Favorite Books of 2023

Previously: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022

In 2023, I read 100 books, much fewer than in previous years. This is partly due to the fact that we are in a golden age of podcasting, and partly due to the fact that I’m still in the middle of reading some extremely long books. You can view my 2023 reading list on Goodreads. Each year, I blog about my favorite books, an idea I got from the incomparable Aaron Swartz.

Without further ado, here are my...

Top 10 Favorite Books Read in 2023

1) The Founders by Jimmy Soni. This book tells the history of the legendary PayPal mafia. I hung on every word. It’s astonishing that so many of Silicon Valley’s most legendary talent - from Peter Thiel to Elon Musk to David Sacks - were all working together at the same time. The lessons those founders learned would go on to shape the future of the tech industry.

2) The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker. I finally read this book after hearing it mentioned so many times in Annie Hall. While the book contains a lot of outdated psychobabble from the likes of Freud and Adler, the core thesis is strong: man's driving motive is his fear of death. According to the author, this fear can be dealt with in two primary ways:

1) People take on “Immortality Projects.” They attempt to write a great symphony, launch a rocket, cure a disease, break a record, or donate a building with their name on it. Others devote their lives to a nation, religion, or cause that will live on after they die. Even having children fits under this “Immortality Project” bracket. If something lives on after your death, then your life was not meaningless.

2) For people who don't find an immortality project, the author believes there are two paths:

A) Hedonism. Some people chase pleasure to distract themselves from not having worked hard at an Immortality Project.

B) Frivolous busyness. Some people devote themselves to working hard, simply to distract themselves.

The author’s goal seems to be to broaden the field of psychology to include "fear of death" as a major driver in people's lives.

3) Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins. I really enjoyed this book by one of the toughest Navy Seals of all time. Goggins’ words pulsate with motivation. Born into poverty, and with a congenital hole in his heart, David Goggins grew up facing a daunting amount of injustice and bad luck. He washed out of BUDS and Delta Force twice each, but he just kept picking himself back up and working harder. One reads this book and wants to go conquer empires.

4) Atomic Habits by James Clear. This is one of the best productivity books I’ve come across. I read it twice this year because there are so many excellent ideas to absorb. I will probably read it again for motivation in 2024.

5) The Painted Word by Tom Wolfe. In 1974, Tom Wolfe realized that each piece of Post-Modern art is really about pushing an edgy concept, and not about the quality of the artwork itself. The art exists to serve the verbal idea. He goes on to describe the path in which artists find success in the past century: (1) look and act counter-cultural and bohemian (2) move to the big city where it's all happening (3) find something new and even more abstract to do in art (4) profess to hate the wealthy bourgeois elites (5) desperately hope to get noticed by them (6) cash in, all while despising them and being anti-elite. When Wolfe relates the history of the art world from the 1930s to the 1970s, it's sad how nothing has changed in this dynamic. Who truly likes Post Modern art? What happened to art that could be appreciated without a pseudo-intellectual explanation? Wolfe presents the New York critics as the kingmakers, and claims that the artists now follow what the critics tell them - instead of the other way around. I believe that history will look back on Pop Art and see that the emperor has no clothes.

6) The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku. This is the incredible autobiography of a holocaust survivor. Eddie escaped Nazi captivity several times during the Holocaust - fleeing a German cattle car and even running away from the 1945 death march. Along his journey, he was betrayal by Belgians, Poles, French people, and his own German neighbors. This really brings home the fact that it takes a whole continent of complicit people to pull off a genocide. Eddie dealt with so much injustice and suffering and yet somehow managed to survive and find happiness.

7) The Sense of Style by Steven Pinker. This is certainly the most fun book I’ve ever read about grammar. One of this book’s recurring themes is exposing how many of the so-called grammar rules we were all taught growing up are actually fallacious. For instance, the proscription against ending a sentence with a preposition, or not splitting infinitives, are both examples of over-applying Latin rules to our Germanic sentence structures.

8) Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA by Tim Weiner. I always assumed the CIA to be more competent than their public record suggests. My reasoning was that the public only hears about the CIA’s failures (like anticipating 9/11), but never hears about the 9/11s the CIA prevents. This book, however, stamped out my optimism…

Armed with interviews and reams of declassified documents, the author’s contention is that the CIA has bungled nearly every job it has ever been tasked with. The CIA believed that the Soviets would never develop the A-Bomb, then failed to find out when the Soviets did build the A-Bomb, and then vastly overestimated how many atom bombs the Soviets eventually produced. The CIA had essentially zero insight into the Soviet Union for 40 years, while the Soviets successfully gained massive and unfettered access to the CIA. The CIA completely missed the Chinese invasion of Korea - one of the most impactful intelligence errors of the last century. The CIA bungled coups, bought elections, or tried to depose democratically-elected presidents in Italy, Chile, Guatemala, Chad, Cuba, Panama, Iran, Vietnam, and Indonesia, to name but a few. Along the way, CIA chiefs lied to congress and to sitting US Presidents in order to hide their mistakes and advance their own foreign policy agendas. The CIA abandoned America’s Hmong allies in Laos, and started the Vietnam war by telling President Johnson that it was the Vietnamese who shot first. The author paints a portrait of reckless incompetence, government waste, alcoholism, and illegal spying on Americans. Due to its clandestine nature, the CIA receives very little oversight, and thus rarely has to acknowledge its mistakes until decades after the fact.

9) The Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt. An empathetic and devastating critique of how a well-meaning Generation X has raised an often overly sensitive Generation Z. The authors do an excellent job of explaining the apparent insanity that often occurs on college campuses. They compare the campus environment to the Chinese cultural revolution and other witch hunts in history; these movements spring up suddenly, are fueled by the youth, take massive insult from trivialities, demand ideological purity, and create an environment where everyone is afraid to speak up. I found this to be a very convincing book, grounded in research and cogently explained. While nearly every Gen Z person I know in real life does not fit the stereotype presented in the media, this book does address the alarming news-grabbing events that have rocked campuses for the past decade.

10) And Every Morning The Way Home Gets Longer And Longer by Fredrik Backman. This novella, by the Swedish author of A Man Called Ove, is about a grandfather with Alzheimer’s saying goodbye to his family. The writing is gorgeous, evocative, poetic, and daring. Much of the novella takes place inside the grandfather’s mind as he loses track of his memories. This is the height of good fiction; it is original, tender, funny, tragic, and explores universal human truths. It is very sad to say goodbye to someone who is still there.

Favorite Books of 2022

Previously: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021

In 2022, I again read 101 books, much fewer than in previous years. This is partially due to my growing podcast addiction, and partially due to the fact that I’m writing this a month early - on November 22 - because I will be out of town for the rest of the year. You can view my 2022 reading list on Goodreads. Each year, I blog about my favorite books, an idea I got from the incomparable Aaron Swartz.

So, without further ado, here are my...

Top 10 Favorite Books Read in 2022

1) Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk. A tour de force of creativity. This book is overflowing with iconic lines, witty aphorisms, and sensational dialog. We need more writers like Palahniuk.

2) A Promised Land by Barack Obama. A thoroughly enjoyable look into Obama’s first term. He inherited the Great Financial Crisis and a whole host of culture wars. Throughout the book, Obama comes across as every bit as smart, reasonable, and decent as his reputation.

3) Red Roulette by Desmond Shum. Riveting from start to finish, this terrifying tell-all is all about the inner workings of the CCP, and a fascinating true-life story to boot.

4) Empires of the Sea by Roger Crowley. Wonderful. The story of how the Ottomans commanded the Mediterranean with the dreaded Barbarosa brothers is nothing short of epic. Next, Crowley tells the story of the Knights of St. John holding off the Ottoman fleet at the siege of Malta. Finally, Crowley finishes with the tale of how the Holy League beat the Ottomans at Lepanto in October of 1571, changing the course of history. Crowley, as usual, is in top form.

5) The Storyteller by Dave Grohl. Incredibly readable. Dave Grohl comes across as the positive and grateful person he seems to be in interviews. It is no wonder that everybody in the music industry wants to work with him.

6) Will by Will Smith. I was unable to put this book down. This fascinating book is packed with life lessons. I was riveted throughout.

7) New Teeth by Simon Rich. Simon Rich is a comedic genius. So many of his stories are just 100 percent perfect.

8) Tracy Flick Can't Win by Tom Perrotta. Perhaps the ending was a little deus ex machina for Tracy Flick, but I really enjoyed everything else about this book. I find small-town high school politics to be comforting, nostalgic, and poignantly funny. Perrotta has a gift for tracking myriad characters, each with their own distinct and believable voice. I also read Election and The Leftovers this year and, so far, this book is my favorite by Perrotta.

