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Reading

Books I'm reading, have read, or keep going back to

Currently reading

The Making of Prince of Persia Jordan Mechner

Mechner's journals from 1985 to 1993, covering the creation of the original game from college project to cult classic. Published by Stripe Press. Less about code and more about the doubt, obsession, and slow discovery of what the thing actually was.

Past reads

Let My People Go Surfing Yvon Chouinard

Chouinard's philosophy of building a company that genuinely puts the planet first. Part memoir, part manifesto — the kind of book that makes you question what a business is even for.

Shoe Dog Phil Knight

Nike's origin story, told with surprising candour about the chaos, debt, and near-disasters behind the brand. Less about strategy, more about stubbornness and the people who believed early.

The Hobbit J.R.R. Tolkien

A reluctant homebody gets pulled into an adventure he didn't ask for and turns out to be surprisingly good at it. Lighter and warmer than what follows, but the world-building is already doing something special.

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running Haruki Murakami

Murakami on running as a practice, a meditation, and a metaphor for writing. Quiet and repetitive in exactly the right way — like a long run itself.

That Will Never Work Marc Randolph

Netflix's founding story from the co-founder who left before it became enormous. Refreshingly honest about what was luck, what was instinct, and what was just trying things until something stuck.

Creativity, Inc. Ed Catmull

How Pixar was built and what it actually takes to sustain a creative culture over time. Less about inspiration and more about the systems, trust, and hard conversations that make good work possible consistently.

Greenlights Matthew McConaughey

Part memoir, part journal, part self-help you didn't see coming. More honest and strange than you'd expect, and full of a particular kind of lived-in wisdom that doesn't feel borrowed from anywhere else.

When Breath Becomes Air Paul Kalanithi

A neurosurgeon diagnosed with terminal cancer reflects on what makes life worth living. Beautifully written and quietly devastating — one of the few books that genuinely changes how you think about time.

Watchmen Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons

The graphic novel that asked what would actually happen if people put on masks and fought crime. Dense, dark, and constructed with a precision that rewards rereading.

Batman: The Killing Joke Alan Moore & Brian Bolland

The most unsettling Batman story ever told. One bad day is all it takes, Moore argues — and Bolland's art makes you believe it. Short, brutal, and impossible to shake.

Understanding Comics Scott McCloud

A comic book about how comic books work. McCloud unpacks the invisible grammar of sequential art — time, space, panel transitions — in a way that changes how you read everything after it.