Doors to Anywhere

116. Requiem for the American Dream - Noam Chomsky

115. Monopoly by Rod Kennedy & Tim Waltzer

I really enjoyed reading through this book. It reminded me of the old books I would read when I was a kid. A book on a specific topic with information and pictures.

The first half of this book I enjoyed a lot because it was about the history of the Monopoly game, itself.

114. The Simple Path to Wealth - JL Collins

JL Collins is a Bogle-ite investor and author who shares his investing tips/letters to his daughter with readers.

It is becoming more and more clear to me. Invest in index funds and your chances of becoming wealthy over time skyrocket.

I have been pondering why anyone does anything different, and it seems that there is almost a cultish devotion to believing and hoping they are the ones or working with the advisors that found the secret sauce. However, as Collins writes, if someone truly had the secret sauce...they would be as famous as Warren Buffet and just as rich (or richer - Buffet began investing at a very young age and therefore had a huge advantage).

Remember - Only 6% of "experts" beat the market (aka the Index).

113. Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell

I started this book a few years ago and never finished. I re-listened to the entire thing and I must say it is up there in my favorites now.

I always thought we care way too much about about the fame and success of those who rose to the top in their respective fields, but we don't enough times ask how, why, and what.

How did they learn to work the way they did? Why did they get the opportunities they did? And what cultural and environmental circumstances allowed them to become who they were?

- The Beatles got lucky enough to play in Hamburg and train constantly

- Bill Gates had had one of the luckiest breaks of all time living walking distance to a computer terminal he could access 24/7

- The "Chinese are good at math" stereotype is true, but not for the reason you think - cultures with wet rice agriculture tend to work harder and longer on problems than western cultures do. Additionally, their language helps children understand math more easily (3/5 becomes "5 take 2 Parts) at a younger age.

I would give Outliers a 10/10, and I don't even rate books.

112. The Little Book of Common Sense Investing - John C. Bogle

So far one of the best business Books I have ever read. The creator of index funds, John C. Bogle, was of course bias in writing this book. For someone who was wealthy and the former CFO of Vanguard, I did not expect him to be as honest, reflective, and scientific as he was in this book.

Bogle created a product that he both believed in and is mathematically the most sensible and reliable investment. By investing in every stock on an index, you almost cannot lose over time. Index funds are safe and low-moderate risk, but may have lower fees and offer safer long term returns.

111. The Essential Bukowski: Poetry - Charles Bukowski

I am newly obsessed with Bukowski. His raw bitterness and his feverishly masculine writing tone is a hard kick in the butt.

He can turn you on your side, chew you up, and spit you out like a piece of bubblegum.

Poems that spoke to me most clearly were...

- The Loser: A boxer who loses a fight and begins to write poetry, realizing the real fight has started.

- Bluebird: A man uses an allegory of a Bluebird being inside him, representing repressed emotions and sadness, that he does not want to let out.

- Do You Want to Enter the Arena?: Charles tells us if you aren't being urged so badly to start and complete something that it is not life or death to you, don't do it. And if it is, it will happen on its own.

- $$$$$: A worker finds money and keeps it. He is very happy and his coworkers are jealous, so he realizes to keep it to himself.

- I Met a Genius: A boy on the train says the Beach isn't pretty. The author says he never heard anyone say that before.

110 - I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream - Harlan Ellison

AM the supercomputer is often considered part of the Big Three of Fictional Evil, which often includes The Qu (All Tomorrows), Judge Holden (Blood Meridian), and AM itself.

This is a scary short story about five survivors of the Earth's apocalypse after AM destroyed everything. AM hates humanity for creating it, so in a god-like fashion, keeps five humans alive to torture them for eternity.

The torture isn't just painful, it is sadistic. AM warps the humans' minds and features...sending them on impossible quests wherein weeks at a time they will be starving and tortured - god-like winds pushing them through glass and rust.

109. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

A slight tear jerker at the end. At times, this famous novella is too childish for my taste...which is essentially the purpose - it is a children's book written for all ages.

*SPOILERS*

The end is heartbreaking. The Little Prince's physical body dies and his spirit goes back to the sky, with the possibility of returning. This is meant to symbolize how our inner child may die, but it is always out there somewhere.

108. The Age of Extraction - Tim Wu

In a world where big tech is becoming ever more scary, this book does not illustrate a hopeful outlook for society.

Tim Wu had previously written about how tech could grow so much it would make equality a natural evolution (almost how Adam Smith thought about the free market). However, after seeing increased monopolilization, Wu realized that big business seeks to continue extracting and extracting everything they can; data, money, and attention.

From Healthcare conglomerates to online marketplaces, those with more assets and wealth can ultimately assert themselves into a new technology, creating new barriers for entry and buying up competitors.

Amazon, as great of a service they provide, will continue to grow and grow and grow. They started as a book store, then became a third-party market, then became an entertainment company, and now...they are even getting into Healthcare. Extract. Extract. Extract.

107. All Tomorrows - C.M. Kösemen

A speculative, science-fiction body horror from Kösemen that has gained an immense amount of popularity, in part due to the main antagonists of the the story, the alien species, the Qu.

*SPOILERS*

After mankind tries to reach its full potential, the jealous and god-like alien race, the Qu, disfigure the entire human race into myriad, experimental creatures, as to rewrite rhe universe in their own image.

They even make a species of human-cells who are destined for eternity to serve as floormats and waste disposal. All of this was done out of jealously.

After hundreds of millions of years, the ancestors of the human race, along with another species from a neighboring galaxy, are able to defeat the Qu.

But ultimately...everything comes to an end and in a billion years, humans are fully extinct.

I really enjoyed this book enough to read it in one day. It was unique, interesting, and a scary way to tell readers no matter how advanced we get...it cannot last forever...or can it?

