I read were available from the school library. I still remember how happy I was when I found, in one corner, a new Jules Verne book I could read and share with my class mates. So I understand the value of access to books. And I’ve started The CEO Library because I know you need more than what the school provides.

I received the fundamentals of my education in school, but that was not enough. My real education, the superstructure, the details, the true architecture, I got out of the public library. For an impoverished child whose family could not afford to buy books, the library was the open door to wonder and achievement, and I can never be sufficiently grateful that I had the wit to charge through that door and make the most of it.

I was surprised that Asimov was writing in 1992 that we, as humanity, are destroying the planet. And, 30 years later, he was and is right, unfortunately. And we fight with the results of neglect.

We are now perfectly capable of damaging the planet beyond repair in any reasonable time, and are, in fact, in the process of doing so.

And, again, in 1992, he wrote the perfect explanation of the difference in thinking between “conservatives” and “liberals”. Living in a world where the split is even more obvious and evident, I can’t but wonder at Asimov’s understanding of life.

I have been a liberal all my life. I have had to be. Early in life, I noted that conservatives, who are more or less satisfied with things as they are and even more satisfied with things as they were fifty years ago, are “self-loving.” That is, conservatives tend to like people who resemble themselves and distrust others. In my youth, in the United States the backbone of social, economic, and political power rested with an establishment consisting almost entirely of people of Northwestern European extraction, and the conservatives making up that establishment were contemptuous of others.

If you enjoyed Asimov’s books, you’re gonna love this one.

Best Books of 2019

By Bobby Voicu

At the beginning of November 2019 I asked in the newsletter and on Instagram for our community’s favorite books of 2019. After about 2 weeks of adding books to the database, here are the lists. And yes, I was doing other things as well, it didn’t take me 2 weeks to add 50 or so books, ok?

1. Best New Books of 2019

These books are all published in 2019. You liked them and you recommend them.

2. Best Fiction Books of 2019

Though you wouldn’t think so, some of you actually read fiction :D So here are 10-11 fiction books you said it’s worth reading.

3. Best Non-Fiction Books of 2019

Finally, as expected, this is the biggest list. About 80 books you recommended (including the ones of the first list) are here and it should be enough for everyone to have a full 2020 with the books they didn’t read already.

I (used to) write at The CEO Library

By Bobby Voicu

In September/October I’ve rediscovered my love of writing. OK, maybe love is too strong of a word, but I lack the vocabulary in English to find another, more suited one, so I’ll use that.

You might have noticed it, actually, since I wrote on this blog a lot more than I’ve done it in the entire two years before.

And then I stopped. Or not really. Cristina, my co-founder at The CEO Library, decided to focus more on what she wants to do (and can do) in Romania, so she decided to leave the operational position. She still helps with advice from time to time. If you speak Romanian or can use Google Translate, you can read more here, on her blog. The Google Translate version (here) is quite good, actually.

This meant that I started to write a little bit more. Not only about business and books, but also about the most interesting libraries I’ve visited in the last few years. Yes, I start with Bucharest’s Carturesti Carusel. Because why not?

I also used to write The CEO Library weekly newsletter.

As for the things I’m writing, here’s a short excerpt from the second newsletter I sent, about two weeks ago:

Asking questions is probably one of the most underrated skills in the world. I mean, everybody can ask questions, right? A toddler asks questions. And, oh, my God, they do ask a lot.

As you know, though, it’s not that simple.

I grew up in communist Romania. School was a serious matter and you didn’t ask stupid questions. Or, even better, don’t ask anything. Take everything the teachers give you, learn it by heart and become the perfect little communist. Of course, I’m generalizing, because I was fortunate to have some great teachers, but they weren’t the rule. This continued through college, even if it wasn’t as obvious as it was in the first years of school.

You can read the entire newsletter I sent here, to get an idea.

