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It's the Holidays. Forget startups and tech and read something fun

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This year for the holidays I am doing something really strange and odd: I am not working on my startup.

Ever since I've started my every 2-weeks-a-new-startup plan, and and started using the stopwatch to force myself to stop working, I've noticed a general lessening of my tension. I find that I still generate a hell of a lot of tension working up to a release, but by having a predictable cycle I actually get more done and end up relaxing better in the times between cycles.

Gee -- I wish I had done this years ago.

So in that spirit, I'd like to urge you to force yourself to stop what you are doing and go do something fun! Read a fun book. In the long run it'll make you more productive and happier.

Here are some books that I've loaded into my kindle for the next week. Some of them I've already finished. Each of these I researched over on Amazon. I tried to only get books that were hard sci-fi, that were singletons (not one of a thousand-part series), and that had great reviews (and a large number of great reviews)


All of these are Amazon links. These are also all e-books, which means you can click a couple of times and start reading. I wish I could have done a better job with the formatting, but it's Christmas and I'm just trying to get the list out there. Apologies for the poor job with the html and the lack of a detailed review, but like I said, sometimes there are more important (and fun) things than tech and startups, right?

4 Comments

Great idea I've been reading one of Ian M. Banks Culture novels called Matter. If you like good sci-fi and have not read any of the Culture novels I highly recommend them.

Thanks for the tip!

I might put it on my summer vacation fun reading list. Is it like 20 books, or something a bit more manageable in a week or so?

Containment was the first book I bought when the Kindle application was made available on my Droid. I won't spoil any of it for you, but I can tell you it's definitely worth reading, if not a bit predictable by the middle.

Thanks Anthony. I can't wait to read it.

"A Fire Upon the Deep" is great so far, but it's looking like a thick book. It's funny that when you move to the kindle it's not always clear what kind of book you're getting into.

For what i'm doing -- purposely relaxing -- I like the longer books better. Just wish I had checked before I started reading! I might have changed my reading order.

I think I'm putting Containment up next.

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This page contains a single entry by DanielBMarkham published on December 24, 2010 12:39 PM.

How many Christmas Presents Could you give Away? was the previous entry in this blog.

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  • DanielBMarkham: Thanks Anthony. I can't wait to read it. "A Fire read more
  • Anthony Burns: Containment was the first book I bought when the Kindle read more
  • DanielBMarkham: Thanks for the tip! I might put it on my read more
  • Chris Nicola: Great idea I've been reading one of Ian M. Banks read more

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Recently I created a list of books that hackers recommend to each other -- what are the books super hackers use to help guide them form their own startups and make millions? hn-books might be a site you'd like to check out.
On the low-end of the spectrum, I realized that a lot of people have problems logging into Facebook, of all things. So I created a micro-site to help folks learn how to log-in correctly, and to share various funny pictures and such that folks might like to share with their friends. It's called (appropriately enough) facebook login help