As I reflect back on the first six months of 2024, I have come across quite a few interesting books, some of which show up in my June reading list. I have read 24 books up to this point in the year. My goal is four books per month or 48 books in 2024. A few of my favorite books in these past six months include Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World, Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results, and Disney’s Land: Walt Disney and the Invention of the Amusement Park That Changed the World. You can check out all of the books I read this year [HERE].
Now, my June reading list includes The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers, Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger, How to Stop Losing Your Sh*t with Your Kids: A Practical Guide to Becoming a Calmer, Happier Parent, and The Vagabonds: The Story of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison’s Ten-Year Road Trip. The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers was my favorite book in my June reading list. Let’s now take a peak at the books.
The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers
The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz is a book that’s been on my radar but I haven’t read it for whatever reason. What a mistake. This book is great. Horowitz is a cofounder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and an experienced entrepreneur, who offers readers fundamental advice on building a startup. Anything you want to know about building a business is in this book. I appreciate Horowitz’s honesty about how difficult it is to run a business. This book gives it to you straight whether it’s how to fire friends, hire executives, or when to sell your business.
Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger
Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger by Charlie Munger covers eleven of his talks between 1986 and 20207. Quotes like “Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up” show up throughout the book. One of the many fascinating aspects of this book is Munger’s near “encyclopedic knowledge of business, finance, history, philosophy, physics, and ethics” which he uses to build “the latticework of mental models that underpin his rational and rigorous approach to life, learning, and decision-making.” I appreciate Mungers’ wit and no BS style and writing that he uses in his talks for this book.
How to Stop Losing Your Sh*t with Your Kids: A Practical Guide to Becoming a Calmer, Happier Parent
How to Stop Losing Your Sh*t with Your Kids: A Practical Guide to Becoming a Calmer, Happier Parent by Carla Naumburg is another book I enjoyed on my journey to becoming a better parent. Naumburg draws “on evidence-based practices” to deliver an “insight-packed and tip-filled plan for how to stop the parental meltdowns.” The book offers a “pragmatic approach” that helped me feel more empowered to be a role model for my son.
The Vagabonds: The Story of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison’s Ten-Year Road Trip
The Vagabonds: The Story of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison’s Ten-Year Road Trip by Jeff Guinn chronicles the founder of Ford Motor Company’s Henry Ford, naturalist John Burroughs, legendary inventor Thomas Edison, and tire manufacturer Harvey Firestone’s annual car trips. Following their Florida Everglades trip, the group “decided to call themselves the Vagabonds.” These summer road trips continued until 1925 when they decided to call it quits. The purpose of these trips was “to examine the conditions of America’s roadways and improve the practicality of automobile travel.”