9) Cicero by Anthony Everitt. I have read a lot of Cicero’s writing, without reading his actual biography so this book was a very enjoyable way to learn more about the Roman statesman. My opinion of Cicero himself remains unchanged. On the one hand, he was somewhat self-made, a great orator, a wit, a productive writer, and a consul, who always managed to find himself at the center of world events. On the other hand, Cicero was vain; he was a gossip; he was egotistical; he was a complainer; and he sold out his ideals when it mattered most by turning his back on the Republic in order to flout Anthony. It is easier to admire the high-minded and unwavering principles of a Cato than a weather vane like Cicero. Cicero often reminds me of a politician who only makes decisions by taking opinion polls and hiring focus groups, rather than leading from a concrete set of values. In the end, I think Cicero’s choices reveal that his primary motive was always his own vanity and status rather than the glory of Rome or the longevity of the republic.

10) The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. Follett brings medieval England to life with vividness and vitality. Each character and each line of dialog is utterly believable, which is rare for historical fiction. Half my life is spent daydreaming about living in other time periods so this book is a welcome opportunity to time travel.

Favorite Books of 2021

Previously: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020

This year I only read 101 books, 39 fewer than last year. I blame this drop on my growing podcast addiction, as well as the fact that I read some extremely long and dry books these past few months. You can view my 2021 book list on Goodreads. Each year, I blog about my favorite books, an idea I got from the incomparable Aaron Swartz.

This year my favorite books were, once again, overwhelmingly non-fiction (mostly business, economics, and history). So, without further ado, here are my...

Top 10 Favorite Books Read in 2021

1) Who is Michael Ovitz? by Michael Ovitz. This an absolutely riveting book, by a master strategist, details CAA’s rise to power and dominance from the 1970s – 1990s. CAA deliberately built the perception that if any studio didn't do exactly what it wanted, there would be terrible consequences - CAA would withhold their talent and their best packages. Ovitz taught his agents to reach for the club several times a day but to never use it, because "power is only power until you exert it."

Ovitz openly talks about learning how to charge packaging fees when he worked at the William Morris Agency in the 70’s. When he jumped ship to start CAA, he offered six percent commissions to undercut WMA because he knew that the back-end he would earn on packaging fees was worth far more than anything he could earn charging 10 percent from a client. WMA threatened to sue Ovitz out of existence for undercutting him so Ovitz threatened to sic the justice department onto WMA with an anti-trust investigation on packaging fees. This part of the book was especially delicious to read in light of the recent WGA Agency Campaign, when agencies claimed that packaging fees were both insubstantial and not an antitrust violation.

The ways in which Ovitz created the modern talent agency are almost too numerous to count. He created the idea of representing people in teams, as is now widespread in the industry. He streamlined the way agents are promoted (formerly, people didn't become full agents until well into their 40s). He had the novel idea to not have clients sign an annual contract because that would give a client a reason to think, "what have they done for me lately?" He created the current agency aesthetic of designing an impressive office and hanging expensive postmodern art collections in the lobbies. He even had the idea of giving elaborate holiday gifts – now standard industry practice.

At the apex of his power, Michael Ovitz had the ability to turn his martial arts instructor, Steven Seagal, into a movie star, and to turn his favorite local chef, Wolfgang Puck, into the biggest celebrity chef in the world. He obsessively studied Japanese culture in order to broker the sale of Columbia to Sony. He helped reinvent Coca Cola’s image in the 1990s by convincing the soft drink giant to ditch their traditional ad agency and go with CAA. 

All told, a remarkable book. Say what you will about Michael Ovitz, he was a brilliant strategist and innovator who utterly transformed the agency business.

2) How Innovation Works by Matt Ridley. I always enjoy his books – he is an iconoclast but with an utterly reasonable and fact-based approach. He presents wonderful illustrations of how anti-science political groups stifle innovation, how patent law stifles innovation, and how regulation stifles innovation while supporting incumbents. He also makes a convincing case for how parallel ideas seem to have appeared for just about every major invention of the past century, suggesting that innovative ideas may almost be the inevitable product of their times.

3) Cannery Row by John Steinbeck. I read this book after a trip to Cannery Row in Monterrey. As a lover of a well-crafted plot, I shouldn't love a book that is little more than a series of character sketches, yet I was completely engaged throughout. I love books that are so vividly descriptive that they give one the sensation of time-traveling. I did notice that Steinbeck used the phrase "barking monotonously" twice in the book, which is a point against his editor!

4) Lords of Finance by Liaquat Ahamed. I never fully connected all of the dots between the disastrous actions of the world's central bankers after WWI, the 1929 crash, the depths of the great depression across the world, and the rise of the dictatorships that precipitated WWII. All of these events can be laid at the feet of central bankers and their adherence to the gold standard. For all those who believe that banking is somehow a dull profession, just remember that monetary policy pretty much runs the world and determines history.

5) Something Like an Autobiography by Akira Kurosawa. I tremendously enjoyed reading about the great director’s childhood - born into the samurai class - and his heart-rending description of war-torn Tokyo. Kurosawa claims that much of Japan was on the brink of committing mass suicide after the Japanese defeat in WWII, until the emperor got on the radio to call it off. I did not find this book to be at all useful toward screenwriting or directing, but I absolutely loved the vivid historical portrait of pre-industrial Tokyo.

6) Liftoff by Eric Berger. This book chronicles the unbelievably inspiring story of SpaceX, succeeding against all odds at reinventing the space industry. At the point in the book when SpaceX crashed its third rocket in 2008, and was facing bankruptcy, I was on the edge of my seat. When their fourth rocket finally worked, I had tears in my eyes. This book will make for an amazing movie.

7) Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell. This book is staggeringly long but wonderfully comprehensive and full of common sense. Like all denizens of the Chicago school of economics, Sowell derives his conclusions from history and data, rather than hunting only for evidence that supports his preconceived notions.

I also read his book, Wealth, Poverty, and Politics this year, which is so well-researched and well-reasoned. He's just an absolute delight to read.

8) Flow by Mihaly Csikszentimihalyi. I spent the past five years reading and savoring this book. It presents a comprehensive philosophy of life. The thesis is that happiness does not equal pleasure; it equals enjoyment. Enjoyment is being engrossed in challenging, purpose-driven activities that create a flow-state. Namely, autotelic activities that become increasingly challenging as we improve: music, sports, arts, vocations, or even ever-evolving relationships. This book was extremely well-reasoned and one of few books of philosophy that I have found to be genuinely useful and applicable to everyday life.

9) Civilization by Niall Ferguson. Ferguson picks up where Jared Diamond left off with Guns, Germs, and Steel, by offering a theory of why modern civilization arose in Western Europe rather than elsewhere on the Eurasian continent or elsewhere on earth. He offers six explanations: British property rights, the scientific enlightenment in the UK, modern medicine, British consumerism, the Protestant Work Ethic, and competition between European states. This year, I also read Ferguson’s books Empire and Doom, which are similarly thoughtful and chock full of ideas.

10) Human Kind by Rutger Bregman. Bregman convincingly presents the thesis that humankind is far nicer than we have been led to believe. The Stanford Prison Experiment that we all learned about in college has been proven to be a fraud. Philip Zimbardo, who built a wildly successful career off of the famous experiment, rigged the entire thing. Similarly, the famous Milgrim Experiment, where participants were asked to electrocute a stranger, has also been largely debunked because fully 55% of the participants knew the experiment was not real. The Kitty Genovese story we were all taught in Psych 101 was completely misreported and misrepresented at the time. In fact, it was Kitty’s concerned neighbors who eventually caught her killer. In short, this book presents myriad examples of how evolution has designed humans to be cooperative and kind. A very uplifting message, indeed.

Favorite Books of 2020

Previously: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019

This year I read 140 books, edging out my personal record of 135. Thank you, pandemic! You can view my 2020 book list on Goodreads. Each year I blog about my favorite books, an idea I got from the incomparable Aaron Swartz.

This year my favorite books were overwhelmingly non-fiction. At least 20 of the books I read this year were fantastic, but that would make for too long a blog post. So, without further ado, here are my...

Top 10 Favorite Books Read in 2020

1) Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. This book has lived on my nightstand for five years and I finally finished it off in 2020. It's every poem Whitman ever wrote, and, frankly, he could have edited out half of them and still been in good shape. A few of the poems are, of course, ground-breaking and transcendent. A few are outstanding, but many others are just catalogues of things he sees: “O mighty train! O verdant pasture! O virtuous milkmaid! O toiling stevedore!” and so on. Still, Whitman truly loves America and part of the pleasure of reading this book was simply to time-travel to this bustling new post-civil war country full of promise, progress, and inspiration.

2) Rhetoric by Aristotle. This book is amazingly prescient and fun to read in an election year. Aristotle says that emotion can often change voters’ minds more than reason. He outlines the various emotions that politicians can appeal to in order to bend the public to their will. Politicians, for instance, should appeal to the young by promising them the world and exaggerating the importance of youth to society. Meanwhile, says Aristotle, politicians can appeal to older voters by playing to their cynicism and distrust, for instance, by promising to clear out corruption. Aristotle refers to the existence of professional speechwriters in Athens, which I didn’t realize popped into existence at the very moment of the birth of democracy. Nifty stuff.

