Books Recap for April 2019

I finished 1 book(s) this month and read about 730 pages. To celebrate being over officially halfway to my goal, I decided to slow it way down and read a very dense and long book. That’s why I only finished one in April. Let’s take a look!

Think Simple

The only book I actually finished this month was the disappointing Think Simple. One reason it may have been disappointing for me was I don’t think it was written for someone in my situation. The target feels like heads of big companies who need to uncomplicate their businesses.

That said, I was really hoping for some great insight into how business are run. What I actually got was a love letter to Apple, and Steve Jobs specifically. Yawn. There are so many of those out there that I could have done without another. Here’s what I wrote on Goodreads:

That said, I was interested in lots of stories (which he primed in the beginning of the book) and what I got was love letter to Steve Jobs with like 5 other companies mentioned. Open to a random page and you’ll probably see his name or “Apple.”

To be fair, he also really loved Ben and Jerry’s which got mentioned the (distant) second most.

Currently Reading: Alexander Hamilton

Because I read Think Simple over the course of 4 days, I decided I would dedicate the rest of the month to Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton, a book that’s been on my reading list since I heard the soundtrack to the musical. I knew it was long, but I thought I’d be able to finish it by the end of the month. As it turns out, I’m about halfway through.

So far, I’m really enjoying it. It’s really interesting to get an in-depth look in early politics, and as Chernow points it, it seems that Hamilton showed up at every important event in America’s early history. The biggest takeaway to me is that partisan and personal sniping is about as old as the country, though we tend to think back on those times with rose-colored glasses.

I hope to finish this one and another in May – and given that I’m traveling next week, I should be able to get a good chunk of it read.