106. Dumbing Us Down - John Taylor Gatto

JTG was a teacher of the year recipient and someone who was also very critical of the American education system.

Our system, which was based on the Prussian system, was designed, according to Gatto, to turn students into pavlovian workers. A bell chimes, we go to lunch, another bell chimes, we go back to work.

I think the book, and others have criticized it this way, is a bit reductionist. Schools changed from schoolhouses to districts so our country could compete with the changing workforce of the world- but we also value Maslow's hierarchy of needs, the needs of students, IEP's, 504's, the wellbeing of students, socialization, community service, school and town spirit, and choice of learning (electives).

105. It's Okay to Be Angry About Capitalism - Bernie Sanders

This is a great book about the problems with capitalism. In the United States, I think their is a cult of personality surrounding capitalism and any criticism of it is seen as heresy.

Bernie Sanders IS a market capitalist. He makes money of books and in any other country he'd be seen as a centrist politician. That's why this book is so powerful - Sanders discusses all of capitalisms pitfalls with pure objectivity, or so it feels.

- Our healthcare system is being destroyed by corporate greed.

- The ability to own property is being destroyed by corporate greed.

- This country is being held back by corporate greed and paid for politicians.

These are all objective truths. But to a true believer, these facts are heresy.

104. Erasing History - Jason Stanley

Erasing History is about how fascists use various tactics to rewrite History the way they want to.

Ultimately it starts and ends with education. The first step to influencing a nation is to change the way we teach the youth.

The Tulsa Massacre, for example, was covered up for years due to deliberate cover-ups and record erasure. Likewise, the victors write history.

It's easy to say that Thomas Jefferson was this Dietized figure who wrote these amazing works but it is often omitted that he was a brutal SA'er in addition to a PDF file.

These are small examples, and its been a month or so since I finished this book - the message is a powerful reminder of how we ourselves may have been or can be bamboozled throughout history.

103. The Lorax - Dr. Seuss

The last time I did this challenge, I did not allow children's books. This time, I am allowing Children's Books if they were banned AND had significant cultural impact.

The Lorax was banned for its alleged anti-logging themes and also was discussed for banning for its apparent anti-capitalist and environmentalist themes.

In my opinion, this book isn't anti-capitalist. Dr. Seuss was nearly a hundred-thousandaire while he was alive. This book is pro-ethical business...had The Once-ler planted a tree for everyone he cut down, there wouldn't be a book (Truffula Trees are a renewable resource).

102. War is a Racket - Smedley Butler

This is my third listen to this audiobook. Butler was a WWI General and assisted in the US campaigns in Central America and Haiti. While he was in Haiti, he helped reinstate the practice of corvée, which is a forced labor system (which is a nice way to say slavery).

After his military service, Butler deeply regretted what he had done and believed his service was not to the American people, but to large corporations. Some interesting things you might discover in this book...

- WWI Soldiers often made $0 after sending money home, paying for accident insurance, and buying Liberty Bonds, which paid for their munitions.

- Woodrow Wilson ran on a campaign of not getting into war (which seems familiar) and then 5 months later, went to war after European powers met with him saying they couldn't pay back their debts to the United States if they lost.

- Many large corporations with US Military contracts sold items in such a surplus they either couldn't be used or manufactured them in a way that only they could make the parts to fix them (thus, needing another contract). Many war supplies (like mosquito nets going to France) went to waste for there was no need for them other than to bolster the war economy.

101. The War of Art - Steven Pressfield

I am back again. I want to read more, deleted my Instagram, and am trying to ween off scrolling, generally. I started this book last year and wanted to finish it since I was almost completed anyway.

The War of Art was a suggestion I heard Ryan Holiday give in an interview, saying he gave it as a gift to friends. The first half was quite interesting - suggesting a tangible war the self puts on artistic potential.

However, the more Pressfield wrote about God and Greek Godesses and Muses...the less interested I became. I felt like I wasn't reading a straight-forward, no-nonsense take on achieving goals anymore, but rather listening to a sermonic diary.

100 Books in a Year

In 2024 I started and finished 100 books. I read and listened to, in their entirety 100 books. I actually read a little over 100 in six months, but the primary books that comprise this challenge also includes one or two books I started at the beginning of 2024. Ultimately, 99% of this challenge was completed from May 2024 to October 2024.

Why did I do it?

I was inspired by my friend Nick (@nomadicnarratives on Instagram) who is doing this challenge as well and got me into it and by Lex Friedman, who posted on LinkedIn that his goal was to read 100 books in 2024. I wanted to challenge myself, grow, and learn as much as I could.

How did I do it?

By listening to audiobooks at the gym, while I played video games, and while I was driving. I also read physical books whenever I had spare time. This challenge consists of audiobooks, books, essays, poetry, a book from the Bible, ebooks and more. It was a lot of stress, time, and hard work, but I'm glad I finally did it. I say "finally" because i wanted to this a year or so ago, as well.

What did I learn?

What I learned during this challenge wouldn't be comprehensible and complete if I were to put it in a short paragraph. I urge you, if you'd like to know, to read through my posts and see what I've learned from each book. I can say, I learned how to be a stronger, wiser, and healthier person. I learned that there is more suffering in this world than you can possibly imagine, and that human beings are oddly strong enough to withstand anything that comes there way. I learned to be grateful, but also to take matters into my own hands when a situation isn't good. I learned that humans are a polarity of good and evil, not one or the other, and we need to constantly fight the bad to be truly good, if that's even possible.

This challenge was essential to my growth as a person and a man. It was imperative to my story, all these stories I've read. As some Stoics used to believe, when you read a book you bear a man's soul, you listen to his entire being, and you live his life...I have lived over one hundred in 2024.