3) The Snowball by Alice Schroeder. This massive tome covers pretty much every month of Warren Buffett's life. It presents tremendous insight into his business acumen and wealth-building, as well as incredibly specific details about his personal life. There are any number of brutally stressful financial situations he became involved with, from rescuing Salomon Brothers from fraud in the early 90s, to saving Coca Cola from severe mismanagement. Along the way, he attracted fascinating friends from Katherine Graham to Bill Gates and rubbed elbows with celebrities from Bono to Arnold Schwarzenegger. The book is a study in character and Buffett's incredible rationality, intellect, and homespun charm shine through on every page.

4) Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow. This is a fantastic gumshoe thriller that happens to be true. It’s incredibly cinematic. Farrow was followed by spies and goons as he tried to land the Harvey Weinstein story, even as he was fired by NBC for rocking the boat. Against all odds, Ronan triumphed and created a cultural-changing moment in our history. Just an astonishing and gripping tale.

5) Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau. A really enjoyable book. Thoreau refused to pay his taxes because he didn't support slavery or the Mexican-American war. His civil disobedience went on to inspire personages no less than Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

6) The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine. A wonderfully clear-headed and rational book. So fresh, it's as if it was written yesterday, rather than 250 years ago. Paine was a deist who didn't believe the Bible had a divine origin. He believed that all religious books were written by man. Paine pointed out the myriad logical inconsistencies in the bible, the evidence of multiple authorship, and the staggering amounts of genocide and otherwise deplorable behavior contained therein.

Paine also made an interesting case for Europe not interfering with the French Revolution or making attempts to restore the monarchy. It’s interesting that Paine maintained this stance even after he was imprisoned by the French mob.

I also read Paine’s Common Sense this year. It’s a book that helped to galvanize the American revolution, and contains some pretty in depth discussion of government and politics. I also read Paine’s Rights of Man and, to my surprise, did not enjoy it very much at all. Rights of Man has not aged well, given the horrors of the French Revolution, and it quickly becomes clear why Paine was so often banished, imprisoned, or generally reviled in his own time. His vitriol undermines his credibility. Rights of Man is, in my opinion, a tedious and somewhat wrong-headed attack on Edmund Burke's Reflections of the Revolution in France. It's sort of astonishing how Paine can be so right in The Crisis, and in Common Sense, and then so utterly wrong about the French Revolution. I’d like to think that once the French mob imprisoned Paine for a while, he began to see Burke’s point about the tyranny of the mob.

7) City of Fortune by Roger Crowley. A fascinating history of the rise and fall of the Venetian empire. It’s an incredible testimony to the power of democracy and capitalism, that a tiny island like Venice can ever have transformed itself into a global power. Venice conquering Istanbul in the fourth crusade is one of the more astonishing tales in history. Similarly, the story of Venice striking back against their Genovese besiegers in the Venice-Genoa Wars is one of the best lessons in Italian military history. I also read Conquerors by Roger Crowley this year and he vividly tells a similar story of unlikely conquest — how the Portuguese discovered trade routes with India and built a wealthy empire.

8) No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer. I would put this book up there with Drive and Seven Habits of Highly Effective People as among the best business books in the genre. Hastings takes a first principles approach to running a company and he uses logic and research to overturn many outdated assumptions. Netflix quickly fires any under-performing employees and does everything in its power to keep good employees. The Netflix culture preaches “Freedom and Responsibility;” employees choose their own vacation time, sign their own contracts without approvals, decide their own travel and meal expense policies, and are trained to give their fellow employees painfully honest feedback. Netflix doesn’t pay bonuses and provides convincing evidence of how bonuses – at least in certain industries – stifle innovation and experimentation. This is a fascinating book and a slap across the face to traditional corporate culture.

9) The Age of Napoleon by Will & Ariel Durant. An extremely detailed portrait of an era and an overwhelming condemnation of the French Revolution.

10) The Perfectionists by Simon Winchester. Surprisingly heartwarming stories about the advent and rise of precision engineering, from the dawn of the industrial revolution to the age of the transistor. It never occurred to me that the very idea to make parts interchangeable – as in musket triggers or lock cylinders – was a giant leap forward for humankind. Some of the inventors we owe so much to became terrifically wealthy while others toiled in obscurity and are much forgotten by history. Frank Whittle’s twelve-year struggle to fight British bureaucratic ineptitude and create the jet engine brought tears to my eyes. Engineers are rarely recognized by society, but without precision engineering there would be no industrial revolution and we would enjoy none of the many wonders of modern life.

Favorite Books of 2019

Previously: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018

This year I read 112 books. You can view them on Goodreads. Each year I blog about my favorite books, an idea I got from the incomparable Aaron Swartz.

Why did I fall short of the 131 books I read in 2016 or the 135 I read in 2015? Three reasons… Firstly, for scheduling reasons, I'm blogging this a month early like last year. Secondly, the number of books I read is a counter indicator of my productivity, and I had a whole mess of work deadlines this year. And finally, podcasts… There are so, so many good podcasts to listen to…

Regardless, I read some incredible books this year. Without further ado, here are my...

Top 10 Favorite Books Read in 2019

1) Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker. Both entertaining and compelling. It's almost a companion piece to Matt Ridley's Rational Optimist that made my top ten list last year. Pinker attributes all the global progress we are experiencing to the enlightenment, while Ridley attributes human progress to trade. Both books are filled with statistics on how virtually all global trends are positive; from life-expectancy, to health, to safety, to wealth, to quality of life. Whether you live in the first world or the third world, we are living in an age of incredible advancement.

2) Bad Blood by John Carreyrou. An excellent read. It's the true story of Elisabeth Holmes, who created the billion-dollar healthcare company Theranos, despite not having a working product.

3) The Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence. Truly wonderful. In my opinion, the book has even more color and depth than the movie it inspired: Lawrence of Arabia. From the brutal assaults Lawrence endured at the hands of the Ottomans, to his debilitating dysentery, to his crises of conscience in his often manipulative role in geopolitics, the book is a fascinating adventure and a window into a past that is forever gone. It is wild to learn that modern Arab nationalism is an idea originally sparked by an Englishman, serving British interests.

4) The Evolution of Everything by Matt Ridley. He is just a delightful writer. Free markets seem to give rise to endless invention and creativity. There is so much good news about humanity that never makes the headlines.

5) The Mark of Zorro by Johnston McCulley. Wonderful. This is the book that spawned the action hero, and eventually inspired the creation of Batman. McCulley crafts a story that is pitch-perfect from start to finish. Such an immense pleasure. Sword fights, honor, passion, and swashbuckling fun.

6) The Warburgs by Ron Chernow. Chernow is always top-notch. This book is a fascinating and thorough history of a very successful Jewish banking family in Hamburg leading up to World War II. The talented members of this family became wealthy financiers, art patrons, and even helped design the American Federal Reserve banking system. Chernow gives a vivid account of how difficult it was for Jews to flee Nazi Germany, even as they could see Germany heading into chaos and terror. A very detailed portrait of a bygone era.

7) 1453 by Roger Crowley. A wonderfully evocative account of Mehmet the Conquorer taking Constantinople by siege at age 21, desecrating the priceless art of the city, and brutalizing the population. I loved the intricate description of the Hungarian blacksmith forging the 27-foot cannon necessary to destroy the famous walls of Constantinople — immense walls that had stood for a millennium. Emperor Constantine and his general, Giustiniani, fought well and just might have been able to save the city but for the mistakes of a few bad employees.

8) Endurance by Alfred Lansing. One of the best books I've ever read. It's an extraordinarily well-researched and well-written account of Ernest Shackleton’s incredible journey of survival on the South Pole between 1914 and 1917. The men stayed alive by eating their own sled dogs. If you think you're ever having a rough day, just read a chapter of this book.

9) The Moral Landscape by Sam Harris. In one bold stroke, Sam Harris — in my opinion — makes more progress in the field of moral realism than A.J. Ayer, G.E. Moore, and every logical positivist of modern philosophy. Harris takes on moral relativism. He makes the point that just because science doesn't yet have a complete theory of health doesn't mean that no pursuit of medicine is worthwhile; similarly, in the past century, humanity has clearly made moral progress in virtually every measurable way despite not having complete answers to moral philosophy. By every available metric, crime is plummeting across the globe as democracy, human rights, and the rule of law are on the march. Once morality is defined as that which promotes the well-being and flourishing of conscious creatures, morality becomes measurable and evidence of its progress is ubiquitous.

