Tag / Timothy Ferriss

by admin

Locking Down The Library

Back in the summer of 2021, despite not living in Chicago, I got myself a digital Chicago Public Library card which gave me access to eBooks and audio books that I would never have had otherwise.  In the nearly four years since, I have read, or listened, to hundreds of books, starting with The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss in late July.

Earlier this morning, I received an email that the Chicago Public Library is retiring their eCards program as of May 1st.  Thankfully, I picked up a Frankfort library card last December, so I can move on with (hopefully) minimal interruptions.  It looks like Home Is Where the Bodies Are, by Jeneva Rose, will by my final book.

by admin

2021: The Year In Books

As we wrap up 2021, my first full year remote working, I managed to read a whopping 54 books, an increase of 31 books over last year and my first year completing the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge.  I surpassed last year’s total in mid-June, passed my best years, 2015 and 2016, in late August, and completed book 52 with two weeks left in the year.  I read (or listened) to 18,670 pages, by far my highest total of all time and only the second time I’ve passed 10,000.

Of those books, 16 were non-fiction and, of the 36 novels, 10 were tied to a TV show, either as the source material or as a tie-in.  None of the books came out of my dwindling “to-read” drawer, with 43 e-books and 4 audiobooks.  For the first time since I was a kid, I got myself a library card, which helped me procure 14 of the books.

Just less than half of the books I read this year were by authors I have read before. The 31 authors that I read for the first this year were:

  • Tegan Quin
  • Sara Quin
  • Lucy Foley
  • Jenna Fischer
  • Matt Haig
  • Eric Nusbaum
  • Jon Taffer
  • Charlotte Douglas
  • Susan Kearney
  • Fredrik Backman
  • Jeff Pearlman
  • Minka Kent
  • Alan Cumming
  • Megan Goldin
  • Molly Bloom
  • Barack Obama
  • Ali Wong
  • Timothy Ferriss
  • Issa Rae
  • Walter Tevis
  • Tess Gerritson
  • Gary Braver
  • Andy Weir
  • Matthew Walker
  • James Clear
  • Grady Hendrix
  • Simon Sinek
  • Jason Fung
  • Julia Spiro
  • Jon Pessah
  • Ruth Ware

Erle Stanley Gardner, Mary Kubica, Jeffery Deaver, Andy Weir and Karin Slaughter were the only authors that I read multiple titles from during 2021.

6 of the books I read were released this year, while 5 of them were released last century, with the oldest first published in 1933.

Finally, the breakdown by month, which was fairly consistent across the entire year.

Continue reading →

by admin

Book 29 (of 52) – The 4-Hour Workweek

The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9–5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich – Timothy Ferriss

In The 4-Hour Workweek, Timothy Ferriss advocates for abandoning the traditional 9 to 5 grind by finding ways to work remotely and infrequently, letting your business run itself and enabling you to travel the world and experience life to its fullest.  While it seems easier said than done, it is a goal for many of us to work less, travel more, and get more enjoyment out of life.

I recently got myself a digital Chicago Public Library card, despite not living in Chicago, which gives me access to eBooks and audio books that I would never have otherwise.  This was my first checkout, and just the second audiobook I’ve listened to in the past 11 years of this 52 book challenge.  Ferriss, as read by Ray Porter, has some interesting ideas, many of which were probably novel when he first wrote this back in 2007, but I wonder how much of it is still applicable in 2021.  I imagine all of the façade companies sitting in front of drop shippers that were going to be successful have already been created, so finding a turnkey business that can run by itself with limited hands-on focus.  His chapters on how to convince your bosses to allow working from home seem quaint in a post-pandemic world where many people, myself included, have been working remotely for 17 months and counting.

I do like the concept of what he is selling here.  As a newly minted home-based worker, I have been looking for ways to translate my ability to work from anywhere to spend time away from home.  I haven’t quite figured out a good way to do that as of yet, at least not without paying twice to live somewhere, but this has just put my thinking about these plans into hyperdrive.