Truth is, I don’t know exactly what I’ll do with The CEO Library just yet. The project started one way and it morphed in something a little bit different over the last 2 years. I still need to think about it. But, for the moment, I’m happy to have found a community of like-minded people again. It feels like it’s 2008-2009 again when I was writing my Romanian blog. Of course, the context is different, but I genuinely missed writing.

I will still write on this blog, as well, don’t worry.

I mean, I can’t write on The CEO Library about silicone wheels for the desk chair, right? Or can I?

Ok, ok, but I can’t write about wanting a Christmas tree in October there. Can I? May I?

 

Some books I’ve read

By Bobby Voicu

Naval Ravikant - The CEO Library

I was looking through the stats of The CEO Library recently and noticed that the page with books recommended by Naval Ravikant is one of the most popular on the site. So I got curious to see if I read any of the books there. And I did:

I have to say some of the books Naval recommends look out of place, but I might actually read some of them (I mean, what’s Tao Te Ching?).

I didn’t write on the blog in some time, so I thought suggesting some books for the summer holiday might not be a bad way to write again :)

Books I Read in 2017 – The CEO Library Podcast

By Bobby Voicu

At the beginning of December, we launched a podcast at The CEO Library.

Well, the last episode we recorded, the fourth, was about the books we’ve read in 2017. The best books, the worst and some in between.

Just to give you a taste, the best book I read was, I think, The Hard Thing about Hard Things. Or was it? :)

Listen to the episode, if you have the time, and let me know if you enjoy it. You can listen to it on Apple devices, on Google Play, on Libsyn or on the website. Any feedback you have is really appreciated.

The CEO Library Story – Months #2 & #3

By Bobby Voicu

I’ve missed the monthly update on The CEO Library. I have a good reason, though :) I’ve been in the US for several weeks giving a helping hand to FreeBusy, one of the companies I invested in. As an offtopic, go and test their product if you’re frustrated with the back and forth of emails when it comes to setting up a meeting. FreeBusy really solves the issue, giving you a suitable time for every participant in as fast as 60 seconds (if everyone is connected to the service).

Now, back to The CEO Library. Last time I wrote something about it we had just three weeks since we started.

2 months later, the enthusiasm of the initial start has calmed down. The traffic in the last 2 months is almost equal to the traffic in the first 3 weeks. Not so much of an up and to the right line, right?

Once we started the project, we saw the biggest issue with it: it’s difficult to gather the recommendations. Once we went past the first flurry of “Top books about…” articles, it became really clear that it will take a lot longer than we thought initially. Listening to a podcast just to find out what someone says about one book is not an efficient way to do it.

We refocused the site on interviewing the people that recommend the books. It’s now quite obvious in the design of the site (we are focusing more on the people we talked to than on the books), but the heart of it is still what books they recommend. Just so you know!

The above is one more reason for people to read “The Lean Startup” and understand why you should launch a product/company as soon as you can so that you can get real feedback. Both from users and the realities of the market. “Done is better than perfect”, right?

And we started a podcast, as well.

What are the numbers?

Traffic: 4261 unique users (Oct+Nov)
Email total subscribers: 229 emails
Facebook total likes: 667
Twitter total followers: 185
Instagram total followers: 186
Shares through SUMO widget (Oct+Nov): 73
Interviews: 40
Collections: 4
Books total added: 1260

As you can see, the biggest jump is in interviews, which was our focus in November, as well as the number of books recommended by people. The lower numbers are a consequence of our lack of focus on social media or getting more newsletter subscribers. Once the process to get interviews is in place, we will start focusing on those as well.

The most important thing that happened in the last 2 months was the addition of two more team members to help with the technical side of things (Vlad) and database building – adding books and recommendations (Theo). This allowed Cristina to focus more on outreach for interviews and adding those to the site.

This is it for this month. I’ll keep you updated as new things happen.

P.S.: The last 2 months were driven by the quote in the image on the top: “Done is better than perfect”. We’re testing things and we just launch them to see how they work. This is why I chose this illustration for the article. It was made by Miruna, The CEO Library official illustrator :) She’s gonna illustrate more and more quotes and phrases specific to the business environment. If you are interested in her work, check her store here.