10) Red Platoon by Clinton Romesha. Hands down one of the best military books I've ever read and probably my favorite book this year, next to Endurance. I may have to reread this book again next year. Romesha describes his experiences in the devastating Battle of Kamdesh in Afghanistan. He does an incredible job of setting the scene, fleshing out the characters, and explaining the intricacies and realities of battle. This is a jaw-dropping read.

Favorite Books of 2018

Previously: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 This year I read 108 books. You can view them on Goodreads. Each year I blog about my favorite books, an idea I got from the incomparable Aaron Swartz.

Why did I fall short of the 131 books I read in 2016 or the 135 I read in 2015? Three reasons... Firstly, for scheduling reasons, I'm blogging this a month early like last year. Secondly, the number of books I read is a counter indicator of my productivity, and I had a whole mess of work deadlines this year. And finally, podcasts… There are so, so many good podcasts to listen to…

Regardless, I read some incredible books this year. Without further ado, here are my...

Top 10 Favorite Books Read in 2018

1) The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley. With so many negative headlines in the news nowadays, it felt good to read something so overwhelmingly positive. Matt Ridley is optimistic about everything. He presents the data and statistics to demonstrate that global averages for life-expectancy, poverty rates, health, crime, hunger, and infectious diseases, are rosier than they’ve ever been in history. He quotes from Malthusian pessimists who have been predicted global apocalypse for centuries. He ties human evolution itself to trade, specialization, and the exchange of ideas. He believes that the more humans interact and share ideas, the more innovation and prosperity humanity will achieve. Thus, he sees the internet not as a social calamity but as an enormous cause for optimism, accelerating human achievement.

2) Rules of Civility by Amor Towles. Rules of Civility is masterful prose. What craftsmanship, each paragraph brimming with insight. Towles is a literary giant, one of the greatest living writers.

3) Educated by Tara Westover. Tara Westover’s true story of growing up in a Mormon survivalist family in the Idaho mountains. She endures tremendous abuse and physical danger and somehow manages to escape, eventually earning a degree from Harvard. I could not put this book down.

4) Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow. Another extraordinary book from the author of Hamilton. Chernow confronts Washington’s slave-holding head-on but still manages to paint a portrait of a man of rare virtue and bravery. It is safe to say that without Washington’s leadership, there would be no America. His life is an extraordinary tale, from his incredible rise as a young man to his gentlemanly conduct, his courage in battle, and his strength in the face of myriad health issues. He defeated the endless assaults of his detractors (like that scoundrel Jefferson) simply by keeping his head above the fray and never stooping to their level. An inspiring book.

5) The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman. A colorful and incredibly well-researched account of World War One. The author’s strength is in developing a three-dimensional cast of characters and all their tangled alliances. I couldn't actually follow her battle scenes. Still, she paints a vivid portrait of a devastating period in human history. I could never understand the cause of World War One when I was in school, but now I feel like I can explain it pretty handily if given thirty minutes and several cups of coffee.

6) First They Killed My Father by Luong Ung. This is a riveting autobiography of Luong Ung surviving the Cambodian genocide. In fairness, I kept thinking that much of this book may be embellished since she seems to have an eidetic memory of events that happened to her as a kindergartner. Nevertheless, this book is an absolute page-turner. It’s extremely well-written and a sobering primer on the war crimes of the Khmer Rouge.

7) The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston. This is an astonishing true-crime tale about a serial killer in Italy who has never been caught. When the author begins investigating the corrupt and incompetent Florence police department, the police make him and his writing partner their primary suspects. A pretty incredible tale that will make you feel better about the relative competence of the American criminal justice system.

8) The Shallows by Nicholas Carr. This book tackles the important topic of what the internet is doing to our brains. Admittedly, it’s a bit prolix, but maybe that’s just the internet shrinking my attention span. The author’s take is not all doom and gloom. Granted, the internet has demonstrably shortened our attention spans while lowering our reading comprehension, but the author makes the case that we have the neuroplasticity to rewire our minds if we choose.

9) Contact by Carl Sagan. A fun read about aliens finally making contact with earth through SETI. The plot plays out in a very logical way. I didn’t love the cynical ending, but the book was a fun and memorable read overall.

10) The Churchill Factor by Boris Johnson. Controversial former London mayor Boris Johnson does an admirable job of conveying just how dark Britain's prospects were by 1940. Hitler controlled Europe. America was isolationist. England stood alone against the Reich. And Churchill, at the helm, was surrounded by politicians eager for England to sign a treaty with the Nazis. Johnson makes the case that but for Churchill, England would have capitulated to the Nazis and the course of world history would have been profoundly different. Johnson also lauds Churchill’s clear-sighted appraisal of Stalin and his foresight in anticipating the cold war. The book is not trying to be academic, nor is it presented chronologically. It is more an encomium for Churchill and, in that, it is very successful. It is also a tacit bulwark to the Great Man Theory that has been challenged by thinkers like Tolstoy in War and Peace. And in that regard, I think it is successful as well.

Are Los Angelinos Flakier than New Yorkers?

Los Angelinos are famously stereotyped as being flaky. The idea is that people who live in LA are less likely to return an email or phone call on time and more likely to show up late or not at all. Having spent half my life living in the greater New York area and half my life living in the greater Los Angeles area, I feel uniquely qualified to evaluate the two groups with some impartiality. And I must admit, I have noticed that my New York friends seem to be very reliable about returning texts and keeping scheduled plans.

I decided to test whether my LA friends are in fact flakier or if I am simply succumbing to a confirmation bias supporting the stereotype of the flaky Angelino. I tracked all correspondence with my New York and Los Angeles friends for a 10-day period and sorted the data set into groups:

In the past week, I actually had several New York friends visiting Los Angeles so I could even compare how good New Yorkers are at keeping plans versus cancelling at the last minute:

Granted, my 10-day data set isn’t large enough to be even remotely scientific, but the trend does seem pretty one-sided. By the numbers, my Los Angeles friends appear undeniably flakier than my New York friends. Of course, I cannot make a general statement about all 8 million New Yorkers or all 8 million Los Angelinos. In 10 days, I interacted with some 48 individuals, which, I will admit, isn’t quite enough to make universal statements about 16 million people.

As for the quality of the data-gathering experiment, there may be a few confounding variables. For instance, it could be the case that my New York friends simply like me better. However, there is no clear reason to suppose this. One of the New Yorkers I met in person this week is a new acquaintance and another I have known only a short while. It seems more likely that my LA relationships should be warmer since I actually live here.

I do think it could be said that my New York friends who were visiting Los Angeles might have been more likely to keep their plans because they were only in town a short while. However, I am not convinced of this. Several of the New Yorkers endured such considerable scheduling and traffic obstacles that they would have been well within their rights to cancel. And yet they did not. This must surely count for something.

Given that all my available data is so one-sided, I do think it is safe to propose that there are measurable cultural differences and etiquette differences between my friends from both coasts. And lest I offend any of my Los Angeles friends, I think there are valid geographical and logistical reasons that LA may have developed a culture of flakiness:

1. Los Angeles is gigantic, sprawling, and filled with traffic. So everyone understands the difficulty of showing up anywhere.

2. Los Angeles lacks New York’s reliable public transportation system (some people try to argue that the LA subway system is improving; but in my experience, the LA metro has never saved me time in getting me anywhere I actually needed to go).

3. Californians may, indeed, be more “laid back” and, therefore, more forgiving of flakiness. Whereas in New York, flaky behavior may be considered disrespectful and is less socially tolerated.

If I have offended any of my fellow Angelinos by confronting our stereotype of flakiness, please send me an email sharing your thoughts. I may or may not respond to it within a week...

The Thrifty Guide to Ancient Greece

The Thrifty Guide to Ancient Greece (from the Handbook for Time Travelers series) is now available in stores! You can order your copy online, or pick one up wherever books are sold. Ancient Greece was the most fun book to write so far in the series and I hope you enjoy it!

Book Trailer for the Thrifty Guides

The first two books of the Handbooks for Time Travelers series are out! The Thrifty Guide to Ancient Rome and The Thrifty Guide to the American Revolution are in stores now. These are handy guidebooks for time travelers who want to vacation in the most amazing parts of history.

Here's a book trailer from Penguin with some information about the books:

Favorite Books of 2017

Previously: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 This year I read 116 books. You can view them on Goodreads. Each year I blog about my favorite books, an idea I got from the incomparable Aaron Swartz.

Why did I fall short of the 131 books I read in 2016, or the 135 I read in 2015? Three reasons... (1) For scheduling reasons, I'm blogging this a month early (2) Generally, the number of books I read is a counter indicator of my productivity, and I had a whole mess of work deadlines this year (3) Podcasts… So many good podcasts…

Regardless, I read some incredible books this year. Without further ado, here are my...

Top 10 Favorite Books Read in 2017

1) Dear Theo by Vincent van Gogh. Van Gogh’s letters to his brother Theo are absolutely heart breaking. In the early letters, a young van Gogh has no idea he’s going to be a painter, he just keeps praying to make it through seminary school. He lives in awful conditions, ministering to coal miners. He writes that he doesn’t think he has the stomach for suicide.

