You can be forgiven when reading Billion Dollar Loser for wondering whether you’re reading a book about a company or a cult. By the end I concluded maybe it was both, at least as far as Adam Neumann was concerned. It tells the story of the rise and fall of We Work but more directly Neumann himself. One thing you can’t fault him of is self-belief but several times whilst reading this I found myself laughing and saying aloud (keep in mind I listened to most of this whilst out running!) ‘This guy was absolutely nuts?!’

I suspect there’s a lot of people who know little about Salesforce as a company yet consume services either directly or from companies that leverage the Salesforce platform daily. I work in the IT & Tech industry so am familiar with Salesforce but wasn’t necessarily aware of its full background, founding and how it grew to the behemoth it is today.

There are some autobiographies that I feel everyone should read and Malcolm X’s autobiography sits firmly in that category. I struggle to see a world where all races will ever live in perfect harmony therefore this sits as required reading for me in understanding one of the key figures in race relations from the not so distant past.

I suspect quite a few people will skip over this book due to their feelings about Elon Musk and his political leanings and increasing outspoken nature in American and UK politics in recent years. It’s a shame because it’s a very good read and an incredible insight into many details of Musk’s business pursuits over the years covering the good, bad and the ugly. Regardless of your feeling about him it’s difficult to with a straight face provide an objective assessment that doesn’t acknowledge the incredible business accolades and success he’s achieved.

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay is a book I’ve heard of numerous times but never got round to reading. However, when I found it available as part of my Audible subscription, I thought I’d take the opportunity to listen. The book is actually a combination of Popular Delusions and Confusion de Confusiones (translates to Confusion of Confusions) Both make a natural pair due to the similar themes of the book and combined are just shy of 8 hours so around the mid length range depending on what you’re used to.

Brilliance comes in many forms and is often subjective. For many comedy lovers though Richard Pryor laid claim to that accolade within the comedian profession. I suspect he’s not listened to as much now as he was even a decade or two ago let alone in his hay day but that doesn’t take away from comedic genius.

I couldn’t help but think when listening to Brief Answers to Big Questions by Stephen Hawking that we’re doing ourselves as a society a disservice by failing to inspire more young children to pursue careers in the sciences. The evening before reading this I sat at home explaining to my stepdaughter the basics of the big bang, the ongoing expansion of the universe and the theoretical concept of time travel through wormholes. The conversation kept her far more engaged than I’ve seen any of her school studies do.

I must confess I was left quite torn by the end of Bullshit Jobs: A Theory by David Graeber. It starts with Graeber’s article of the same name and by the end I couldn’t help but feel that a series of articles to accompany the main could have satisfactorily made the point to sufficient detail. In the end it felt like he laboured a bit too much on length and repetition. As a result, the latter part of the book somewhat meanders towards a bit of a struggled end.

As I See It was one of the increasing number of autobiographies I came across through the Founders podcast. I’m always interested to learn more about successful figures both past and present and must admit that I knew little about J. Paul Getty until the podcast introduced me to him.

I’ve read a number of books on monetary history however Debt: The First 5,000 Years went in a slightly different direction to what I had originally expected. I purchased the book based on the title without even checking the synopsis and was expecting it to be a history on monetary debt and the consequences when debt levels get out of control. What I found when I started listening though was pleasantly surprising as it took a different lens to the topic of debt, credit and money to books I’d previously read.

At 13hrs 32 mins in audiobook form or 448 pages in physical this is a substantial commitment. Is it worth it? It really depends on how deep your interest lies in not just Apple but supply chain dynamics affecting US companies leveraging Chinese manufacturing. There are many books written on the rise of Apple both as a company and more directly focused on Steve Jobs. This isn’t one of those, instead this focuses more on the Tim Cook era and the shift towards the company leaning more heavily on Chinese supply chains to drive down the cost of production.

For anyone unfamiliar with Ross Edgley, bluntly putting it; he’s a beast! He has several books out now which in my opinion are all worth a read however Blueprint was the latest one that I’ve listened to. Ross is both as student of the body as well as a practitioner in pushing it to it’s limits.

Nick and Zak’s Adventures in Capitalism could be considered a memoir in discipline, conviction, patience and complete comfort with inactivity. The last part may require qualifying unless you have any existing familiarity with Nick, Zak or Nomad and their investing approach. As successful investors Nick and Zak excel in a trait that is almost counter to most people’s human nature, which is their completely comfortable in ‘doing nothing’ in the sense that if their investment thesis is working, they’ll continue as is without the need to interfere with the beauty of compounding just for the sake of ‘doing something’.

This will probably be one of the rare instances where I review and recommend a book and podcast in the same post however given the nature of Richer, Wiser, Happier by William Green and the accompanying podcast it makes sense to combine into one.

As with most books I listened to this as an audiobook however the physical book comes in at around 550 pages so it’s quite a hefty read. If you’ve picked the book up based on the title then my assumption is that you have some interest in the topic of global economic policies and sanctions. That being said it’s not necessarily a given as I often pick up new titles just to explore new ideas and understand different disciplines.