Book Notes, Summaries, and Reviews

After seeing Nat Eliason’s Page, I loved how he kept all his book reviews, notes, and summaries public.

Not only does this help you guys find good books, or stay away from the bad books (in my opinion), but also if you don’t want to read an entire book I include my major takeaways from every book I read; my notes.

I NEVER give a book a rating of 7/10 because a 7/10 book you may or may not read. A 6/10 or below book I wouldn’t read. An 8+/10 book I would read. Don’t be wishy-washy (even that word sucks), “HELL YEAH!” or “no.”

• How to Influence Anyone – The Psychology of Persuasion
  How do you convince someone to listen to you? Offer you a job? Buy your product? To most people, including myself, getting better at even one of these things would greatly benefit not only my career but also my personal life. In Robert Cialdini’s book, Influence, time-tested (and academic research-tested) […]
• The Prince
  Rating: 8/10 A frequent contender in “X books to read in a lifetime,” should you read The Prince by Machiavelli? Will you be fighting any wars, controlling any colonies, or governing any people? Probably not. Is this book useful at all then? I think so and here’s why. The Review1. […]
• Essentialism
  Rating: 6/10 How do you eliminate non-essential and focus on the essential? Greg McKeown argues essentialism will improve your life. I agree. My issue with the book, however, is that these topics seem to have been discussed in detail in many other places with no new insight (I ran into […]
• Man’s Search for Meaning
  Rating: 9/10 What is the meaning of life? Man’s Search for Meaning provides a very good answer to that question. Victor Frankl’s masterpiece describes how he survived Auschwitz, a one in twenty-eight chance, through mindset as opposed to physical ability. One particular story stood out to me: In the depths […]
• Can’t Hurt Me
  Rating: 9/10 David Goggins is a badass. It makes me want to be a badass. It makes me want to keep saying “badass.” In Can’t Hurt Me we learn that we all can be badass because how far we go is not based on how physically strong we are, but […]
• How to Stop Worrying and Start Living
  Rating: 8/10 Applied consistently these lessons will reduce stress and improve life. Throughout How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, by Dale Carnegie, I realized that I use many of these methods to de-stress and focus, my favorite lesson from the whole book was actually the first one: Live in […]
• Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuk
  Rating: 5/10 Can you crush it? Will you hustle and drive and turn $75 dollars of Hot Wheels cars to $1000? Gary Vaynerchuk’s claims to guide us to success on the internet. Unfortunately, however, Crush It is a biography that doesn’t age well. It is more of a motivational pamphlet […]
• Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
  Rating: 8/10 Nike is an “Oregon firm founded by running geeks.” Shoe Dog is how this group of geeks, specifically Phil Knight, built Nike from a basement. Shoe Dog is not about good times. It’s about the bad times and how one man got out of them. The amazing belief […]
• What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20 by Tina Seelig
  Rating: 8/10 I wanted to give this book a 6/10, but Tina’s tactical use of stories on crafting and executing ideas makes What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20 worth the read. Initially, I cringed at the idea of a book on “entrepreneurship,” but, really, I just cringe […]
• The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy
  Rating: 6/10 Would you rather get $3 million instantly or a penny that doubles in value every day for 31 days? It seems unlikely, but by the end of those 31 days, that penny will be worth $10,737,418.24. The Compound Effect, by Darren Hardy, argues that difficult daily disciplines, compounded […]
• It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be by Paul Arden
  Rating: 5/10 A pretty book that doesn’t deliver. That’s all there can be said about It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be, by Paul Arden. It has nice ideas, but is too short. I want to learn how he came to these conclusions, why […]
• Being Mortal by Atul Gawande
  Rating: 8/10 The best doctors are constantly learning, constantly improving, constantly finding the errors in their ways. Atul Gawande, in Being Mortal, describes his personal journey through dealing with death and suffering. This is a heavy topic, but Dr. Gawande argues, it must be talked about. Doctors, healthcare providers, have […]
• Atomic Habits by James Clear
  Rating: 9/10 If you do small changes, daily, you can have life-changing results. This is what Atomic Habits promises. What Did I Learn?How To Create a Good HabitHabits I Want to AddHow To Break A Bad HabitHabits I Want to BreakOther ThingsQuotes I Liked What Did I Learn? How To […]
• Zero to One by Peter Thiel (10/10)
  Create something new, don’t go from 1 to 2, or 895 to 896, go from 0 to 1.
• The Third Door by Alex Banayan
  Rating: 9/10 An 18-year old was told to be a doctor by his parents. He didn’t want to. He left college and went on to interview Bill Gates, Lady Gaga, and Larry King to learn why people are successful. The Third Door, by Alex Banayan, reads more like an action […]
• You are a Badass
  Rating: 5/10 I was led astray by the amazon reviews of You are a Badass, by Jen Sincero. Jen begins the book by complaining about the self-help world. She says most self-help books are crap. She says they really don’t provide any real advice, that, these books, just blow smoke […]
• ReWork
  Rating: 6/10 I read, ReWork, by Jason Fried, in one day. No, it was not that good, it was just short. Really short. It took me 75 minutes to read. The principles are sound: Eliminate the unnecessary Know why you are working on what you are working on Be simple […]
• Anything You Want by Derek Sivers (10/10)
  Rating: 10/10 From a struggling musician to selling a $22,000,000 company. Derek Sivers, of CD Baby, had that meteoric rise many dream of. More importantly, however, he kept his head straight. He says there are really only two important things to think about when creating something: Do you enjoy doing […]
• Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon (10/10)
  Rating: 10/10 What are you learning? What do you want to learn about? Learn those things. Then share what you learn. Consistently. Austin Kleon advises you to show your work. I loved this book. This was the book that inspired me to start this website and the YouTube channel. I […]
• Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh
  Rating: 8/10 What’s more important: company culture or company profits? The founder of Zappos says, culture, by a wide margin. Tony Hsieh, the founder of Zappos, seems to always be excelling. He started a profitable button-making business in middle school. A profitable Pizza joint while studying at Harvard, and, at […]
• The Dip by Seth Godin
  Rating: 3/10 “Winners Never Quit, Quitters Never Win.” – NOPE, says Seth Godin. The Dip, Seth Godin says, is the extra mile part, the extra grind, the extra work it takes to succeed. When everyone else is quitting if you push that extra mile you can succeed. The problem with […]
• Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon
  Rating: 8/10 Is it ok to steal someone’s ideas? Someone’s art? Yes (as long as you do it right). This is the main question answered in the short book “Steal Like an Artist.” As a new YouTuber, and blogger, I certainly draw my inspiration from others. At certain times I […]