His letters reveal him to be an avid reader. He constantly references authors like Victor Hugo, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Tolstoy, and Voltaire. In the early letters, he’s only drawing because he can’t afford paints. Eventually, he learns water colors. Finally, in his last years, he moves into oils.

He’s so impoverished he keeps getting sick and losing his teeth. He eventually loses his mind as well, famously fighting with Paul Gauguin, cutting off his own ear, and ending up in a mad house. He can’t sell Starry Night. He doesn’t know what to do with Sunflowers. By the time he commits suicide, he has only managed to sell one painting.

2) A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. Absolutely delightful. Possibly my favorite book this year. Short on plot but long on eloquent writing. This book has humor, poignancy, and depth. If you love Russian novels, then you will love this American author’s version of a Russian novel.

3) The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. Captivating and gorgeous writing. Just vivid and honest prose that would make Hemingway proud. It’s a modern retelling of Hamlet, set on a dog-breeding farm in northern Wisconsin. This book is extremely long and I loved every bit of it until the last ten pages. I would offer a spoiler alert, but Hamlet is 400 years old.

4) Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamon. If the way to judge the quality of a book is by how much you think about it afterward, then this is a sensational book. It’s a fascinating read, crammed full of persuasive and instructive ideas. The main thrust of the book is to explain why so many technological and societal advances happened to civilizations on the Eurasian landmass, rather than anywhere else. It turns out that the Eurasian continent simply has far more flora and fauna capable of domestication than any other continent. So if you’re trying to start a civilization in, say, prehistoric Australia, you’re operating from a huge disadvantage. The book’s thesis is that many of the advancements made by European civilization may simply be the result of biological determinism.

5) Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick. A fascinating read. King Philip’s War was – per capita – the bloodiest war in American history, and I was never taught about it in school. We tend to think of Plymouth Rock, and then skip 150 years to the American Revolution. But this elides an amazingly complex period. The version of pilgrim history I learned in school was radically oversimplified, namely, that the Native Americans fed the Pilgrims and then the Pilgrims turned around and killed them. Turns out there were 55 years of relative peace and cooperation between the Native Americans and the Pilgrims, thanks to intricate diplomacy and relationship-building. When war finally broke out, it was in many ways fought and won by Native Americans against other Native Americans. There were heroes and scoundrels on both sides.

6) Snowcrash by Neal Stephenson. So fun, and bristling with style and creativity. The prescience of this book is astonishing. Published in 1992, Snowcrash correctly anticipates the internet, Virtual Reality, and even coins the term "avatar." It seems that on every page there is a concept Stephenson has anticipated by 25 years. I savored every page of this book - the writing is electrifying.

7) The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. Here is a book that really captures the imagination. It wonderfully recreates the feel of a medieval monastery. The story presents a compelling murder mystery, but offers so much more. The philosophical and theological debates throughout are absolutely riveting.

8) Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo. Extraordinary writing. So much wit, insight, and depth. This year I also read Everybody’s Fool and Bridge of Sighs. Russo is an American treasure.

9) Undisputed Truth by Mike Tyson. One of the most jaw-droppingly entertaining stories I've read in a long time. It is a rags-to-riches-to-rags story from the Dickensian upbringing in Bronxville, to a four hundred million dollar fortune, to addiction and destitution. Just an astonishing tale and, hopefully, redemptive.

10) Next by Michael Lewis. I’ve now read every Michael Lewis book and each book he writes has such a consistently high level of quality. I believe that many financial analysts, financial journalists, and money managers are absolute charlatans and this book provides plenty of supporting evidence. The book is incredibly prescient and modern for 2001. It brilliantly predicts everything from the rise of internet advertising to the advent of the online shared economy. A fun read.

Favorite Books of 2016

Previously: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 This year I read 131 books. You can view most of them on Goodreads. Each year I blog about my favorite books, an idea I got from the incomparable Aaron Swartz.

I read some whoppers this year, like Edward Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Ron Chernow's riveting Alexander Hamilton, and Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals (I choked up at the end). And I read some literature, like Virgil's Aeneid, James Clavell's King Rat, and E.M. Forster's Aspects of the Novel. But of all the extraordinary books I read, what follows are the ones that stuck with me the most, making them my...

Top 10 Favorite Books Read in 2016

1) Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter. Extremely well written, keenly observed, often funny, often poignant, and without a single false note. The plot kept surprising me as well. It was a little experimental (an entire chapter without commas, for instance), but only in ways that served the narrative. Really terrific writing.

2) The North Water by Ian McGuire. Excellent writing. I mean it's extraordinarily dark, violent, and nihilistic, but ultimately the hero emerges with his morality intact. It's a really terrific depiction of the whaling trade. In tone, it reads like a deeply gritty and less dignified Patrick O'Brien.

3) A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby. I thought it was sensational. Four strangers all meet on a rooftop with the intention of ending it all...and somehow develop a fascinating and unlikely friendship. Hornby rigorously prevents the narrative from becoming trite or sentimental. And with his usual mix of humor and pathos, he creates a uniquely enjoyable story.

4) Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain. Wonderful. Twain's travelog contains observations and insights on Europe and the Middle East that remain astonishingly modern. Through Twain's lens, Italy, Greece, and Turkey seem remarkably unchanged from 1869. A fantastically informative and entertaining window into the past.

5) Empire Falls by Richard Russo. Brilliantly well-written portrait of a downtrodden man trying to take control of his life. This book affected my mood for weeks. Russo is like the Tolstoy of small town America, examining the locale from its wealthiest citizens all the way down to its poorest. And like Tolstoy, he seems to show that the drama of human existence - all the trials and tribulations - affect everyone equally. Every life has both tragedies and triumphs.

6) You're Not Doing it Right by Michael Ian Black. Brutally honest and incredibly poignant, this book is genuinely moving. Michael Ian Black is best known as a comedian, but he is a very powerful writer. So many comedians churn out superficial memoirs and Michael Ian Black is a stunning exception. Each of his stories has the humor of David Sedaris, but often mingled with the tragic emotional depth of a John Cheever or a Martin Amis. This year, I also read his books, Navel Gazing and America, You Sexy Bitch.

7) Total Recall - My Unbelievably True Life Story by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Say what you will about Arnold Schwarzenegger, his is an incredible story. Raised in an Austrian village with no running water, he became a world champion by age 20. He became a millionaire in Los Angeles real estate before he ever made a dollar from acting. He then married a Kennedy and became a governor. His work ethic, business savvy, and charisma are astonishing. This is one of my favorite books in a long time.

8) The Creeping Shadow by Jonathan Stroud. Truly fine writing, not a single loose thread, everything in its place. And with funny dialog and description to boot. Now that I also write middle grade fiction, I appreciate the challenges of the genre; and Jonathan Stroud makes it all look easy. I particularly appreciate that when Stroud's characters are in the middle of action set pieces, Stroud still focuses on revealing character and relationships. He is a first class writer, and the Lockwood & Co series is terrific for middle grade readers.

9) Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. Daniel Kahneman (along with his partner Amos Tversky) is the Nobel Prize winning theorist behind prospect theory. This book is like a Malcolm Gladwell book on steroids; it's chock full of surprising revelations about cognitive biases, supported by Kahneman and Tversky's research into psychology and economics. The bottom line is that we humans are terrible at estimation and our minds are cluttered with logical fallacies.

10) The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly. Wow, this book is extremely good. It had me hooked from start to finish. Incredibly well-researched and packed with smart ideas, this series revolves around a really clever and charismatic character. Connelly is so skilled a writer that he can make you root for a defense lawyer who advertises on buses. I read a lot of Connelly this year, and his research, his intellect, and his consistency are just astonishing.

Book Tour

Yesterday, on book tour for Addison Cooke and the Treasure of the Incas, I visited schools in Oklahoma City. At Central Middle School, I met librarian-extraordinaire Caradith Craven. Her students created a tremendous amount of art based on Addison Cooke.

A group of eighth graders put on a play, acting out scenes from Addison Cooke. Other students sang a song on the importance of reading books.

After the sixth and seventh grade presentations, Ms. Craven showed me to her library, which was decked out with more Addison-inspired student art. In the library, I did Q&A's with sixth graders who asked a lot of smart questions.

Below is a quick snapshot of Ms. Craven. One student, Wenny, not only drew the very detailed poster with the tiger, she also performed a rip-roaring version of Solfeggietto by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach during our lunch. Another student, Ben, impressed me with his meticulously designed poster, and by wearing a tie to school like Addison Cooke.

I was pretty amazed by this Addison Cooke-themed pumpkin, as well as by the Addison Cooke-carved egg. I have no idea how they made it. I have never seen a carved egg before, though the Oklahoma students seemed pretty familiar with the concept.