I launched The CEO Library – book recommendations from the people we look up to

By Bobby Voicu

About two months ago I was looking for some book to read from my Kindle collection. I was seeing titles like:

  • Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
  • A Short History of Nearly Everything
  • The Art of Learning: A Journey in the Pursuit of Excellence
  • Letters to a Young Contrarian
  • Smarter Faster Better: The Transformative Power of Real Productivity
  • Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade
  • The Turnaround Strategies of Jim Harbaugh: How the University of Michigan Head Football Coach Changes the Culture to Immediately Increase Performance

I had no f#$ing idea how I got those books on my Kindle. I still don’t. No, let me correct myself on that: I know HOW they got on my Kindle, I don’t remember WHY, though. I was sure I read about them in some book or in some article, recommended by someone. Who, though? And why did I think it was interesting? I had no answer to this.

The idea of The CEO Library

Several days later I told one of my friends about this. He felt the same. Then another. The same story. Hmm, I thought, I could write some posts on my blog as I find these recommendations. But, if people look for this kind of thing, maybe I can transform reading and books, that were common in my life since I was 5 years old, into something more: a passion project.

So this is how The CEO Library started: a list of books recommendations from people with interesting things to say. People that had success in their chosen fields in some way and I think it’s worth learning from them: entrepreneurs, investors, C-level executives, senior people in companies. I wanted the site to be a database of all the books you find recommended online

Of course, once I started to actually think about the project, I understood that I couldn’t do it alone. Just a happy coincidence, about the same time Cristina, with whom I worked on another successful project 10 years earlier, started to be interested in a project about books. She approached me to ask my advice and when I told her about my idea, she said: “cool, let’s do it together”. And that’s how I became a co-founder of The CEO Library :)

Launching the MVP

It took us about a month and a half after that to structure the site, understand how the content should look and what we should have on the site and, of course, it took that long to get the first 400-500 books in the database. Scouring the web for interviews, lists and similar is not as easy as you think after the first 10-20 articles :)

Of course, it took me about two weeks to think about a name – what do you think about The Thrive Library? Or CEO plug? My cousin, Vlad, laughed an hour about the last one. Sex toys, anyone?

Also, the design. I knew from experience how long it takes to get a good design and I said to myself that in the week with the 15th of September I will launch the site no matter what. I needed feedback from users before getting any kind of definitive design in place, because, in my mind, it should follow the structure of the site. And I can’t know the structure of the site until I have some users, right?

Learnings from the first days of “alpha” launch

Finally, here’s the site: The CEO Library.

I initially wanted a small “alpha” launch, to see what people think of it, so I sent it to my 250 people email list to get some feedback. Frankly, I expected a little bit of feedback on the email and that would be it. I expected somebody to put it on Facebook or something and get 200 visitors for the next 2-3 days. That, I thought, would give me enough feedback on what visitors look for. Cristina also offered to tell her list, as well.

Well, since Wednesday to today we had about 2,000 unique visitors on the site, about 20-30 feedback emails sent to me or Cristina, multiple shares on Facebook. And some people actually subscribed to our weekly newsletter :)

The most important learnings I got: people really love talking about books (I should know, though, this is why we started the site) and the most interesting things for the visitors are the Collections and the Interviews. Which we’ll add more in the time to come.

I’m finishing this “official” launch by saying that I will add a monthly article about the project, with numbers, what we want to do next, how it worked and stuff like that. I love this kind of “business journal”. I’ve read the entire archive for the blog of a guy that built an app called Bingo Card Creator and I want to try something similar (maybe not as detailed as he did, though).

If you have feedback, please let us know. Go to Contact Us on the site and send an email. Any kind of feedback is appreciated (even if not acted upon).

Oh, one more thing: if you want somebody to be interviewed, someone that you know personally so that you can put us in contact with them, please let us know. Again, the Contact form on our website :)