Books · Tomas Vik

Terry Pratchett - Night Watch

Time travelling done right. That’s the book summed up in four words. As you can tell, I’m now a full-blown groupie of the Watch series. It would be as hard to disappoint me as having …

Finished 22 December 2020

Terry Pratchett - The Fifth Elephant

This book takes the watch outside of Ankh-Morkork. I’m always surprised how fresh, non-repetitive and unpredictable the story is even though this is the fifth book on the same theme. Kudos to …

Finished 4 December 2020

Pierre Hadot - Philosophy as a Way of Life

Pierre Hadot was a French philosopher who spent his whole life studying ancient philosophy. He was a key proponent of thought that ancient philosophy was not the theoretical discipline studied at …

Finished 16 November 2020

Terry Pratchett - Jingo

The disadvantage of listening to the Discworld books in the form of audiobooks is that the uncontrollable bursts of laughter make you look quite silly. Jingo is a story of nationalism, war and murder. …

Finished 30 October 2020

Epictetus - Encheiridioin

Some things are up to us and some things are not up to us. The Stoic philosophy is very close to my heart because it teaches an approach to life, similar to Buddhism. Epictetus suggest that you only …

Finished 19 October 2020

Terry Pratchett - Feet of Clay

Who can mix crime novel with thoughtful discrimination critique and make it hilarious enough that you are going to be bursting out laughing? Only Sir Terrance. The main characters of the city watch …

Finished 9 October 2020

Pierce Brown - Morning Star

Trilogy: Red Rising, Golden Son, Morning Star The third book in the Red Rising Saga is a bit repetitive end you can see some of the plot twists coming from miles away. But the book wasn’t a …

Finished 31 August 2020

Pierce Brown - Golden Son

Trilogy: Red Rising, Golden Son, Morning Star It would be hard not to spoil the first book when talking about what happened in the second, so I’ll instead talk about some aspects of the trilogy …

Finished 28 August 2020

Pierce Brown - Red Rising

Trilogy: Red Rising, Golden Son, Morning Star Red rising is what happens when you cross-bread Brave New World with The Maze Runner and the Game of Thrones. Even though the book’s concepts are …

Finished 23 August 2020

Douglas E. Harding - On Having No Head

I’ve heard about Douglas’ book when I read Waking Up from Sam Harris. On Having No Head is a spiritual book, first published in 1961. Giving a good pointer to what Buddha might have meant …

Finished 17 August 2020

Ryan Singer - Shape Up

This book is free to read or download on the Basecamp website. This short book (130 pages) is a great overview of the product development process used by Basecamp. As it is always the case with books …

Finished 14 August 2020

Terry Pratchett - Men at Arms

After reading Guards! Guards!, I was hooked to the Watch series and this book was no disappointment. Pratchett develops the peculiar characters of the Ankh-Morpork city night watch (Nobby, Carrot) …

Finished 9 August 2020

Fried, Hansson - It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work

This is the third book from the duo Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson. Rework was about product design, Remote was about remote work, this one is about company culture and processes to support …

Finished 19 July 2020

David Allen - Getting Things Done

This book had to be revolutionary during its time (2001), but even though the book was updated in 2015, it feels lagging in time. Especially the parts where the author focuses on in-trays and office …

Finished 8 July 2020

Terry Pratchett - Guards! Guards!

This is the fantasy series I was looking for. After reading this book, I’m using the Discworld reading guide to binge read all the watch novels. This book is following the story of a police unit …

Finished 3 July 2020

Gary Provost - 100 Ways to Improve Your Writing

One of Gary’s tips is “Make yourself likeable”. And does he make a good job of it. The book describes the rules of both style and grammar in a way that’s easy to digest and …

Finished 19 June 2020

Book cover Sönke Ahrens - How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking – for Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers

Sönke Ahrens - How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking – for Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers

This book is a good introduction into the motivation and science behind using atomic interconnected notes, a method known as slip-box or German Zettelkasten. The massive drawback of the book is that …

Finished 6 June 2020

Richard P. Feynman - What Do You Care What Other People Think?

Richard Feynman seems like a really cool guy. I’ve never heard of him and I still don’t know what he got his Nobel Prize for, but the way how he discusses his childhood, love for science …

Finished 13 May 2020

Bohumil Hrabal - I Served the King of England

When I started reading this e-book, I thought that I’ve got to get a faulty file. Bohumil definitely wasn’t messing around when starting this book. It’s on since the page 1. My …

Finished 29 April 2020

David Thomas, Andrew Hunt - The Pragmatic Programmer

I have no idea, why did it take me 10 years of professional programming to get this book and read it. Maybe it was the 1999 release date that made it look too old. Too old to provide any useful …

Finished 25 April 2020

Cal Newport - Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

I have a mixed feeling about this book. On one hand it was extremely repetitive and the first part of the book felt like a broken record. But this might just be because I’m familiar with the …

Finished 18 April 2020

Burton G. Malkiel - A Random Walk Down Wall Street

When I read Barefoot investor three years ago, I felt like I discovered a whole new world. Lowering taxes by saving for retirement, indexed funds? In my late twenties I finally started saving more …

Finished 13 April 2020

Amor Towles - Rules of Civility

Rules of Civility made me love the idea New York even though I’ve never been. Following the story of 22yo Katherine Kontent I’ve found her the most relatable female character ever (maybe …

Finished 23 February 2020

David Spiegelhalter - The Art of Statistics: How to Learn from Data

This book is something. A chapter in I went to a nearby office supplies store and I bought notebook to make notes. The first few chapters I felt like statistician. Sir David Spiegelhalter (yeah, you …

Finished 12 February 2020

Terry Pratchett - Small Gods

I’m a firm believer in the God of lettuce. It’s a safe bet I’m told. The dynamic between a god needing his follower more than follower the god creates tricky and funny situations …

Finished 2 February 2020