Top Five Books I've Read That Most of My Friends Have Not

The purpose of this post is to share what I consider to be, the five most influential books I have read over the past 10 years from the ages of 13-23.  These are books that I thought about a lot after reading.  Some of them have helped me understand money or influenced career decisions.  Other books fed a childhood interest in space travel, however, all of them were fun to read.  I read more than the average person, but I tend to binge read.  I might not read a book for six months, then read three in one week, so I'm pretty hard to please. 




One Up On Wall Street by Peter Lynch

I was a freshman in college the first time I read OUOWS.  I don't remember how I heard about the book but I remember borrowing it from the library at school. It was the week of spring finals and instead of studying for microbiology or chemistry, I would sit in class and read about buying  based on value rather than speculation. Perhaps I should read this book again.  If I had followed the advice of this book, I could almost be out of student debt right now.


e.g. When I was was a year one, Apple was making a huge comeback with the iPod.  Although iPod wasn't brand new, this was the year that the tipping point was reached where everyone I knew had one.  They were fun, useful, I wanted one, but, I didn't get on the bandwagon for another six months.  But any dummy could see that Apple had a great product that people wanted.  Stock quote for May 04 AAPL: $14.  Today, $125, but at one point it was above $198.  Or, for every $2000 invested, I could have paid for a year of school.  In retrospect, this was painfully obvious, but, if it were that easy, we'd all be millionaires.   

Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut

This book was given to me as a gift.  Vonnegut was my favorite author throughout high school.  I enjoyed his sarcastic, cynical, and critical view on war and technology.  His own life story is fairly interesting, he was in WWII and at the firebombing of Dresden.  This book is about a time traveling dog and his owner as they play jump rope with the space-time continuum.  An alien species present in his other books also play a role in the book.  The Tralmalfadorians have the capability to see all moments in time simultaneously and choose to live only the nice ones. I read SOT when I was in 11th grade, a particularly impressionable time in my life. 


When the Air Hits the Brain by Frank Vertosick, M.D.

This book was recommended to me by a friend, Bob.  He said that I should read the book if was going to consider neurosurgery as a career, so I read it my fourth year of school.  The book is a chronicle of the author's experience in Neurosurgery residency at the University of Pittsburgh.  Each chapter focuses on the story of a patient that helped him grow as a neurosurgeon.  The book is really about the rewards of neurosurgery.  He saves a man from paralysis in one chapter, watches a baby die from a brain tumor in another, and in the next, cures a woman of dementia.  There are some very poignant and dramatic examples of tragedy and victory in surgery.  The take away from the book is that the average neurosurgeon in training experiences a very treacherous path that is an immense privilege and extremely rewarding.

Billions and Billions by Carl Sagan

I read this book during the 8th grade, making it the book I read the youngest on the list.  His last book, written while undergoing cancer treatment, Billions and Billions combines Sagan's knack for bring astronomy and physics to the common man with the insight of someone close to death.  He talks about how massive the universe is.  How the number of grains of sand on Earth does not come close to the number of stars in the universe.  It's been a long time since I read this book, but, it is truly interesting and delves a lot more in politics than other books.  Cosmos, also by him is a great book to learn about the solar system.  I remember a teacher I had in 7th grade said, "If you consider yourself intellectual, you should read Sagan."  I tried it out and found one of my top 5 heroes. 


Typing entries on this netbook is frustrating, the keyboard is too small and it deletes whole passages with one keystroke.


Ishmael by Daniel Quinn

This book is about a telepathic gorilla who teaches humans about the natural evolution of civilization.  The rub is, humans are destroying the planet's ecological balance and we live a non-sustainable life that no other animal would ever part take in.  He mentions how humans used to live in harmony with the planet, but that we got greedy.  Humans were happier when they just walked around eating berries and shit all day and died random violent deaths by falling off of cliffs or getting eaten by lions.  Ishmael is interesting, I read it my first semester of college.  Everyone I know who has read it loves the book, but it definitely makes you question why you are bothering going to school or getting a job at all.