After the Q&A, Ms. Craven organized a luncheon. I have never eaten on a placemat of my own face before, but from here on, I plan to make a habit of it.

At the luncheon, the icing on the cake was the Addison Cooke cake; it really took the cake.

In the afternoon, I traveled to the equally delightful Heartland Middle School for another presentation, where I met media director and world-traveler Janet Miller. With the help of Heartland's dedicated drama teacher, students put on an elaborate play of several scenes from Addison Cooke. If you look closely at the photo below, you can spot the zipline connecting Addison's apartment with his neighbor Raj's apartment. In the middle of the play, Addison successfully slides a walkie-talkie along the zipline to land in Raj's bed. This pretty much made my day.

Thank you to Central Middle School and Heartland Middle School for celebrating authors, for celebrating books, and for a truly memorable day!

Addison Cooke is Coming to Stores on October 11

Addison Cooke and the Treasure of the Incas is now available for pre-order on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, IndieBound, and wherever books are sold. You can also learn more about the book on Goodreads. If you need still more information, visit Penguin Random House. The book is due out on October 11. Can't wait!

Favorite Books of 2015

Previously: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 This year I read 135 books. You can view most of them on Goodreads. Each year I blog about my favorite books, an idea I got from the incomparable Aaron Swartz. Here are my...

Top 10 Favorite Books Read in 2015

1) The Prom Goer's Interstellar Excursion by Chris McCoy. Wonderful. Sensationally verbally clever. A kid just wants to go to prom and his date is abducted by aliens. What follows is a Douglas Adams-esque comic journey through space.

2) All Involved: A Novel of the 1992 LA Riots by Ryan Gattis. Excellent. Utterly gripping and masterfully written. A terrific book.

3) Trick Baby by Iceberg Slim. "The Sting" appears to rip off major elements of this book! Iceberg Slim was a supremely gifted writer with an amazing ear for dialog and description. It's like reading the best of Kerouac, Ginsberg, or Burroughs.

4) Transcendent Speculation on the Apparent Deliberateness of Fate in the Individual by Arthur Schopenhauer. This is just a long essay, but I found it tremendously insightful and it stuck with me. It delves deeply into the idea that people are the authors of their destinies far more than they often realize.

5) Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney. Sensational. Truly moving. Experimental for a point - the second person narration creates the perfect feeling of dissociation.

6) All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. This book lived up to the hype. Such strong, gripping, evocative writing. I keep thinking we're going to run out of stories to tell about World War II, but extraordinary tales keep appearing.

7) Jonathan Stroud - The Screaming Staircase, The Whispering Skull, The Hollow Boy, The Amulet of Samarkand, The Golem's Eye, Ptolemy's Gate, The Ring of Solomon. Just delightful. Really wonderful world-building. The Ring of Solomon might be a perfect book.

8) Bill Bryson - In a Sunburned Country, A Brief History of Nearly Everything, I'm a Stranger Here Myself, A Walk in the Woods, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, One Summer: America 1927, Neither Here Nor There, At Home. Charming wit and self-deprecation. A wonderful writer and fascinating on any topic.

9) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I reread from childhood. Extraordinarily great writing. The protagonist is just so loveable - excellently capturing childhood in the South.

10) The Pregnant Widow by Martin Amis. Some moments of true profundity, some moments of great humor and wit, and some moments of unalloyed honesty about the true nature of relationships. Some really beautiful and bittersweet meditations on age, as well. I think this is Amis's parody of "the British novel." It's like an upside down E.M. Forster or Jane Austen.

Oscar Winners by Genre

Is it true that dramas are more likely to win best picture than other genres?  I decided to run the numbers.  It turns out, the trend is very true and growing stronger. Best Picture Nominees for 1927 - 2001

(data source: http://www.filmsite.org/bestpics2.html)

Dramas: 48% (click chart to enlarge)

Best Picture Winners for 1927 - 2001

(data source: http://www.filmsite.org/bestpics2.html)

Dramas: 39% (click chart to enlarge)

As you can see, dramas are heavily favored.  But interestingly, the trend grows even stronger in the past dozen years.

Best Picture Nominees (2002 - 2014)

Dramas: 62% (click chart to enlarge)

Best Picture Winners (2002 - 2014)

Dramas: 61% (click chart to enlarge)

They might as well call it the Academy Award for Best Drama.  Granted, in 2009, the Academy began nominating as many as 10 movies for best picture.  This allowed Sci Fi movies like District 9 and Animated movies like Up to gain nominations.

Academy Awards for Best Adapted and Best Original Screenplay are similarly weighted toward dramas.  Two-thirds of best picture winners also win either of the two best screenplay awards, so there is a strong correlation.

Best Adapted Screenplays (2002 - 2014)

Dramas: 46% (click chart to enlarge)

Best Original Screenplays (2002 - 2014)

Dramas: 54% (click chart to enlarge)

The upshot here is that if you're looking to win a writing Oscar, it's best to write a drama!

Are Romantic Comedies Profitable?

For years, the film industry has mourned the death of the romantic comedy. According to the Hollywood Reporter, romantic comedies don't travel well to cultures and languages overseas where Hollywood makes at least 75% of its revenue. Furthermore, romantic comedies, by definition, don't lend themselves to sequels. According to the Scoggins Report, there were only two comedy spec screenplay sales in Q1, 2015, neither of which was a romantic comedy.  Studios now rarely invest in rom-coms, as they are no longer considered a profitable genre.

But are these assumptions correct?

Are romantic comedies really an unprofitable genre? And do rom-coms fail overseas?

Looking at the data for all movies released theatrically from 2009 - 2015, romantic comedies are actually extremely profitable both domestically and overseas.  I scraped the available box office data from BoxOfficeMojo.com and crunched the numbers below.

In terms of gross profit, rom-coms handily outperformed my two control groups: action and sci fi.  Net profit is trickier to evaluate, and I will address that below.  But first, the overall numbers:

Average Budgets (2009 - 2015)

Rom-coms are significantly less expensive to produce than action or sci fi (click image to enlarge):

Average Worldwide Gross (2009 - 2015)

The average rom-com earns less revenue than the average action or sci fi movie:

Average Gross Profit (2009 - 2015)

"Gross profit" here is worldwide revenue-divided-by-budget.  For all genres, this number does not account for the exhibitor's split, or P&A (addressed below).

In box office gross, the average romantic comedy is more profitable than either action or sci fi.  In fact, the average rom-com grosses three times its budget.  This is because the rom com budget is typically half that of action movies and one third that of sci fi, so rom-coms are a much smaller financial outlay.  It is worth noting that while studios have avoided rom-coms over the past five years, rom-coms still show a healthy 200% profit margin in this time period, soundly outperforming both action and sci fi.

Studios are run by very, very smart people who wouldn't avoid rom-coms without good reason. So if rom-coms are clearly less expensive and more profitable than action or sci fi movies, why do studios avoid them?

Marketing

According to Steven Soderbergh, the answer may lie in studio marketing budgets.  If you add a flat $60 million marketing budget to each genre, it radically changes the profit percentages.  In this hypothetical, rom-coms still earn a greater profit than action movies, but nowhere near as strong a profit as sci fi.

We have no transparency on studio marketing budgets, so it's difficult to know what studios spend on marketing and how effectively they spend it.  It seems reasonable to assume that p&a budgets should be dropping as the internet revolutionizes marketing, but marketing budgets continue to sky-rocket.

Consider the fact that 87% of Twitter users claim that tweets influence their movie choices. Yet studios continue to spend more than half their marketing budgets on TV spots in the face of mounting evidence that TV advertising is increasingly inefficient.

Transformers: Age of Extinction spent $100 million on domestic print-and-advertising alone.  Meanwhile, the average studio spends as much as half-a-billion on marketing annually.  With no transparency on these numbers, there can be no critical evaluation.  The MPAA stopped tracking studio marketing spends in 2007, and there is no public breakdown of marketing budgets per movie.

Studios now tend to avoid mid-budget movies of any genre, which cuts out rom-coms entirely. It may be that mini-majors and large financiers may find a way to fill this mid-budget gap in the film ecosystem, and fill the under-served demographic of movie-goers who love romantic comedies. As long as film companies learn to market rom-coms economically, this genre is demonstrably more cost efficient and profitable than action or sci fi.

The big takeaway from the numbers above is that rom-coms actually do perform profitably internationally.  But as studios focus their marketing dollars on fewer movies each year, they are under pressure to invest in gigantic movies that will help them reach billion dollar annual grosses.  Publicly traded companies need to show growing revenue year-over-year, and it is easier for a studio to reach billions in grosses by investing in $200 million movies than in small, yet profitable, romantic comedies.  Perhaps if studios were still privately held, their emphasis might be on greater profitability rather than increasing revenues.

