People seemed to vey much enjoy this compilation of summer reading suggestions, so in the continued spirit of summer reading, this is really just an excuse to share/comment on a few books I’ve read recently. Because we’re all friends here on the internet, certainly feel free to add your own summer reading suggestions to the ‘mments:

1. Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, A Dream – H.G. Bissinger

This one is particularly relevant, given that we’re at this weird reverse-generational tipping point; a lot of us 90s children have fallen in love with the movie and/or TV series Friday Night Lights, but have yet to experience the original source material.

Upon reading the story of the 1988 Permian Panthers, I felt that same feeling you get when you hear the original version of a cover song, and view the cover as the original song. The TV show made things in the book that much more powerful, which, depending on how you look at it, is either shameful or kinda cool. Go with option 2. This is an incredible book — which like the series, is a lot more about life in a small football town than it is about football.

2. The Social Animal – David Brooks

I’m a big fan of David Brooks. I think he captures the zeitgeist in a way no one else really does, which is nicely on display in The Social Animal — a book that uses two fictional characters as a lens to explore the various sociological, psychological, and emotional factors that lead to success and happiness. He develops the characters quite well, and uses their different upbringings to comment on situations that happen all the time. I’ve found myself thinking about this one a lot for the past few months.

3. Twyla Tharp – The Creative Habit: Learn It And Use It For Life

I know hyperboles mean nothing on the internet, but this is the best self-help book I’ve ever read. It reads as half-advice and self-help, half-motivational speech. Tharp doesn’t only outline certain strategies to maximize your creative output, but is very interested to getting to the core of you — to figuring out what makes you tick, and what you want to express in your creative work.

4. Console Wars – Blake J. Harris

I wrote a whole post about playing sega genesis in basements, but since that’s probably way too long a read here’s the basic gist — Console Wars is about the intense battle between Sega and Nintendo during the early 90s, documenting Sega’s unlikely rise to video game prominence. The foreward was written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, and the whole thing is gonna be turned into a big time movie. It feels like The Social Network fused with Game Thrones, fused with Sonic The Hedgehog.

5. Rob Delaney: Mother. Wife. Sister. Human. Warrior. Falcon. Yardstick. Turban. Cabbage. – Rob Delaney

A pretty quick read, but a very good one. Because tweets (the thing he got big from) are often so cursory, the depth of this book is astounding in contrast. A humbling tale of addiction and recovery, Delaney chronicles some pretty wild stories. There’s a chapter about him and his friends bungee jumping off the Manhattan bridge on a whim, which I found to be one of the most well-crafted and engaging stories I’ve ever read.

6. Kitchen Confidential: Adventures In The Culinary Underbelly – Anthony Bourdain

Pretty standard book, but if you haven’t read it I’ll be the 66th person to strongly suggest it.

Now that I’ve read this, I feel like I know 1000x more about food/the restaurant industry – and have about 1000x more respect to anyone who devotes their life to food. I was truly sad to finish this book. And most importantly, I’m pretty sure I’m now a lot more annoying at restaurants.