Favorite Books of 2014

Previously: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 I read 100 books this year. Each year I blog about my favorite books, an idea I got from the incomparable Aaron Swartz.

What follows are the books I most enjoyed in 2014.

* Drive by Daniel H. Pink - A lot of great ideas about how to motivate creative problem solving in a business environment. Pink clarifies the differences between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in the workplace. Pink also makes a compelling case that creative employees work best when they are given autonomy, an opportunity for mastery of their craft, and a sense of purpose.

* The James Bond books by Ian Fleming - My favorites were "Moonraker," "To Russia With Love," "Live and Let Die," "Dr. No," "The Man With the Golden Gun," "Diamonds are Forever," "Thunderball," "In Her Majesty’s Secret Service," "The Spy Who Loved Me," "For Your Eyes Only," and "Casino Royale." I’ve seen all the Bond movies and think there is still opportunity to do justice to the depth and complexity of Bond’s character.

* Red Mars and Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson - Extremely well-researched and fun imagining of Mars colonization and terraforming. A bit like Asimov's Foundation series in that there is no clear protagonist - it’s really more about the ideas than the plot.

* American Sniper by Chris Kyle - Extremely compelling read; a complete page turner. A really fascinating portrait of an American hero.

* Letters to a Young Poet by Ranier Maria Rilke - The first letter is brilliant - the idea that one should only become a writer if one sees no alternative. The next nine letters contain little to no specific advice on writing, but rather give increasingly vague ideas on love and loneliness. Nevertheless, some moments of extraordinary prose.

* The Conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar - Astonishingly clear prose reflecting an incredible mind. Caesar is a tireless worker, a brilliant politician and diplomat, and an incredibly successful general. Each strategy and ruse-de-guerre is breath-taking.  So little has changed in politics and warfare in 2000 years; a fascinating book.

* The Civil War by Julius Caesar - Just astonishingly good. Possibly the greatest military leader of all time. He fought in hundreds of military engagements and won all of them against staggering odds. When Bibulus uses his naval superiority to try to blockade Caesar and cut off all supply ships to Greece, Caesar blockades the entire Aegean so Bibulus has nowhere to land his fleet and dies of thirst and exposure. That is just the ultimate testament to Caesar's confidence and his extraordinary mind.

* Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury - I reread from my childhood. Astonishingly lyrical prose; like Jimi Hendrix lyrics - a jumble of language that works together to form perfectly evocative imagery.

* Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams - I reread for the third time. This book is just wonderful on every level.

* Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell - This year I read "Sharpe's Gold," "Sharpe's Havoc," "Sharpe's Eagle," "Waterloo," "Sharpe’s Sword," and "Sharpe’s Regiment." I love everything about these books. I particularly admire Cornwell's ability to craft insidious antagonists who are often more incompetent, racist, haughty, or immoral, than one-dimensionally evil. "Sharpe’s Regiment" may be my favorite of this bunch, though "Sharpe’s Eagle" is also fantastic.

* The Demon's Sermon on the Martial Arts by Issai Chozanshi - I find these old Japanese texts to be 10% brilliant and 90% inscrutable.  But I suppose that's the point of zen.

* The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris - An ingenious book that feels extremely current despite being published in 1967. Sort of the Malcolm Gladwell of its day, it evaluates humans from the perspective of a zoologist, and finds how - for all our sophisticated behaviors - we are just fancy chimpanzees.

* Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin & The Way to Wealth and other letters by Benjamin Franklin - I reread for the first time in ten years. Such a fantastic piece of work - just an astonishing human being of myriad accomplishments. There is so much to be learned from this book.

* Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson - Fascinating, astonishing, inspiring, and revolutionary. What an amazing man with an amazing life. A brilliant diplomat, from the Declaration of Independence, to the treaty with France that saved the American Revolution, to the British peace treaty ending the war, to the Constitution. Massive contributions to science - he coined the language of electricity with words like “current,” “conductor,” “positive,” “negative,” and “battery.” An incredible mind - so far ahead of his time - and so well accomplished in all things.

* Meditations by Marcus Aurelius - If you ask me, the Stoics are sanctimonious bores. Still, it was interesting to read the diary of an emperor who lived 2,000 years ago.

* Travels by Michael Crichton - Very readable and interesting. To a certain extent a biography, to another extent a travelogue, but mostly it is a man's quest for meaning. I didn't realize how successful Crichton was by age 30; that he was a Hollywood director and a Harvard Med School grad. I really just knew of him as a sci-fi best seller.

* Tell-All by Chuck Paluhniak - He's an astonishing talent. The first few chapters are mesmerizing. Ultimately, this book is not too heavy on plot, but it is a tour-de-force of style.

* Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins - Beautifully planned and structured, with a plausible heroine we root for from start to finish.

* Divergent Trilogy by Veronica Roth - Quite the page-turner. Hard to put down.

* Freeway Rick Ross by Rick Ross - The story of his rise from an illiterate high school dropout in South Central Los Angeles to becoming the largest crack cocaine dealer in LA. An interesting piece of history. Ultimately, the book is slightly disturbing in that Rick Ross comes across as unabashedly proud of what he accomplished as a crack dealer and really shows no remorse.

* Cyrus the Great (Cyruspaedia) by Xenophon - Cyrus was an extraordinary leader, conqueror, and humanitarian. This 2400 year-old book sets the stage for modern biography in that it seeks to instruct in moral character.

* Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters - Very fun. Lots of linguistic British cleverness and certainly a page turner.

* Creativity, Inc by Ed Catmull - A very insightful book on how to manage a creative company like Pixar. Fascinating to gather the inside history of the most consistently successful movie studio in history, and how Pixar’s philosophy turned around Disney animation. Building that creatively supportive culture drew a lot from Silicon Valley ideas.

* Hombre by Elmore Leonard - Very well crafted with lots of cleverness and believable details woven into the prose.

* Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom by Amy Chua - Permissive American parenting is a big issue that doesn't get talked about nearly enough. I understand why this book is controversial, but it prompts a discussion worth having.

* Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy - I've never encountered a writer with McCarthy's virtuosic powers of word choice, description, and simile; he utters a phrase and the picture springs into the mind's eye both familiar and fully formed. He is the greatest American author, the greatest living author, and possibly the greatest author, period. Better even than Nabokov in turning a perfect phrase.

* To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway - Say what you will, he is always interesting.

* Einstein by Walter Isaacson - A fast primer on Einstein.

* Pimp: The Story of My Life by Iceberg Slim - Utterly gorgeous prose writing, like Electric Kool-Aid acid test or William Boroughs. Very shocking material. It’s astonishing how all of the 1990's rap slang was alive and well in the 1930’s. There is nothing new under the sun. This book is far ahead of its time; delving into the Pimp's psychology, the prostitute's psychology, and the criminal mindset.

* The Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton - Well researched and enjoyable.

* Dataclysm by Christian Rudder - Some interesting observations on the information age.

* Anabasis: The March Up Country by Xenophon - Fascinating tale of Xenophon’s 10,000 Hellenic mercenaries who were hoodwinked by Cyrus the Younger into fighting the King of Persia. The Greek army officers were assassinated by the Persians in a red wedding. So Xenophon, only a young warrior, rallied the Greek mercenaries to fight their way home through hostile territory. A fascinating read and a great adventure.

* Bossypants by Tina Fey - Very funny and with jokes in every sentence. And yet ultimately, this book is an important meditation on feminism.

* Selected Works by Cicero - I found this book tedious and interminable. Cicero himself I found insufferably vain, self-pitying, self-righteous, back-stabbing, and egotistical. Nearly every moral argument in this book fell flat for me. Nevertheless, it was fascinating to glimpse how surprisingly modern Roman society was, in its law, politics, and business.

* What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell - Gladwell is always fun and interesting.  Such a treat.

* Myth and Meaning by Claude Levi-Strauss - I am not clever enough to decide whether structural anthropology is blithering, unsubstantiated nonsense.  Still, I’ll read anything that discusses the mono myth.

* The Hard Way - A Jack Reacher Story by Lee Childs - Really terrifically smart and well-executed.

* Not Taco Bell Material by Adam Carolla - Really entertaining.

* Rumi Translation by Coleman Barks - Really wonderful modern poetry from a 13th century poet. I slowly savored this poetry collection over the past five or six years.

Age Difference Between Leading Actors and Actresses

Much has been made of the age gap between leading men and women.  Male romantic leads are often cast opposite much younger females.  And it is often difficult for actresses to find roles after age 40. While I suspect this gender gap has improved in the past 50 years, I decided to see if it is still alive and well.  I built a spider to scrape age data for the top 5,000 actors and actresses, as ranked by IMDb "starmeter."

For the 500 most popular actors and actresses on IMDb, the average actor is age 40.77 and the average actress is age 33.39.  Expanding to the top 5,000 actors and actresses on IMDb, the gap narrows.  Here the average actor is 44.74 and the average actress is 39.47.

Not surprisingly, star popularity is correlated to age.  The top 50 actors are the youngest, and possess the largest age gap between men and women.  For the top 5000 actors, the average age is older, and with a smaller age gap.  This chart shows how the age gap narrows as popularity decreases.

Another interesting phenomenon is that 60% of the top 500 most popular stars on IMDb are female.  This trend holds true for the top 100 most popular stars, as well as for the top  50.  Put another way, only 40% of the 500 most popular stars on IMDb are male.

However, when the sample size is stretched to include the 5,000 most popular stars, women equal men almost exactly (50.59% - 49.41%).

So why are women more likely to have high starmeter ratings?  Amazon's starmeter algorithm is a measure of what people are searching for.  A glance at the IMDb message boards suggests IMDb's userbase is disproportionately male.  So it could very well be that men search for their favorite actresses at a higher rate than women search for their favorite actors.  Thus, actresses may have a slight advantage in obtaining top "starmeter" rankings on IMDb.

Actor Height Myths

There is a long-standing belief in popular culture that actors are shorter than the national average.  I decided to put the theory to the test, creating a spider to scrape height data for the top 5,000 ranked actors and actresses on IMDb. It turns out: actors and actresses - by IMDb height - are two inches taller than the national average.

Heights of the Top 500 Actors and Actresses as Ranked by IMDb's "Starmeter."

The top 500 actors average 5 foot 11.7 inches versus the national male average of 5 foot 9.5 inches. The top 500 actresses average 5 foot 5.72 inches versus the national female average of 5 foot 4 inches.  The trend holds for the top 1,000 actors and actresses, as well as the top 5,000.

The easiest explanation is that both actors and actresses are finding ways to over-report their heights on IMDb on a massive scale. However, when I spot-checked a list of famously short actors and actresses, I found no discrepancies between IMDb's numbers, and celebrityheights.com. Granted, I'm not sure how to rigorously fact check 5,000 IMDb actor heights.

If actors are over-reporting their heights, it is worth noting they are no different from the rest of us.  OKCupid found their users report heights two inches above the national average.

The alternative explanation is that successful actors are simply taller.  This success/height correlation should make some sense given the data that taller people are smarter, earn more money, and are more respected by their peers, than short people (I am not a particularly tall person, so I write this without any bias).

The real upshot is, there is no data to support the idea that actors and actresses are shorter than average. In fact, the more popular an actor is, the more likely he is to be tall (actresses, on the other hand, retain a constant height regardless of popularity).

Methodology: Because certain minority groups may be underrepresented in the top 5,000 actors, the charts above compare actors to the average height for American Caucasians.

For my data set, I parsed out actors and actresses under 18, as they may not yet have achieved full height.

Books Read 2013

In 2007, I started blogging my favorite books of each year, an idea I got from the incomparable Aaron Swartz.  Aaron is a genius who tragically took his life this year.  He co-wrote RSS at age 14, co-founded Reddit his freshman year at Stanford, and was one of the most prolific Wikipedia editors in the world.  He was a crusader for freedom of information and is greatly missed by the Internet community. This year I read 75 books. I’ve tracked my books read since 2003, always with the goal of reading at least 50 books each year.

What follows are the books I most enjoyed this year.

*A Natural History of the Piano - Stuart Isacoff - Fun anecdotes and a surprisingly comprehensive history.

*The Master and Commander series - Patrick O'Brian - I finished this series of 20 novels this year.  They are my favorite historical fiction.  After so many books, you come to love the characters like old friends.  An astonishingly three-dimensional portrait of the Royal Navy and its characters.

*Psmith in the City - P.G. Wodehouse - Full of linguistic cleverness and sparkling dialog.

*Holes - Louis Sachar - Very fun read and cleverly tied together.

*An Essay on Criticism - Alexander Pope - Published in 1707.  This essay should be required reading for all critics.  So many notable quotes in this essay: "A little learning is a dangerous thing," "Fools rush in where Angels fear to tread," "To err is human, to forgive divine," and "What the weak mind with strongest bias rules, is pride the never failing vice of fools."

*River of Doubt - Candice Millard - Great adventure writing with amazing characters.

*Which Lie Did I Tell - William Goldman - Sequel to "Adventures in the Screen Trade."  In many ways, a very odd book.  But essential reading.

*The Big Short - Michael Lewis - A captivating and lucid window into the financial crisis, its causes and characters.

*To Hell and Back - Audie Murphy - Amazing tale of heroism and character.  Astonishing.

*Marine Sniper 93 Confirmed Kills - Charles Henderson - Some amazing scenes; particularly the duel where he shoots an enemy sniper in the eye through the enemy sniper's own scope.

*Writing Movies for Fun and Profit - Robert Ben Garant & Thomas Lennon - Tremendously funny, useful, and therapeutic.  I read several screenwriting books this year that I did not find particularly useful.  It is rare to find a screenwriting book written by actual working screenwriters, full of relevant and honest advice about the business of screenwriting.

*Hagakure - The Book of the Samurai - Yamamoto Tsunetomo - (Translated by William Scott Wilson) - A lot of useful philosophy to be garnered from this book.  A samurai makes every decision within the space of seven breaths.  And a samurai always dies facing the enemy.

*You Can Be a Stock Market Genius - Joel Greenblatt - Despite the cheesy title, this is a brilliant book that marries the fundamental analysis of Peter Lynch and Benjamin Graham with the strategy and timing of the derivatives market.

*The Man Who Heard Voices - Michael Bamberger - Fascinating tale of M. Night Shyamalan making "Lady in the Water."  It is both hagiography and cautionary tale.  Nina Jacobson, then at Disney, comes off as a genius.

*The Elements of Style - William Strunk, Jr. & E.B. White - Wonderful.  I grew up thinking grammar was the mindless passion of pedants.  But really the point of grammar is clear and effective writing.

*Sleepless in Hollywood - Lynda Obst - An interesting window into the challenges of being a producer now that studios are changing their business models.

*Zen in the Art of Archery - Eugen Herrigel - I reread this as I became increasingly interested in Samurai philosophy this year.  Zen and mastery of one's craft are inextricably tied.

*The Life-Giving Sword - Yagyu Munenori - The best part of the book is the preface giving a sense of Japanese feudal history. What a fascinating period.  The book itself is incredibly arcane, obfuscated with Zen koans, but not without a certain sense of poetry.

*The Battle of Brazil - Jack Matthews - Fascinating account of Terry Gilliam's somewhat pyrrhic victory over Sid Sheinberg and Universal in releasing his version of Brazil.

*Richard III - William Shakespeare - Kind of a propaganda piece for the Tudors at the expense of the Plantangenets.  I liked the first speech, and a few speeches in Act V.  It picks up around Act IV.  It's unclear why Richard is so clever in ascending to power and so immediately unclever once he attains power.  Although I suppose it's all motivated by his general misanthropy.  In this new Golden Age of television, filled with anti-heroes, it is worthwhile to revisit one of the original anti-heroes of literature.

*The Unfettered Mind - Takuan Soho - The Zen priest who advised Yagyu Munenori and even met Miyamoto Musashi, offers his ideas on the relationship between zen and swordsmanship.

*Conversations with Wilder - Cameron Crowe and Billy Wilder - Wilder's wit and charm - even as a 91 year old - shine through.  The book inspires a great nostalgia for the greatest generation and the glamour of the golden age of Hollywood.

*Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish - David Rakoff - A rhyming novel of stories of characters who connect across time; I really enjoyed page 94.

*Sharpe's Tiger - Bernard Cornwell - I read several of the Richard Sharpe novels this year.  So far, "Sharpe's Rifles" is my favorite.  In Sharpe's Tiger, Sergeant Hakeswell is one of the most loathesome antagonists I've encountered in literature.

*Crazy Rich Asians - Kevin Kwan - The subject matter is such a guilty pleasure.  Not literature and yet very satisfying.  Somebody needed to write this book.

*The Green Felt Jungle - Ed Reid and Ovid Demaris - A somewhat dated book cataloguing Vegas mafia corruption in the 40s, 50s, and 60s.  Informative and very much of its time.

*Difficult Men - Brett Martin - A very enjoyable read about the show runners of the new Golden Age of television.  Martin's thesis is that the same conditions that created wonderful 70s film - execs taking risks and getting out of the way of writers - is exactly what happened to create the cable television revolution.  Great show runners like Matthew Weiner and David Chase took zero studio notes and maintained complete creative control.  And thus created ground-breaking television.

*The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini - Well done; an emotional book.

*A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy O'Toole - Some very colorful moments.

*The Summer of Katya - Trevanian - Very well written.  Somewhat different from his spy novels.

*Goldfinger - Ian Fleming - Fun and full of ideas.  Dated in terms of its sexism, ethnocentrism, and post-war nihilism.  But an extremely entertaining read.